Women in STEM Research: Better Data and Information Sharing Could Improve Oversight of Federal Grant-making and Title IX Compliance
Highlights
What GAO Found
GAO's analysis of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) research grant awards made between fiscal years 2009 and 2013 identified no disparities in success rates between women and men at three agencies selected for review, but data limitations provided limited insight into success rates at three other agencies selected for review. At two of the agencies with data limitations—the Departments of Defense (DOD) and Energy (DOE)—GAO found evidence of disparities in success rates for women and men within certain agency components. Data limitations at the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) prevented GAO's analysis of success rates altogether. This lack of complete, linked electronic proposal and award data at NASA and some components at DOD and DOE impacts their ability to fully evaluate their programs' performance against their stated goals of funding the most qualified scientists, irrespective of gender. Adhering to federal internal control standards regarding data collection of an entire process can ensure that these agencies have the data needed for effective program management and monitoring.
Success Rates between Women and Men at Federal STEM Grant-making Agencies
Two of six agencies GAO reviewed that fund STEM research at universities—DOD and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)—are not conducting required Title IX compliance reviews. Since HHS oversees Title IX compliance of National Institutes of Health (NIH) funding recipients, which account for the bulk of STEM research grantees, billions of federal research dollars may not be subject to potential Title IX oversight. The Department of Justice (DOJ) is designated by Executive Order to coordinate Title IX compliance across federal agencies, including information sharing, but it has no formal information sharing process among STEM agencies. Officials at five of the six agencies GAO interviewed reported a desire for DOJ to facilitate interagency information sharing on Title IX best practices for compliance activities. Without such information sharing, these STEM agencies may miss opportunities to improve their compliance programs and coordinate with each other.
GAO identified through a literature review and expert interviews 13 potential actions federal agencies could take to address the underrepresentation of women in STEM research. These actions fell into four areas: (1) enhancing agency leadership and collaboration, (2) establishing family-friendly policies for grantees, (3) overseeing the research proposal review process, and (4) funding and assisting academic institutions. While not all of the actions GAO identified are relevant to or feasible for each agency, all six agencies in GAO's review indicated that they are either taking actions in some of these areas, or would be willing to explore their applicability. Most of the agency officials GAO spoke with acknowledged the potential benefits of these actions.
Why GAO Did This Study
In fiscal year 2014, U.S. universities received nearly $25 billion in federal grant funding for STEM research. Studies show women are largely underrepresented in STEM fields. Federal agencies are required to enforce Title IX—a law prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex in education programs receiving any federal financial assistance—including at universities they fund. GAO was asked to provide information on federal grant-making to women in STEM.
This report examines: (1) the extent to which differences exist in federal grant awards between women and men in STEM fields, (2) the extent to which federal agencies enforce Title IX at universities they fund for STEM research, and (3) possible actions federal agencies could take to address the representation of women in STEM research. GAO analyzed data on all STEM research grants made in fiscal years 2009 through 2013—the most recent data available—by the six federal agencies that provided 90 percent of STEM research funding in fiscal year 2012 through 2014; reviewed literature, federal laws and regulations, and agency documents; interviewed federal officials; and consulted 19 STEM diversity experts.
Recommendations
GAO recommends that DOD, DOE, and NASA collect additional data; DOD and HHS conduct Title IX compliance reviews; and DOJ facilitate information sharing among STEM agencies. Agencies agreed in principle, but some cited potential implementation challenges. GAO maintains action is feasible and warranted as discussed in the report.
Recommendations for Executive Action
| Agency Affected | Recommendation | Status |
|---|---|---|
| Department of Defense | In order to ensure complete, analyzable records regarding research grant award decisions are available for management and analysis, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics to lead the implementation of additional data collection efforts in coordination with DOD's grant-making components. These should include: (1) Retaining complete records of pre-proposal, proposal, and award data, including a record of proposal disposition, in linked electronic files to facilitate aggregate, statistical analysis of the grant-making process, including the calculation of success rates. (2) Collecting demographic, education, and career information from applicants, on a voluntary basis, that is not available to proposal reviewers but is used for analysis of success rates. |
DOD agreed with our recommendation. In August 2017, the Basic Research Office (BRO) drafted an implementation plan and schedule for the collection of demographic data on grant applicants and lifecycle grant data. In October 2017, the Acting Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering (ASD-R&E) advised DOD components that funding opportunity announcements issued on or after January 1, 2018 must include the Standard Form-424 Research and Related Personal Data form and a Senior/Key Persons form to collect demographic information, including gender, from applicants and key project personnel for grants and cooperative agreements. The demographic data collection form states that this information will be separated from the funding application and not used in the application review process. In April 2018, another memo was issued advising components to submit their linked applicant and award data to the office of ASD-R&E by November 15, 2018 for use in calculating success rates for female grant applicants, among other statistics. Both of these data collection instructions apply to all components that issue funding announcements for basic research, including the Army, Navy, Air Force, and other research components, and they apply to all funding opportunities where a grant or cooperative agreement is anticipated and an institution of higher learning is eligible to apply for the award. DOD plans to analyze the fiscal year 2018 data in December 2018. The data collection and analysis requirement took effect on January 1, 2018, applying to all funding opportunities from that point forward.
|
| Department of Energy | In order to ensure complete, analyzable records regarding research grant award decisions are available for management and analysis, the Secretary of Energy should direct DOE's grant-making agencies to implement additional data collection efforts, which should include: (1) Retaining complete records of pre-proposal, proposal, and award data, including a record of proposal disposition, in linked electronic files to facilitate aggregate, statistical analysis of the grant-making process, including the calculation of success rates. (2) Collecting demographic, education, and career information from applicants, on a voluntary basis, that is not available to proposal reviewers but is used for analysis of success rates. |
Initially, DOE generally agreed with this recommendation. DOE's Office of Science began collecting investigator demographics during the second quarter of fiscal year 2015 and already retained complete records that enabled the calculation of success rates. According to DOE officials, since September 2017, the other three grant-making components included in our audit have been taking various actions to implement the recommendation. These three components, the Office of Nuclear Energy (NE), the Advanced Research Projects Agency-Energy (ARPA-E), and the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), all completed steps to ensure that they retain complete grant life cycle information for each individual award, including complete records of pre-proposal, proposal, and award data in linked electronic files, thus fulfilling the first part of our recommendation. In 2019, EERE coordinated the development of a Federal Register Notice (FRN) regarding data collection jointly with NE and ARPA-E. The FRN drafted by EERE was finalized and published on February 11, 2020 (Vol. 85, Issue 28, Pages 7759-7760 [FR DOC# 2020-02674]). Under the proposed information collection request, an interface will be implemented in DOE grant application systems to allow external users to voluntarily provide a minimal amount of demographic information to comply with this recommendation, pursuant to review by the Office of Management and Budget. However, despite these steps, the agency stated in the spring of 2021 that they sought to close this audit without implementing the recommendation. Instead, the agency stated that EERE would focus on other efforts to emphasize the importance of diversity and inclusion to the EERE mission and significantly increase outreach to encourage a much broader pool of more diverse applicants to its funding opportunities - not only women, but also other minority groups. These efforts include workshops, broader and more targeted communication strategies to raise awareness of EERE funding opportunities, specific language in EERE FOAs encouraging diversity, and a standard diversity and inclusion technical criterion in each EERE FOA.
|
| National Aeronautics and Space Administration | As NASA begins to collect demographic data on its grant proposals and awards, the NASA Administrator should include the following key components: (1) Retain complete records of pre-proposal, proposal, and award data, including a record of proposal disposition, in linked electronic files to facilitate aggregate, statistical analysis of the grant-making process, including the calculation of success rates. (2) Collect demographic, education, and career information from applicants, on a voluntary basis, that is not available to proposal reviewers but is used for analysis of success rates. |
NASA agreed with our recommendation and indicated it will begin collecting basic demographic, education, and career data from its research grant applicants on a voluntary basis by the end of fiscal year 2016. NASA officials reported that the notice of grant award document (form 1687) was modified to require entry of the proposal number on the form in order to capture the linkage between proposal and award. When the transition to the new contract/grant writing system (Procurement for Public Sector) occurred in June 2017, NASA began using the amended award notice. As of June 2018, NASA officials reported that they have implemented the recommendation by collecting basic demographic data, including gender, from research grant applicants on a voluntary basis, utilizing NASA Form 1839. The data collected are not used to determine awards and are not given to reviewers during the proposal review process. This information is being collected via the NASA Solicitation and Proposal Integrated Review and Evaluation System (NSPIRES) and NASA staff are analyzing the collected data.
|
| Civil Rights Division | To improve Title IX enforcement by federal STEM grant-making agencies, the Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General for the DOJ Civil Rights Division should establish a process to facilitate information sharing across federal STEM grant-making agencies regarding current Title IX compliance efforts to promote equitable access to STEM research funds. |
In February 2016, the department hosted a meeting of the broad interagency STEM Working Group at which it informed agencies of its availability to assist them with Title IX enforcement and presented on Title IX enforcement in the STEM context. In a September 2017 letter, DOJ officials stated that DOJ has taken several actions to increase information sharing about Title IX enforcement between agencies. Since the February 2016 meeting of the STEM Working Group, DOJ has held quarterly meetings with the six federal STEM agencies that were the focus of the GAO report. The meetings have included discussions of the Title IX compliance review process, current compliance activities, recent case law and other developments related to Title IX and STEM. DOJ reports positive feedback from agencies regarding these meetings and they plan to continue holding them on a quarterly basis.
|
| Department of Defense | To comply with Title IX enforcement requirements, the Secretary of the Department of Defense, which funds STEM research at universities, should direct the Director of the Office of Diversity Management and Equal Opportunity to ensure that Title IX compliance reviews of DOD's grantees are periodically conducted. |
DOD agreed with this recommendation. In 2017, a DOD official stated that the agency is in the process of formulating instructions related to Title IX and Title VI that they believe will address Title IX enforcement requirements. The agency plans to draft an updated rule for the Code of Federal Regulations and the development and issuance of internal DOD policy documents regarding Title IX enforcement requirements. In 2020, DOD reported that it was continuing to revise current DOD guidance to address its Title IX enforcement requirements and would issue a policy memorandum outlining the requirement for DOD Components who provide financial assistance to educational programs or activities to conduct periodic compliance reviews. DOD anticipates completing this effort by June 30, 2022. As of March 2023, DOD stated that it continues to pursue avenues to implement this recommendation, in the midst of competing priorities. It will revisit its approach to finalizing a policy and federal regulation that requires compliance with Title IX, including instructions for compliance reviews to be conducted. Should the agency determine a policy and regulation are necessary, it will move the policy into the formal coordination process by the end of FY2025.
|
| Department of Health and Human Services | To comply with Title IX enforcement requirements, the Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, which funds STEM research at universities, should ensure that Title IX compliance reviews of NIH's grantees are periodically conducted. |
HHS agreed with this recommendation and indicated it would consult with NIH and initiate a sex discrimination compliance review program that includes grantee institutions with STEM programs. The HHS Office of Civil Rights launched the National Title IX Compliance Review Initiative and, in 2018, conducted Title IX reviews of three top funded NIH research colleges and universities. The reviews evaluated each entity's compliance with Title IX which included examinations of nondiscrimination policies and procedures, anti-harassment and complaint grievance procedures, notification and dissemination requirements and outreach and recruitment efforts. HHS OCR provided technical assistance, as necessary, but did not find evidence of non-compliance with Title IX at the three institutions it reviewed. Officials indicated that, as of March 2019, two reviews are in process and the agency is considering the number and focus of reviews going forward.
|