Promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) on a systemic level in the biomedical research enterprise

A leading federal health research agency asked Censeo to support a series of activities to listen and learn from internal and external stakeholders regarding perceptions of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and structural racism at the agency and across the biomedical sciences enterprise. Censeo conducted quantitative and qualitative analyses across three major workstreams, reviewing vast amounts of structured and unstructured data and engaging with thousands of stakeholders to understand experiences and identify opportunities to spur widescale, systematic change.

Situation

In the wake of the civil unrest in 2020, an agency had the goal to reduce barriers to racial equity in the biomedical research workforce – both within the agency and in the external biomedical enterprise. Five interrelated, yet distinct committees were formed to delineate elements that perpetuate structural racism and led to a lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
Censeo was brought on to support the committee focused on understanding stakeholder experiences through listening and learning. Specifically, our team:

• facilitated quantitative and qualitative analysis of recent, past, ongoing, and upcoming DEI activities at the agency;
• conducted data analysis of a Request for Information (RFI) from the external scientific community;
• and solicited feedback from agency staff and the extramural community via listening sessions.

The outputs from these efforts supported the other agency committees in their development and implementation of DEI efforts intended to address structural racism at the agency and in the broader biomedical community.

Approach

Censeo took a structured data collection and analysis approach that was tailored to support specific client objectives, which included:

• identifying issues and barriers to reducing or eliminating biomedical workforce inequities;
• exploring perspectives on strengthening health disparities research;
• inviting ideas for actionable, sustainable solutions.

The team pursued three key workstreams to meet these objectives.

1. Data Call: The data call requested DEI activities and accomplishments recently conducted, in progress, or planned from each office in the agency. Censeo conducted a DEI assessment via a thematic analysis of data collected to create a snapshot of the status of DEI efforts, identifying strengths as well as weaknesses of with the current state of DEI initiatives within the agency.
2. Request for Information (RFI): The RFI sought feedback on how the agency could advance racial DEI and expand research to eliminate or lessen health disparities and inequities. In collaboration with agency coders, Censeo abstracted pertinent data and conducted a DEI assessment via thematic analysis to identify key themes and perspectives from across the external scientific community. Censeo’s RFI analysis approach began by leveraging a preliminary scan of the responses by agency employees. Based on the scan, Censeo conducted additional coding and analysis of responses to yield key themes and perceptions.
3. Internal and External Listening Sessions: The listening sessions gathered primary data related to agency staff and external stakeholder experiences, perspectives, and recommendations for change. In addition to facilitating the sessions, Censeo supported targeted outreach and communications to promote the sessions to stakeholders from academia, hospitals and health systems, social and civil organizations, and faith-based organizations. Following the listening sessions, Censeo conducted qualitative and quantitative analysis, identified themes, and provided recommendations.