Emerald joins an interdisciplinary research collaboration to facilitate inclusive research environments

Bingley, United Kingdom, 9 August 2018 – An interdisciplinary research collaboration which includes Emerald Publishing as a project partner has been awarded over half a million pounds of funding by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to improve equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) within engineering and physical sciences.  The project forms part of a broader programme within EPSRC’s Inclusion Matters initiative, launched as part of the collective approach by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) to promote EDI.

The Advanced Strategic Platform for Inclusive Research Environments (ASPIRE) project offers an innovative approach to improving EDI within the sector, with a primary focus on long term behavioural and cultural change. The project will develop an evidence based online toolkit to connect best practice with improved ways to measure, monitor and implement EDI initiatives for maximum impact across initially HEI and also business settings.

Emerald Publishing joins the project as an advisory board member, a communications partner, and a test bed to pilot the ASPIRE toolkit and report back on implementation of recommendations.

Vicky Williams, CEO of Emerald Publishing, commented: “We are excited to play a role in this project, both from the perspective of Emerald’s commitment to inclusivity and diversity in the workplace as well as our role as a publisher participating and communicating the results of international research collaborations. We established an internal group, called STRIDE, in 2015 to create positive change in the inclusivity and diverse leadership of the company. We will be using STRIDE to pilot the ASPIRE platform and really embed change. This tangible action is in line with our mission to support the real impact of research.”

The partnership is led by the University of Lincoln and includes Vitae, Oxford Brookes University, the Lisbon Council, Emerald Publishing, University of Sheffield, University of Kent, University of Trento, Aston University, Coventry University and Towards Vision as project partners.

Professor Belinda Colston, ASPIRE Programme Director, said: “The research sector has been striving for fully inclusive environments in science- and engineering-related disciplines for over 30 years. Despite substantial investment, however, broad under-representation and inequalities are still widespread. Reasons for this are complex and often system-wide, but ultimately reflect deep-rooted cultures and attitudes in the workplace.

“To build a more inclusive research environment, we need a step-change in our approach to EDI. Our focus needs to shift towards long-term behavioural and culture change, and away from blunt staff statistics (e.g numbers of female professors) and performance metrics.

“ASPIRE will develop a new and more comprehensive impact framework to extend simple metrics-based evaluation and measure genuine and meaningful changes in ED&I attitude and behaviour.”

 

The project will begin in late 2018 and runs for three years.