Below we highlight some of our previous and current EDI work and how it fits into the 4 goals of our new EDI strategy.
Goal #1 – Diversifying our Fellowship
Our Fellowship election process is currently reviewed by a Fellowship committee each year. We send our briefing note on unconscious bias to all committees electing new Fellows each year. We have published top tips on supporting diversity for decision-making committees aimed at all Fellows and senior researchers.
We work with our Regional Champions to increase the diversity of candidates being nominated for election to the Fellowship. Working with our regional champions, In 2022 we held our first nominations masterclass which aimed to shine a spotlight on the election process and identify ways Fellows can support nominations from a broader diversity of expertise and backgrounds.
Following the recommendations made in the 12 month EDI action plan, we have updated our privacy notices and launched a new set of EDI monitoring forms to start collecting data for our EDI report for 2023.
Goal #2 – Supporting a biomedical and health research culture that promotes and values equity, diversity and inclusion
For an overview of our policy work to create a fairer research system, please see our page 'Addressing health challenges'. Our project on Long-term sustainability of health research in the UK will launch in Spring 2023 and includes information and recommendations to support a divers and inclusive research culture.
We offer targeted career support for early- and mid-career researchers including: grants, mentoring, leadership training, and free events both online and around the UK.
We aim to better support Black researchers through collaboration with existing networks. In Summer 2020, we supported three workshops by BBSTEM on mental health and imposter syndrome. In Spring 2021 we hosted events with Ladders4Action on allyship and inequalities. In Winter 2022 we hosted an event curated by the Black Women in Science Network on mental health, mentoring & leadership (pictured above).
We aim to better support female researchers through our flagship programme to help female researchers to thrive in their independent careers, SUSTAIN. This one-year cohort-based programme of mentorship and bespoke career support has supported 100+ women and been described by participants as "invaluable".
We will use the data we collect via our new EDI monitoring forms, and apply our EDI principle of ‘collaborating to develop schemes that respond to needs defined by marginalised communities, for marginalised communities’ to understand how we better support researchers with disabilities and/or from the LGBTQ+ community.
Goal #3 - Reviewing and diversify our governance process across the organisation:
Two members of our Council serve as Diversity Champions. Along with their duties as trustees, they are called upon to ensure that equity, diversity and inclusion is at the forefront of the Council’s discussions and decision making. Our current diversity champions are:
- Professor Mandy MacLean MBE FRSE FMedSci, Professor of Pulmonary Pharmacology, University of Strathclyde
- Professor Franklin Aigbirhio FMedSci, Professor of Molecular Imaging Chemistry, University of Cambridge
We are in the process of setting up an EDI Advisory Committee. Please do get in touch if you would like to hear more about this committee, to recommend members or to express you interest in being involved.
Goal #4 – Growing the diversity of our staff
Our staff culture is shaped by the message of our MedSciLife campaign which states that a life outside work is not an extra, but an integral part of who we are. We encourage different working styles and practices to enable passions and achievements outside work to support individuals’ careers.
Our staff participate in regular EDI learning sessions as well as formal EDI training and development sessions. Our internal cross organisation staff EDI Forum has leads for Disability and Neurodiversity, gender equality, the LGBTQ+ and racial diversity. We pay our EDI forum staff leads an additional bonus and provide them with an EDI training budget for the work they do in recognition of the personal investment and lived experiences they bring to the roles.