Implementing EDI principles in Demand Management Processes

Implementing EDI principles in Demand Management Processes

ARMA Research Development (RD) SIG drop-in, 20 May 2024 

Summary report 

Research development managers are accustomed to running internal selection processes when funders restrict the number of bids a university can submit. However, we are increasingly aware of the need to implement EDI principles in the process. Many of us are developing our own practices in our institutions without knowing what other colleagues are doing in their institutions. A number of exchanges in the JISC emails indicated that colleagues in the RD SIG are keen to have discussions with peers.  

With Yuni Kim (University of Surrey), Ipshita Ghose (University of Birmingham), Adam Golberg (University of Nottingham, RD SIG co-champion) and Ying Chen (University of Southampton, RD SIG co-champion), we organised a RD SIG online drop-in session on 20th May 2024. We decided to focus this 55 min session on building EDI principles in three key parts of the demand management process, which are Candidate-facing communication and Timeline, Panel selection and guidance, and EDI data collection and monitoring. 134 people registered for the session and 72 people attended on the day. 

During the drop-in, three small groups (19-25 people per group) were formed to discuss a topic each and three Padlets were created to record the discussions. A few pre-set questions by the session leads (Yuni, Ipshita and Adam) helped to focus the discussions. Both challenges and best practices were discussed and recorded by the Padlets. The level of participation was very high and there were nearly 100 comments recorded. 

There were many key points gained from the sessions. Integrating EDI considerations into sift panel selection and guidance is important, but this alone won’t address the EDI challenge. Inclusive and widely disseminated candidate-facing communication and how colleagues are encouraged/ supported/ mentored are important for influencing who applied in the first place. We would need more EDI champions in institutions and more senior leaders who are experience at serving on inclusive panels to ensure EDI principles are implemented in every step of the Demand Management processes. There was appetite for further discussions on each of the topics, which could perhaps lead to some work on good practice guidelines, encompassing panel selection, candidate-facing communications and timeline and EDI data collection and monitoring. It would be great to take that forward to form working groups.  

There were also ideas for us to take the challenges faced by the community to the UKRI: 

• that there is not always enough time between the call release date and the deadline, to run an inclusive selection process. 

• Making explicitly clear when a scheme is formally demand managed in the guidance. Sometimes this is buried in the text or is a requirement belatedly imposed.  

• Capability and capacity issues in relation to data collection and monitoring.  

Padlet links

• Candidate-facing communications and timelines
• Data protection and monitoring
• Panel selection and guidance

The SIG champions welcome further suggestions and participation. 

ARMA RD SIG Champions: Ying Chen, Adam Golberg 

ARMA RD SIG members: Yuni Kim, Ipshita Ghose  

(The session is not possible without the professional support from Nicole Van der Westhuyzen)