DEIA Prize Competition
The NIH Institutional Excellence in DEIA in Biomedical and Behavioral Research Prize Competition recognizes 10 U.S. institutions of higher education for implementing innovative strategies to enhance DEIA in research environments. This challenge aimed to engage and inspire the biomedical and behavioral research community to effect systemic, sustainable change—and be acknowledged for their critical efforts. NIH awarded $1 million total; 10 prizes of $100,000 to each winning institution.
The COSWD office is pleased to announce the 10 winners of the NIH DEIA Prize Competition. Each university provided a description of their initiatives. Click on the cards below to learn about each institution’s DEIA interventions.
California State University San Marcos
Duke University
Rochester Institute of Technology
University at Buffalo, SUNY
University of California, Davis
University of California, San Francisco
University of Florida
University of Illinois Chicago
University of Puerto Rico- Rio Piedras
Vanderbilt University
Background on the Prize Competition
This prize competition was created to improve our understanding of effective strategies and practices to create cultures of inclusive excellence and enhance diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) in biomedical and behavioral disciplines in institutions of higher education.
Specific goals of the prize competition were to:
- Recognize and reward institutions whose biomedical, social, and behavioral science schools, departments, centers, or divisions have identified gaps with respect to DEIA and designed, implemented, and evaluated interventions to address these gaps to achieve sustained improvement in DEIA within their faculty, postdoctoral scholars, and student bodies.
- Identify effective practices for enhancing DEIA within faculty, postdoctoral scholars, and student bodies that are feasible and can be disseminated for adoption by other institutions.
Institutions have leveraged several different strategies to address DEIA and create cultures of inclusive excellence which led to measurable and sustained enhancements and cultural change within the institutions.
Want to learn more? Visit the prize competition’s main page and read our blog post about the awardees.