Thread by @ASusanaRamirez

There’s a tweet by a researcher w 4 active NIH R01 grants sharing tips for junior scholars.

R01s = 5-year grants that are each a minimum $1.5 million of taxpayer funds.

PI is a white woman & all 4 grants focus on interventions to get Black people to be less fat. 1/

https://twitter.com/ElleLettMDPhD/status/1519669797532884993

In responses to the tweets many leading Black & non-Black scholars have asked the PI how Black people are represented in the grants, aside from being subjects. There’s been no response to those questions despite many response to other Qs (from jr white ppl about how to do it) 2/

I struggled w my reaction when I first read the tweet, bc wow 4 R01s is a lot & I’m always interested in productivity approaches.

The actual advice offered re: how she did it is a mix of background & a couple of actual helpful tips, but 3/

The main thing she didn’t say is: Studying Black people is a 👍 funding strategy! (But only if you’re white.)

You get kudos for working on populations that experience disparities.

And, since most of the people in the room (study section) are not from those groups, 4/

Questions about the appropriateness of the study don’t get raised.

Nor do questions about the composition of the research team, or the way the community that allegedly needs this intervention will be represented. 5/

Another tip for would be R01 grantees that wasn’t in this lady’s thread:

Focus on individual level interventions like teaching these poor folks how to make healthier choices. It’s even better if you can throw some fancy tech words in like #mhealth
6/

By focusing on individual level strategies, you don’t make people uncomfortable w all that nasty talk about structural racism.

And the focus of the review can be on the minutiae of the research design & intervention components. 7/

Minutiae not bc those aren’t important but bc they pale in comparison to the question of whether this intervention will IMPROVE THE LIVES OF THE PEOPLE IT PURPORTS TO HELP. 8/