The Biden administration’s National Science Foundation (NSF) is spending more than $2 million in taxpayer dollars to support efforts aimed at “diversifying marine biology and climate science,” referring to the fields as “some of the least diverse STEM disciplines.”
The NSF allegedly exists to “promote the progress of science,” “advance the national health,” and “secure the national defense,” and is funding four different universities engaged in the study.
“The program supports research and practice projects that investigate how considerations of racial equity factor into the improvement of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics education and workforce,” the program description reads.
The study seeks to discover how to develop “equity-driven and anti-racist educational collaborations, infrastructures, and pathways” to implement in the scientific fields, with a specific focus on “BIPOC storytelling and standpoint centering.”
“We are focused on advancing change in structures and sociocultural practices in MCS that can improve their racial equity outcomes,” Associate Professor Chrystal George Mwangi at George Mason University said.
The three-year long study, which began in September of 2023 and will conclude in August of 2026, aims to build “a replicable and scalable model for equity-centered support in STEM collaborations.”
The study says that the climate and culture in marine and climate sciences “have been identified as actively contributing to the low participation and retention of BIPOC individuals in the disciplines and their disparate academic and professional outcomes, through gatekeeping, professional barriers, and other obstacles.”
