Plans for Enhancing Diverse Perspectives (PEDPs)

To fulfill its goal of characterizing the many viruses that reside inside us without causing disease and to improve our understanding of how they impact human health, the Human Virome Program (HVP) upholds that diverse teams working together and capitalizing on innovative ideas and distinct perspectives outperform homogeneous teams . There are many benefits that flow from a diverse scientific workforce, including: fostering scientific innovation, enhancing global competitiveness, contributing to robust learning environments, improving the quality of the research, advancing the likelihood that underserved populations participate in, and benefit from research, and enhancing public trust. HVP recognizes that many investigators share these values and endeavor to incorporate diverse perspectives into their projects and change the culture in science.

HVP is firmly committed to fostering diversity and inclusivity in the research community . HVP investigators should strive to compose teams richly diverse in perspectives, backgrounds, and academic disciplines, and provide full opportunity and participation to individuals and underrepresented groups. Examples of structures that promote diverse perspectives include but are not limited to:

Participation of investigators from diverse backgrounds, including groups traditionally underrepresented in the biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research workforce (see NOT-OD-20-031), such as underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, those with disabilities, those from disadvantaged backgrounds, and women.
Engagement with different types of institutions and organizations (e.g., research-intensive and research active, undergraduate-focused, minority-serving, community-based).
Partnerships that may enhance geographic and regional diversity.
Use of the project infrastructure (i.e., research and structure) to support career-enhancing research opportunities for diverse junior, early-, and mid-career researchers.
Training and mentoring opportunities encouraging participation of students, postdoctoral researchers, and co-investigators from diverse backgrounds.
Transdisciplinary collaborations that require unique expertise and/or solicit diverse perspectives to address research questions.
Inclusion of community-based partners to ensure alignment of research goals and activities with community values.

When a PEDP is required, applications submitted without such a plan will be considered incomplete and will be withdrawn prior to peer review. Evaluation of the applicant’s PEDP will be made during the peer review stages as part of the scorable criteria and during programmatic reviews and will be used to inform funding decisions.

See these related resources for information about diversity and inclusion efforts around the NIH: