Become an equality and diversity champion

Promoting Equality and Diversity in HE research careers

In October 2010 Vitae was commissioned by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (HEFCE) to lead the Every Researcher Counts project to improve equality and diversity for research staff within the higher education sector.  HEFCE is funding this project, with support from the Scottish Funding Council (SFC), the Higher Education Funding Council for Wales (HEFCW) and the Department for Employment and Learning Northern Ireland (DELNI), as an important part of the funding bodies' implementation strategy for the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers.

Many of the challenges relating to equality and diversity are systemic within the higher education sector, particularly for research staff. These create a difficult environment for any researcher striving to achieve a research career within higher education, but particularly disadvantages some constituencies including women, disabled and black and minority ethnic researchers.

If you would like to be an Equality and Diversity champion, nominate a colleague, have any examples of equality and diversity relevant practice or would like more information please email the project manager, Emma Day, stating your interest.

Visit the HEFCE site for background information on the project.

For ECU guidance to HEIs regarding equality and diversity please visit: www.ecu.ac.uk

Become an Equality and Diversity Champion

We are developing a network of at least 50 individuals or Equality and Diversity Champions from over 50 different higher education institutions.  Champions can be anyone involved or interested in improving equality and diversity for research careers within their higher education institution including E&D specialists, widening participation staff, human resources staff, academics, higher education institution senior manager and principal investigators.

Champions can be from higher education institutions in England, Wales, Scotland or Ireland.

The role is to:

• champion the researcher equality and diversity agenda within your higher education institution
  
• use and distribute the resources being produced which will have principal investigators and staff developers as the primary audience
• attend, or nominate colleagues to attend, the regional development events taking place in May.  The events will enable you to use the materials to the greatest effect.
• attend the national equality and diversity conference on Friday 3 June in London
• help influence initial parts of the project by providing feedback to the project team on resources, web pages etc
• be an active member of the community, using and contributing to the equality and diversity community web pages (currently under construction).
   
  To become an Equality and Diversity Champion and take part in the project please contact Emma Day.

For the project we are:

• facilitating a network of equality and diversity Champions within higher education institutions with an interest in and experience of equality and diversity relating to research staff.  The Vitae website will host a dedicated equality and diversity community area.
• creating a free resource pack for staff developers to deliver to principal investigator audiences including:
  - half day training sessions
  - a guide to ‘Making flexible working work’
  - a guide for embedding equality and diversity elements into existing programmes 
  - a collection of case studies highlighting specific areas of practice
  - targeted stakeholder briefings on equality and diversity issues
  Plus three regional development workshops in May 2011.
• increasing higher education institution examples of relevant:
  - practices posted on the web-based Vitae Database of Practice
  - resources posted on the web-based Vitae Database of Resources
  - trainers and developers with experience in equality and diversity on the web-based Vitae Database of Trainers and Developers
• running a national event to highlight good practice and share sustainable models of equality and diversity practice for researchers as the culmination of activities in this work programme