Impact
Evaluating our impact is the core of the COSWD’s pursuit of evidence-based goals, informing program management and ensuring accountability. It forms the basis for determining whether to pursue an effort, how to do so effectively, and how to improve programs. We identify appropriate outcomes, metrics for assessing outcomes, and timelines on a programmatic basis, given the variation in program purposes and scope.
Publications
COSWD and our collaborative partners are often featured in prominent health care and scientific research publications. We have also gathered current references for scientific leaders to use in fostering creativity and innovation in science, taking advantage of the diversity of talent that is available. These references are recommended by our subject matter experts from the SWDSS.
The COSWD team has helped author articles in scientific and medical publications on the importance of creating a more diverse, equitable, inclusive, and accessible scientific workforce and its benefits to both the intramural and extramural biomedical community.
Learn moreThe SWDSS is an online speaker series, which started in 2021, as part of the COSWD’s vision. We share the latest research on scientific workforce diversity topics by engaging with interested professionals and researchers at NIH and beyond. Each seminar features renowned researchers who contribute to the growing body of knowledge on topics relevant to scientific workforce diversity, evidence-based interventions, and more.
View the publicationsThe COSWD team, on behalf of the Advisory Committee to the Director's (ACD) Working Group on Diversity (WGD), convened a panel of subject matter experts to assist the ACD with its advice to the NIH Director on how to best support the inclusion of people with disabilities (PWD) in the scientific workforce. They then codified detailed, proposed suggestions into a written report.
View the report
Previously Catalyzed Programs
FIRST – The Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation (FIRST) program, funded by the NIH Common Fund, maintains cultures of inclusive excellence in the biomedical and behavioral research community. It facilitates institutions in building a self-reinforcing community of scientists, through recruitment of early-career faculty. NIH expects FIRST efforts to lead to the recruitment of talented researchers with a diversity of perspectives, to improve the quality of the training environment, to balance and broaden perspectives in setting research priorities, and to positively impact scientific discovery. The concept of FIRST originated in the COSWD office and the COSWD continues to serve on the Steering Committee for its Implementation.
As part of the NIH Anti-Harassment Program, a Workplace Climate and Harassment Survey (WCHS) was administered in January 2019 to NIH staff including employees, contractors, fellows, and trainees. The survey was voluntary, confidential, and anonymous. Results from the survey helped in assessing the workplace climate and in identifying elements of NIH’s organizational climate associated with harassment.
Diversifying the scientific workforce and expanding recruitment and retention are two of COSWD’s central goals. The COVID-19 pandemic heightened the challenges associated with achieving these goals and created new barriers to creating a diverse scientific workforce.
To assess the impact of the pandemic on the research workforce and research institutions and identify the potential implications on these underrepresented groups in the scientific workforce, COSWD developed and fielded the NIH COVID-19 Impact on Extramural Researchers Survey and the NIH COVID-19 Impact on Extramural Institutions Survey in October 2020.