You said that it's on a merit basis, and it doesn't matter who they are or where they're from. That sounds great, but in the application, it's pretty lengthy. There's an entire DEI section about the firm asking what percentage of your business is owned by visible minorities or by women and what percentage are the executives, and you have to list the names of the individuals who identify as women. You have to identify what percentage of the board of directors is from these under-represented groups.
If you're saying it's all based on merit, then why are we tracking all this information? Why do grant applicants have to fill out all of this information?