# Maximizing Investigator's Research Award:  Diversifying the Scientific Workforce

> **NIH NIH R35** · UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON · 2021 · $334,500

## Abstract

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT
This is an application for a Maximizing Investigator's Research Award (MIRA) submitted by Professor Mary
(Molly) Carnes at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Carnes' research program focuses on
diversifying the scientific workforce. She has consistently taken a systems approach, conducting action
research with multi-tiered interventions at the individual and institutional level. With funding from NIGMS
since 2009, her research has focused on the myriad ways cultural stereotypes impede the entry,
persistence, and advancement of all women and underrepresented racial/ethnic minority men and women in
academic medicine, science, and engineering. Often outside of conscious awareness, stereotypes can
shape the decisions of those in the scientific workforce who determine who to fund, mentor, admit or hire
and also influence potential scientists-to-be, who need to determine whether a career in science is right for
them and whether they “fit” in the scientific workforce. Hallmarks of Dr. Carnes' research have been
deploying methods appropriate to the research question (experimental, quasi-experimental, and qualitative),
engaging researchers from multiple other disciplines (e.g., sociology, psychology, education, systems
engineering, linguistics, public health, computer science), developing and testing theoretically-informed
interventions, translating evidence-based strategies into practice, and studying the impact of
implementation. Approaching unconscious (“implicit”) stereotype-based bias as a habit, Dr. Carnes' team
developed and experimentally verified the first effective intervention to help faculty break the gender bias
habit (with subsequent improvement in department climate and greater diversity in hiring), created an
interactive video game that addresses implicit race bias in graduate school, performed the first text analysis
of R01 critiques and found paradoxically worse scores with greater verbal acclamation for women's vs.
men's R01 renewals, and constructed and videorecorded authentic NIH study sections to analyze verbal
and non-verbal discourse among reviewers to identify patterns that may be consequential to the outcome of
an R01 peer review. MIRA would continue the momentum of Dr. Carnes' research program by providing the
opportunity to broaden the habit-breaking workshop intervention to include race and other group bias and
test its effectiveness beyond a single site, and continue to use text mining to probe for implicit gender and
race bias in gatekeeping evaluations (e.g, reviews of manuscripts and K awards). MIRA would also
capitalize on the datasets compiled through Dr. Carnes' research program which include 5 waves of the
Study of Faculty Worklife at UW-Madison with retained identifiers, >5,000 R01 Summary Statements from
investigators' awarded in 2010-2014, 15 hours of videorecording of expert scientists discussing R01
proposals in simulated study sections, and transcribed interviews with >40 experience...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10132746
- **Project number:** 5R35GM122557-05
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON
- **Principal Investigator:** MOLLY L. CARNES
- **Activity code:** R35 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $334,500
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2017-06-05 → 2022-03-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10132746

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10132746, Maximizing Investigator's Research Award:  Diversifying the Scientific Workforce (5R35GM122557-05). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-23 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10132746. Licensed CC0.

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