UKRI publishes harmonised diversity data – UK Research and Innovation

24/06/2020

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has today, 24 June, published harmonised diversity data for funding applicants and recipients of research council grants over the past five years.

It is the first time that data have been harmonised across UKRI’s seven research councils, and the publication includes new, previously unpublished data on award values.

The data are being made available in a range of formats to facilitate access and analysis by the community.

The publication highlights the changing composition of applicants by gender and ethnicity over the past five years. The largest increase has been a 10 percentage point increase in the proportion of ethnic minority co-investigators in the past five years, from 12% to 22%.

The data also shows differences in awards rates and values between the diversity groups. The median award value for female awardees is approximately 15% less than the median award values of males (£336,000 vs £395,000). Similarly, the median award value for ethnic minority awardees is approximately 8% less than that of white awardees (£353,000 vs. £383,000).

Data is not included for Innovate UK and Research England, due to differences in both the nature of funding and data collection.

Professor Jennifer Rubin, UKRI Executive Champion for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, said: “Today’s publication is an important contribution to our work to improve equality, diversity and inclusion across the UK’s research and innovation sector, providing us with a greater understanding of the issues we need to address.

“It will inform our continuing work in this crucial area and we will build on this in the coming months through further data publication and by outlining our next steps.”

Dan Hodges, UKRI Deputy Director for Analysis, said: “Making our diversity data openly available is crucial in our role as the UK’s major public funder of research and innovation.

“We are committed to expanding our data collection and analysis capabilities to better understand the complexities of the data to inform our ongoing policy development. Further work we are undertaking includes detailed analysis on ethnicity and the intersectionality of different characteristics.” 

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