Institutional disparities in the distribution of the American Society of Clinical Oncology grants

Background

Disparities in academia are increasingly recognized, but what has historically been underrecognized is the cancer institutional disparities in the distribution of grants. We sought to characterize grants awarded by the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) ove the last 38 year with focus on grants awarded for career development and professional growth.

Methods

We used ASCO online database that contains grant and award recipients (1984-December 2021). We included all grants that were awarded for more than one year with $10,000 or more in annual funds.

Results

More than a third (38%) of all the individual grants were awarded for researchers from four institutions. Career development awards and young investigator awards were awarded for investigators of whom two-thirds were affiliated with a university in one of five states.

Conclusion

There is a significant concentration of grants awarded to oncology investigators from a few institutions including grant focused on professional growth (Career development awards and young investigator awards)

Policy statement

Institutions such as ASCO may need to facilitate awarding grants and/or providing external mentorship for institutions with low number of previous grants, especially for career development and young investigator grants to help in resolving the current institutional disparities