The COVID-19 Pandemic and Its Impact on National Science Foundation's Ocean Science Division Research Experiences for Undergraduates

The US National Science Foundation's (NSF) Research Experiences for Undergraduates (or REUs) are months-long, full-time, experiential learning programs run by host institutions within the United States—such as Universities, National Laboratories, museums, and others—where undergraduate students are given the opportunity to learn from and work alongside faculty and/or researchers on specific projects. This offers aspiring researchers paid, hands-on experience in their fields of interest from earlier stages in their scientific careers. REUs also facilitate networking interactions, exposure to the research process, and access to state-of-the-art equipment for passionate and hardworking individuals. The REU programs seek to recruit applications from students who attend institutions that do not offer research internships, who come from minoritized populations, or who otherwise would have a greater difficulty accessing these opportunities.

A longitudinal survey of student participation in the OCE REU sites carried out by NSF's Geosciences Directorate annually since 2009 has provided insight into the changes in the demographic composition of REU student cohorts that occurred in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the three years prior to the start of the COVID-19 pandemic in late 2019, OCE REUs had experienced an overall increase in the participation of students belonging to minoritized ethnicities. However, after March 2020, trends began to shift. The student demographic collected by REU Principal Investigators indicate that, although the overall REU participation increased from 332 students in the 2020–2021 academic year to 356 students in the 2021–2022 academic year, the percentage of participation by students from minoritized races and ethnicities decreased from 64% to 58% within that same period. This includes a reduction in participation by African American, Hispanic/Latinx, and Indigenous American students. In addition, participation by students identifying as Females decreased from 63% to 61%.

The country-wide lockdown issued by the United States in March of 2020 caused unprecedented logistical chaos in multiple sectors. As academic institutions and programs pivoted to adapt to the new social distancing requirements, roadblocks and challenges to student participation that had not yet been identified were brough to light. Many students, for example, experienced reduced access to technological resources and secure network connections, which were now essential for a successful REU participation. Others expressed not being able to participate in programs offering online or hybrid modalities due to pandemic fatigue and/or a lack of safe spaces within their homes that would allow them to focus on research. Many of these external factors disproportionately impacted students from minoritized groups within the United States and have been mentioned by REU leaders as potential contributors to the decrease in their participation.

Despite its adverse impacts, the COVID-19 pandemic has generated opportunities for better understanding the wider scope of limitations that underserved populations face participating in these programs. As the COVID-19 pandemic wanes and social distancing rules are lifted, OCE REUs are slowly regaining the momentum they need to continue to build a capable and diverse scientific workforce by shortening the gap between an early exposure to research in undergraduate programs and underserved populations in the United States. Moving forward, the scientific community must establish equity-centered measures to take full advantage of the combinations of background knowledge and lived experiences offered by a diverse scientific workforce. Such measures include, but are not limited to, offering in-person, hybrid or online modalities to accommodate underserved students that would benefit from having more flexibility; ensuring that young researchers participating via remote or hybrid modalities have access to computers and a stable network connection; and universalizing a demographic information intake form for REUs that would allow REU leaders to better track changing participation trends and address them as needed.