Acad Med. 2024 Dec 1;99(12):1432-1437. doi: 10.1097/ACM.0000000000005717. Epub 2024 Mar 25.
Federal research grants provide support for the indirect costs (IDCs) of research infrastructure that are not specific to particular research projects but are nonetheless essential to enable research. Institutions independently negotiate IDC rates. The authors sought to identify whether inequities exist in negotiated IDC rates between historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and other universities (non-HBCUs).
In 2023, the authors analyzed mean negotiated IDC rates between the top 20 HBCUs (in fiscal year [FY] 2021 research expenditures) and 3 non-HBCU comparison groups: the top 40 non-HBCUs in FY 2021 research expenditures, metropolitan statistical area (MSA)-matched non-HBCUs (among the top 200 institutions by FY 2021 research expenditures), and FY 2021 research expenditure-matched non-HBCUs.
The authors found that the top 20 HBCUs' mean IDC rates (50.0%) were, after adjustment, 8.5 percentage points (95% confidence interval [CI], 5.7-11.2) lower than those of the top 40 non-HBCUs (58.5%). The mean IDC rates of top HBCUs (n = 14, 48.4%) were, after adjustment, 6.3 percentage points (95% CI, 3.1-9.4) lower than those of MSA-matched non-HBCUs (n = 23, 55.3%). There was no statistically significant difference in the mean IDC rates between the top 20 HBCUs (50.0%) and expenditure-matched non-HBCUs (n = 31; 48.2%).
Inequities in negotiated IDC rates between top HBCUs and non-HBCUs likely both reflect and may contribute to the persistence of institution-level inequities in federally funded research. Proactive investments in HBCUs' research infrastructures are likely needed to ameliorate these funding inequities and support the role of HBCUs in providing opportunity for underrepresented groups in biomedical sciences.
联邦研究资助为并非特定于特定研究项目但对开展研究至关重要的研究基础设施的间接成本 (IDC) 提供支持。各机构独立协商 IDC 费率。作者试图确定历史上的黑人学院和大学 (HBCU) 与其他大学 (非 HBCU) 之间协商的 IDC 费率是否存在不公平。
在 2023 年，作者分析了 2021 财年研究支出最高的 20 所 HBCU（第 1 组）与 3 个非 HBCU 对照组之间的平均协商 IDC 率：2021 财年研究支出最高的 40 所非 HBCU（第 2 组）、按大都市统计区 (MSA) 匹配的非 HBCU（按 2021 财年研究支出排名前 200 位的机构）（第 3 组）和 2021 财年研究支出匹配的非 HBCU（第 4 组）。
在调整后，作者发现，第 1 组 HBCU 的平均 IDC 率（50.0%）比第 2 组非 HBCU（58.5%）低 8.5 个百分点（95%置信区间 [CI]，5.7-11.2）。调整后，第 1 组 HBCU（n=14，48.4%）的平均 IDC 率比第 3 组 MSA 匹配的非 HBCU（n=23，55.3%）低 6.3 个百分点（95%CI，3.1-9.4）。第 1 组 HBCU（n=14，48.4%）与第 4 组支出匹配的非 HBCU（n=31，48.2%）的平均 IDC 率之间无统计学差异。
HBCU 和非 HBCU 之间协商的 IDC 率不公平，这既反映了，也可能促成了联邦资助研究中机构层面不公平的持续存在。可能需要对 HBCU 的研究基础设施进行积极投资，以减轻这些资金不公平现象，并支持 HBCU 在为生物医学科学领域代表性不足的群体提供机会方面的作用。
