RESCINDED
GUIDELINES FOR INCLUSION OF WOMEN, MINORITIES, AND PERSONS WITH DISABILITIES
IN NIH-SUPPORTED CONFERENCE GRANTS
RELEASE DATE: September 26, 2003
NOTICE: NOT-OD-03-066
National Institutes of Health (NIH)
INTRODUCTION
This Notice provides updated policy regarding the inclusion of women,
minorities, and persons with disabilities in conference grants supported by
the National Institutes of Health (NIH). It also provides updated Institute
and Center (IC) contact information. The previous guidelines were issued in
the NIH GUIDE on April 28, 1995, at
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/guide/notice-files/NOT95-123.html. These
guidelines apply to both intramural and extramural programs.
BACKGROUND
The NIH recognizes the value of supporting scientific meetings, conferences,
and workshops that are relevant to its scientific mission and to public
health. In addition, NIH affirms that the value of scientific meetings is
enhanced by including participants from all segments of the scientific
population and, when appropriate, members of the lay community, in both the
planning and conduct of such meetings.
The NIH Revitalization Act (P.L. 103-43, Section 206), which adds section
402(b) to the Public Health Service Act, requires that NIH, "in conducting
and supporting programs for research, research training, recruitment, and
other activities, provide for an increase in the number of women and
individuals from disadvantaged backgrounds (including racial and ethnic
minorities) in the fields of biomedical and behavioral research." In
addition, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans
with Disabilities Act of 1990 require reasonable accommodations to be
provided to individuals with disabilities.
POLICY
It is NIH policy that organizers of scientific meetings should make a
concerted effort to achieve appropriate representation of women,
racial/ethnic minorities, and persons with disabilities, and other
individuals who have been traditionally underrepresented in science, in all
NIH sponsored and/or supported scientific meetings. The plans to seek
appropriate representation should be specified during selection of organizing
committees, speakers, and other invited participants, such as session chairs
and panel discussants. In addition, efforts should be made to encourage
attendance by women, minorities, and persons with disabilities at all NIH
sponsored and/or supported scientific meetings as a means of increasing their
participation in the particular scientific field. The quality of the
proposed plans to seek appropriate representation will be an evaluation
criterion used during the scientific and technical merit review of requests
for funding to support scientific meetings. A "scientific meeting" is
defined as a gathering, symposium, seminar, workshop, or any other organized,
formal conference where persons assemble to coordinate, exchange, and
disseminate information or to explore or clarify a defined subject, problem,
or area of knowledge. "Appropriate representation" means representation
based on the availability of scientists from these groups known to be working
in a particular field of biomedical or behavioral research.
This policy shall apply to all domestic or international scientific meetings
sponsored by and/or receiving support from the NIH. The policy includes
meetings initiated by the NIH's extramural and intramural programs, as well
as those funded through contracts, or investigator-initiated grants or
cooperative agreements. Reasonable efforts must be made, as well, to fulfill
the goals of this policy for single seminars sponsored by NIH laboratories or
extramural programs.
NIH staff will work with applicants as necessary to assist them in complying
with this policy. It is the responsibility of the IC Directors to assure
compliance with this policy. The NIH Director will assure that all
extramural and intramural programs comply with this policy.
All NIH sponsored and/or supported conferences must be held at accessible
sites, as outlined by section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and, as
applicable, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990. Conference
registration materials should provide a questionnaire that will allow
participants with disabilities to voluntarily identify any special needs, so
that conference organizers can make plans to accommodate these needs.
NIH uses the Office of Management and Budget definitions provided in
Directive Number 15, as revised on October 30, 1997, for racial and ethnic
categories for the purposes of this policy,
http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb/fedreg/ombdir15.html. (For additional
information, refer to the NIH link,
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/women_min/women_min.htm). The
categories in this classification are social-political constructs and should
not be interpreted as anthropological in nature. This directive defines the
minimum standards for maintaining, collecting, and presenting data on race
and ethnicity for all Federal reporting. NIH is required to use these
definitions to allow comparisons to other federal databases, especially the
census and national health databases. There are two ethnic categories --
Hispanic or Latino and Not Hispanic or Latino and five racial categories --
American Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian, Black or African American, Native
Hawaiian or other Pacific Islander, and White. Whites are defined as the
majority group; the remaining categories comprise the racial/ethnic
minorities. The classification of an individual is by self-identification.
A person with a disability means any person who (a) has a physical or mental
impairment which substantially limits one or more of such person's major life
activities; (b) has a record of such an impairment; or (c) is regarded as
having such an impairment, as described under section 504 of the
Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
Conference Grants should not be coded for human subjects as conferees are not
"human subjects" and conferences are not "research" as defined by the
regulations
http://www.hhs.gov/ohrp/humansubjects/guidance/45cfr46.html#46.102
INQUIRIES
For additional information about these guidelines as they relate to
extramural programs, consult the NIH Conference Grant Website, at
http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/r13/index.htm, to contact the
appropriate NIH staff person.
For additional information about these guidelines as they relate to
intramural programs, consult
Olive P. Childers
Management Liaison Director
Office of Intramural Research, OD, NIH
1 Center Drive, MSC 0140
Bethesda, MD 20892
phone: 301-496-0079
fax: 301-480-4825
email: [email protected]
Weekly TOC for this Announcement
NIH Funding Opportunities and Notices
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