Recruiting underrepresented individuals in a double pandemic: Lessons learned in a randomized control trial

Abstract

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Training and cultivating the translational science workforce: Responses of Clinical and Translational Science Awards program hubs to the COVID‐19 pandemic

“…The COVID‐19 pandemic also highlighted the disproportionate impact of the dual pandemics, COVID‐19 and systemic racism, on early career researchers of color 17 . The Building Up A Diverse Workforce for Biomedical Research (“Building Up”) Trial, a cluster‐randomized trial at 25 institutions, aims to address the “leaky career pathway” for early career researchers under‐represented in the biomedical research workforce through a dedicated mentoring intervention 18 . Regulatory approval and recruitment for this trial happened during the simultaneous COVID‐19 pandemic and the anti‐racism movement, requiring the principal investigator and her team to reformat their trial to provide accommodations to even more challenging, uncertain, and stressful conditions.…”

“…Some of these changes included simplifying single institutional review board (IRB) forms; modifying study practices; and increasing communications within institutions. Several lessons were learned, namely that pandemic recruitment is challenging but not impossible and that once identified, barriers to diverse recruitment, such as required letters of support and the required percentage of protected time, should be mitigated 18 …”

The impact of social unrest due to systemic racism on underrepresented post-doctoral fellows and early-career faculty

“…All participants were enrolled in the Building Up Trial, a clusterrandomized trial designed to diversify the biomedical research workforce at 25 institutions [11]. Building Up includes 224 post-doctoral fellows or early-career faculty who are UR in health-related sciences (i.e., from racial or ethnic groups UR in health-related sciences, with disabilities, from disadvantaged backgrounds, or are women) [12].…”

“…Building Up includes 224 post-doctoral fellows or early-career faculty who are UR in health-related sciences (i.e., from racial or ethnic groups UR in health-related sciences, with disabilities, from disadvantaged backgrounds, or are women) [12]. Building Up has been previously described [11]. Briefly, the trial compares two interventions lasting 10 months and including four components (i.e., mentoring, monthly sessions, networking, and coursework).…”

“…However, these results were not available by career stage despite early-career researchers facing more obstacles than later stage researchers [10]. Therefore, using cross-sectional data from the Building Up a Diverse Biomedical Research Workforce Trial (Building Up) [11], the primary aim of this study was to use a mixed-methods approach to describe the impact of social unrest due to systemic racism on mentoring relationships, research, and psychological well-being in post-doctoral fellows and early-career faculty UR in science [12]. The secondary aim is to examine these findings by gender, race/ethnicity, and highest degree achieved.…”