The National Center for Advancing Translational Science (NCATS) seeks to improve upon the translational process to advance research and treatment across all diseases and conditions and bring these interventions to all who need them. Addressing the racial/ethnic health disparities and health inequities that persist in screening, diagnosis, treatment, and health outcomes (e.g., morbidity, mortality) is central to NCATS’ mission to deliver more interventions to all people more quickly. Working toward this goal will require enhancing diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA) in the translational workforce and in research conducted across the translational continuum, to support health equity. This paper discusses how aspects of DEIA are integral to the mission of translational science (TS). It describes recent NIH and NCATS efforts to advance DEIA in the TS workforce and in the research we support. Additionally, NCATS is developing approaches to apply a lens of DEIA in its activities and research – with relevance to the activities of the TS community – and will elucidate these approaches through related examples of NCATS-led, partnered, and supported activities, working toward the Center’s goal of bringing more treatments to all people more quickly.

A crucial reckoning was initiated when the COVID-19 pandemic began to expose and intensify long-standing racial/ethnic health inequities, all while various sectors of society pursued racial justice reform. As a result, there has been a contextual shift towards broader recognition of systemic racism, and not race, as the shared foundational driver of both societal maladies. This confluence of issues is of particular relevance to Black populations disproportionately affected by the pandemic and racial injustice. In response, institutions have initiated diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) efforts as a way forward. This article considers how the dual pandemic climate of COVID-19-related health inequities and the racial justice movement could exacerbate the “time and effort tax” on Black faculty to engage in DEI efforts in academia and biomedicine. We discuss the impact of this “tax” on career advancement and well-being, and introduce an operational framework for considering the interconnected influence of systemic racism, the dual pandemics, and DEI work on the experience of Black faculty. If not meaningfully addressed, the “time and effort tax” could contribute to Black and other underrepresented minority faculty leaving academia and biomedicine – consequently, the very diversity, equity, and inclusion work meant to increase representation could decrease it.

In recent years, there have been concerted efforts to better recruit, support, and retain diverse faculty, staff, and trainees in academic medicine. However, many institutions lack comprehensive and strategic plans to provide support to retain and recruit individuals from historically underrepresented groups. In this article, we itemize specific mechanisms through which institutions can support diverse individuals with the goal of improving inclusion and belonging in the workforce to better reflect the diversity of the intended patient and research participant population.

This study quantitatively and qualitatively examines perceptions of organizational justice among 227 professionals/managers and 210 non-professional full-time employees across Australia in relation to their work–life balance. Findings confirm that the professional/managerial groups perceive higher levels of organizational justice than the non-professional group in all work–life balance/justice dimensions (procedural, distributive, interpersonal and informational), demonstrating the pervasive power status differences between different occupational groups. This study underlines the importance of justice-based work–life balance efforts for all occupational groups to create more inclusive and fair organizations. We conclude with policy implications and directions for future research.

This paper outlines a new approach to cultural awareness training, the Individual Differences Approach to Diversity Awareness (IDADA). IDADA is distinguished from other approaches in three ways: (a) it eliminates the need to characterise cultures, (b) it addresses unfair discrimination of any kind (e.g., weight, height, attractiveness), (c) it teaches employees to become aware of how their attitudes affect organisational performance, and (d) it focuses on job requirements. Initial evidence supports the validity of the model. The paper also introduces a new measure of diversity-openness called the Ideal Employee Inventory. Preliminary reliability and validity evidence for the measure is provided.