@prefix rdf: . @prefix xsd: . @prefix dcterms: . @prefix skos: . @prefix rdfs: . @prefix api: . @prefix parl: . parl:answer ; parl:answeringDeptId "201" ; parl:answeringDeptPrinted "Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy" ; parl:answeringDeptShortName "Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy" ; parl:answeringDeptSortName "Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy" ; parl:hansardHeading "UK Research and Innovation: Grants" ; parl:houseId "1" ; parl:legislature ; parl:questionText "To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment he has made of the diversity of UK Research and Innovation grant recipients by (a) gender, (b) ethnicity, (c) disability and (d) socio-economic group." ; parl:registeredInterest false ; parl:tablingMember ; parl:tablingMemberConstituency "Newcastle upon Tyne Central" ; parl:tablingMemberPrinted "Chi Onwurah" ; parl:uin "262366" ; dcterms:date "2019-06-11"^^xsd:dateTime . parl:answerText "

UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) believes that Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) – of people and ideas – is crucial for delivering excellence in research and innovation. It has made EDI a priority – as a national research and innovation funder, as an employer, and as an influential voice in wider research and innovation sectors.

The seven Research Councils have historically collected information on applicants for and recipients of funding regarding age, gender, ethnicity, and disability. The councils do not collect information on social-economic group. Neither Innovate UK nor Research England collect diversity data of applicants or those in receipt of funding or loans.

Successive UK Governments have supported the principle that funding for basic research should be awarded through competitive processes on the basis of excellence and likely impact - as assessed through peer review. This is widely considered to be a underpinning factor in the success of UK research, and a key enabler of value for money for tax payers money. Consequently, HM Government takes an arms length approach to research funding, in line with the Haldane Principle.

In addition, initial analysis of 2018-19 funding data from the seven research councils by gender shows that:

  • 71% of funding from research council grants and fellowships in 18/19 were awarded to bids led by men and 27% of funds were allocated to bids led by women. The remainder are bids where gender is undisclosed or not known.
  • 42% of the funding for Fellowships went to female Fellows, 52% of the funds went to male Fellows and 6% of the funds went to Fellows with undisclosed or unknown gender.
  • 73% of the funding for research grants were awarded to projects led by male Principle Investigators (PIs), 25% of the funds were awarded to projects led by female PIs and 2% of the funds were awarded to projects with PIs of undisclosed or unknown gender.


UKRI has appointed Professor Jennifer Rubin, Executive Chair, Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) as the UKRI Champion for EDI, and established an External Advisory Group for EDI. The group is working with UKRI to identify and prioritise areas.

UKRI aims to publish a UKRI-wide EDI Strategic Framework in Autumn 2019, which will help UKRI to bring together and scrutinise evidence on what works, develop and prioritise actions, and ensure that EDI is considered and supported in all that UKRI does.

Work is currently underway to improve data collection and analysis capabilities about the people UKRI funds. A detailed cross-UKRI analysis of funding data will be published in Autumn 2019.

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