Equality and diversity in the research environment

Is your research environment supportive of equality and diversity?

Equality and diversity in research environments are vital for building healthy research cultures.

Ensure you are aware of the policies in place in your institution and read more below on how to champion equality and diversity in your workplace.

What is equality and diversity?

Equality of opportunity is defined as ensuring that everyone is entitled to freedom from discrimination.

There are two main types of equality: equality of treatment – which involves treating everyone the same; and equality of outcome, which focuses on policies that have either an equal impact on different groups or which intend the same outcomes for different groups.
In many countries, there are specific bodies which look at equality and diversity issues and related legislation.
The UK Equality Act 2010 acknowledges that different treatment is necessary to ensure equality. It recognised nine ‘protected characteristics’, which are: age, disability (which includes carers of disabled people), gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief (which includes a lack of belief), sex and sexual orientation.

Why is equality and diversity important?

Promoting diversity and equality of opportunity in the research environment supports fairness, ensures recruitment from a wide talent pool, and exposes the environment to the broadest range of experience.
Equality and diversity are recognised by research funders and by institutions as important in creating an excellent research environment and research outcomes.

How can you improve equality and diversity in the research environment?

Start from a place of knowledge

Update your understanding of relevant legislation; reports and/or courses can help with this. Know your responsibilities and entitlements as a researcher and your responsibilities as an employer of other researchers. Read your institution’s and your funding body’s equality and diversity policies, especially in relation to researcher recruitment and career progression. Are there any common challenges you can identify – such as slow career progression for a specific group. Join networks with an interest in this area and review related research.

Where are you now?

Reflect on your own situation and environment and be aware of any equality or diversity challenges that may impact you or those around you. Remember that you have primary responsibility for your own professional development. Are there any equality and diversity issues that are a barrier to your research or career progression? Assess your current group/department etcetera. Is equality and diversity prioritised in this environment, or are improvements needed? Are there appropriate channels for communicating institutional policies and for seeking individual advice? Are these well publicised?

Move forward

Find practical solutions to work towards improvements for yourself and those you work with. If your work is impacted by equality and diversity issues, plan to address these and seek help from a mentor. Understand how your institution views your roles and responsibilities to ensure that equality and diversity policies are kept. Build upon your understanding of ways to support equality and diversity within the research environment, which can include commissioning relevant training, talking to your institution’s support functions, or understanding funding bodies’ requirements and provision. Work with human resources if you see that equality and diversity is not being upheld. Lastly, encourage researchers to take part in surveys or focus groups that gather data on equality and diversity issues.

Moving further forward

Discuss development opportunities with your research staff and facilitate this. Does your institution provide opportunities that meet the needs of all your researchers? Share ideas with others who manage researchers to build a common culture and to extend good practice around equality and diversity.

Final takeaways

Equality of opportunity is defined as ensuring that everyone is entitled to freedom from discrimination.
Know your responsibilities and entitlements as a researcher and your responsibilities as an employer of other researchers. Read your institution’s and your funding body’s equality and diversity policies, especially in relation to researcher recruitment and career progression.
Build upon your understanding of ways to support equality and diversity within the research environment, which can include commissioning relevant training, talking to your institution’s support functions, or understanding funding bodies’ requirements and provision.