Twenty-year study finds NIH diversity programs doubled odds of earning a PhD
A 20-year study published in Science Advances found that two long-running National Institutes of Health programs aimed at underrepresented students substantially raised their odds of completing a doctorate, STAT reported . Among participants in the RISE program, 20% earned PhDs versus 10% in a matched comparison group; for the more intensive MARC program, the figures were 34% versus 15%. Researchers matched participants to comparison students on roughly a dozen variables, including GPA, major and stated research intentions, to isolate the programs’ effect.
Both programs trace to the 1993 NIH Revitalization Act and were designed to widen the pipeline into biomedical research. The Trump administration terminated their funding in 2025 — and cut the grant supporting this evaluation, leaving the team unable to analyze data it had already collected through 2024. The result is an unusual case of a program being defunded just as long-term evidence of its effect was being published, removing a measured contributor to the biomedical research workforce rather than an unproven one.