"Federal law prohibits HHMI from limiting eligibility for the awards to those from groups underrepresented in science, including women and those with disabilities as well as racial and ethnic minorities. HHMI plans to address that challenge, O’Shea says, by choosing grantees on the basis of both scientific excellence “and a demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion” in science, engineering, and medicine. “We know how to do the first, but the second is new to us and we’ll have to work it out,” she says. Several universities are using a similar approach—which includes asking applicants to write so-called diversity statements—in faculty searches, she noted, “and we think it’s a very promising approach.""
Oh please, please, let the government not meddle with science, other than generously support it, leaving politics out of it. The various lobbies-economic, religious, social-will protest but let them. The value of unencumbered basic science outweighs all their concerns.
See also: HHMI devoted $2.2 billion last year to fund "diversity in biomedicine". https://www.science.org/content/article/major-u-s-research-charity-places-big-bet-diversity
"Federal law prohibits HHMI from limiting eligibility for the awards to those from groups underrepresented in science, including women and those with disabilities as well as racial and ethnic minorities. HHMI plans to address that challenge, O’Shea says, by choosing grantees on the basis of both scientific excellence “and a demonstrated commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion” in science, engineering, and medicine. “We know how to do the first, but the second is new to us and we’ll have to work it out,” she says. Several universities are using a similar approach—which includes asking applicants to write so-called diversity statements—in faculty searches, she noted, “and we think it’s a very promising approach.""
Oh please, please, let the government not meddle with science, other than generously support it, leaving politics out of it. The various lobbies-economic, religious, social-will protest but let them. The value of unencumbered basic science outweighs all their concerns.