UKRI EDI strategy consultation: our response

The Chartered ABS has responded to UKRI’s consultation on its Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion (EDI) strategy. The strategy is the UKRI’s first of its kind and details its ambitions to foster a more equal, diverse, and inclusive research and innovation system and outlines several strategic objectives.

As a whole, Chartered ABS members are supportive of the strategy and particularly commend the UKRI’s recognition and acknowledgment of the crucial role they have to play in meeting the strategic objectives, and their willingness to scrutinise their own behaviour and performance on issues related to EDI. We also agree that the four strategic objectives form a strong foundation on which we may build a more equal, diverse, and inclusive research and innovation community.

However, we feel that some of the strategic objectives would be further strengthened by the inclusion of more detail. For example, we advise that the inclusion of success measures would benefit the strategy greatly as it will enable the community to monitor the HE sector’s progress more easily. Generally, more practical proposals for concrete actions to be taken would have been a welcome addition to the overall strategy.

The Chartered ABS and our members commend the UKRI for taking on the important task of addressing inequalities in research and innovation.

You can read our full response here.