Event Details

Instilling good practice in equalities, diversity and inclusion within organisations is vitally important: diverse institutions have been shown to be more productive, individuals are more empowered and culture is richer. Yet the higher education sector experiences challenges in moving towards a more inclusive research culture including within the research funding environment. Many studies report ethnic minority researchers not holding senior roles on grant applications; women receiving smaller funding awards than their male counterparts and the visibility of disabled academics incredibly low. Recent schemes such as UKRI Turing Fellowship have embedded ED&I considerations more strongly into applications as a new requirement. Research managers and administrators are in an excellent position to influence ED&I outcomes either operationally in the support of research funding applications or via strategic interventions in the wider institutional research environment, due to their positioning in the grant application cycle. However, knowledge is fast moving and evolving at pace, understanding and prioritising messages is key for research managers and administrators future work.

This session will build on key messages from ARMA 2021 conference, to take in the views of key stakeholders in the research funding landscape, giving an overview of their drivers and key ways they feel the research management community can support the moves to an inclusive research culture. Attendees will hear four presentations from speakers across the funding landscape, funders and the academic voice, from engineering to arts & humanities, UK & EU, which will be followed by interactive breakout sessions, and finally coming together to share audience best practice with Q & A session alongside speakers.

Learning Outcomes
At the end of this workshop, attendees will be able to…
• Understand drivers for embedding ED&I good practice in the research funding environment;
• Be able to provide support & guidance institutionally at strategic and operational level in respect of ED&I good practice;
• Understand different stakeholder drivers and needs in the research funding environment in respect of ED&I.

Who should come?
Research Administrators and Managers responsible for supporting research bid development as well as individuals with strategic research management responsibilities looking to introduce good ED&I practice at their institution. Professionals working in ED&I offices looking to understand the impact of ED&I in the research funding environment are most welcome and will gain understanding of ED&I in a research funding context.