Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Self Assessment Tool

Resource:

Will you recruit new staff for your TAS project? What steps will you take to ensure equality in your recruitment processes?

• BBC article – The case for diversity – learning from Gareth Southgate
  • Using Gareth Southgate as an example a blogpost highlighting the value of a diverse team and perspectives.
• NERC – best practice principles in doctoral recruitment
  • Best practice guidelines around finding, recruiting and nurturing talent from the Natural Environment Research Council.
• STEMM change report – Transforming the Language of Exclusion and Bias in Recruitment
  • A report identifying exclusionary language in recruitment and strategies to make language more inclusive.
• TEDx video – Who you should hire, fire and promote – Stephen Frost
  • A TEDx talk focusing on the value of diverse teams.
• University of St Andrews – Inclusive Recruitment Guide
  • A guide from Human Resources around Inclusive recruitment to minimise any potential discrimination in recruitment.

What steps will you take to manage selection of other contributors, e.g. stakeholder or advisory groups? Can this be actively managed without introducing bias to the research?

• Equality Challenge Unit – Positive action through bursaries, scholarships and prizes
  • Guidance from the Equality Challenge Unit on how to avoid unlawful discrimination in offering bursaries or prizes
• Government Equalities Office – Equality Act 2010 – Quick start guide to using positive action in recruitment and promotion
  • A guide to how positive action can be used to improve diversity in the workforce in line with the Equality Act 2010.
• University of Bath –Reimagining Recruitment
  • A project funded by the EPSRC on how culture change around recruitment may be rethought to improve EDI in the physical sciences.

Resource:

Does your project involve group meetings, sandpits or other events that bring people together? Have you considered how to plan these activities to promote diversity and inclusivity? What potential barriers have you identified?

• Inclusive Events
  • Autistica – Hosting accessible online events, meetings and webinars for autistic people and those with additional needs,
    • A series of tips for making online events accessible derived from experience with the autistic community.
  • British Academy of Management – All Welcome Guide to inclusive, accessible and sustainable events
    • A guide to holding sustainable and inclusive events from the British Academy of Management.
  • Inclusive events: Wellcome Trust Article – running inclusive events
    • A blog post describing measures taken to make an event more inclusive.
  • University of Oxford – REACH conference
    • A ‘how to’ and best practice guide for developing inclusive conferences.
  • University of Manchester guide – Make your event accessible and inclusive
    • Guidance to help make an event accessible.

• Inclusive Content
  • Designing inclusive content: Home Office Guide – Designing for Accessibility,
    • A series of posters from the UK Home Office to offer guidance on how to design accessible resources.
  • Worcestershire Council – Shaping documents and content for accessible and inclusive practice.
    • A guide for making documents accessible through using SCULPT methodology – Structure, Colour and Contrast, Use of Images, Links, Hyperlinks, Plain English, Table Structure.

• EDI Champions
  • Explore having an EDI champion. The team can ‘do’ while the champion can support and communicate successes and lessons learned. Find examples at the University of York, University of Sussex University of Warwick.
    • Guidance on EDI and Social Inclusion Champions from different universities for acting as a point of contact, providing information and promoting Equality, Diversity and Inclusion amongst other elements.

• Have you viewed the TAS Code of Conduct?
  • Code of conduct for events: Imperial College London
    • Details of the requirements for developing a code of conduct along EDI lines for conferences and events associated with Imperial College.
  • Knowledge Transfer Network (KTN)
    • An appeal for people associated with manufacturing innovation to sign up to provide a more diverse group of potential speakers.
  • London Mathematical Society Article – Advice on Diversity at Conferences and Seminars
    • Guiding principles for improving inclusivity in events from the London Mathematical Society.

Resource:

Have you considered how a TAS research project might positively impact on career progression for your team, particularly for ECRs?

• Vitae – Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers
  • • • A document detailing an agreement between universities, research institutes and funders to support the career development of researchers.
    • Examples of EPSRC-funded projects University of Birmingham : Challenging Different forms of bias in EPS Research
      • A project to identify sources of bias in academia and develop innovative strategies to address underlying issues in physical science and engineering research
      • Northern Accelerator – Ideas Impact Hub
        • Training for academics to recognise intellectual property and create real-world impact from their research.
      • Oxford Brookes University Promoting EDI in University Spinout Companies –
        • A project to identify barriers for Women in STEM to lead spinout companies.

Will ECR involvement and contribution be recognised fairly, and does it support them in achieving their career goals?

• Royal Academy of Engineering – Inclusivity Toolkit
  • • Research and resources on Inclusion and Diversity from the Royal Academy of Engineering.
  • Examples of Mentoring Schemes:
    • Connected Everything Network – Early Career Mentoring Programme,
      • Description of Early Career Research Mentoring scheme run as part of the Connected Everything network.
    • Fabian Women’s Network – Mentoring Programme
      • Details of the Fabian Women’s Network Mentoring and Political Education Network for women to develop the core skills to be effective in public and political life.
    • Royal Academy of Engineering –Chairs and Senior Research Fellows
      • Details of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Chairs and Senior Research Fellowships scheme.
    • Royal Academy of Engineering – Research Fellow applicants
      • Details of the Royal Academy of Engineering’s Research Fellowship scheme.
    • UKRI – Future Leaders Fellows Development Network
      • Description of the mentoring scheme run as part of the Future Leaders Development Network.
    • University of Nottingham – Reverse Mentoring,
      • Information about an approach to mentoring where more senior people are mentored by more junior, with a focus on EDI
    • University of Glasgow VisNET
      • A project to identify barriers to networking and collaboration for female engineering academics to identify best practice to help overcome them.

Have you considered how the wider TAS community might be called upon to support mentoring or coaching for researchers in your team?

Resource:

Have you considered inclusivity and unintended negative consequences of TAS from an EDI perspective when designing the project?

Do end-users have a voice in shaping your research, e.g. via stakeholder groups? If not, could they have a voice?

• Garcia – Toolkit for Integrating Gender Sensitive Approach into Research and Teaching
  • A toolkit to help researchers and academics integrate gender considerations into their research and teaching.
• Gendered Innovations, project – Gendered Innovations
  • Approaches to and case studies of how sex gender and intersectionality can contribute to innovation
• Government of Canada – Best Practices in Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in Research
  • A guide to questions to ask and best practices to follow to embed Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in research design.
• Invision article – Inclusion is designing the future
  • A blog approaching inclusive design through identifying exclusion in design.
• Nature, article – How to include indigenous researchers and their knowledge
  • Practical examples and guidance on including indigenous people researchers and knowledge in research.

• The University of Cambridge – What is inclusive design?
  • An introduction to and resources to support inclusive design.
• UX Planet – 6 principles for inclusive design
  • Guiding principles to help develop an inclusive mindset in design
• Universities UK – The Concordat to Support Research Integrity
  • A framework to ensure the highest level of integrity and rigour in research activities across UK funders and Universities.

Have you considered how to ensure your research outputs are widely accessible?

• Institute of Physics, poster – Top tips on inclusive teaching
  • A poster with 10 practical tips on how to make teaching more inclusive.
• Web Accessibility Initiative – Introduction to Web Accessibility
  • Overview of how web-based resources can be designed to be usable and accessible by as many people as possible
• University of Glasgow – Recognising Authors (CRediT)
  • An overview of the CRediT approach to acknowledging and assigning authorship credit in a transparent manner.