Welcome!

This site is under construction, please come back soon to use our toolkit to enhance the equity, diversity and inclusion considerations of your application processes.

Please direct any queries to edi.toolkit@durham.ac.uk

Thank you!

What is EDI?

Throughout this toolkit we will use the acronym EDI to mean Equity, Diversity and Inclusion. We, however, acknowledge that outside the UK other slightly different acronyms are used. For example, DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion), DEIA (adding Accessibility to better emphasize inclusion of individuals with disabilities), DEIB (adding Belonging) or even JEDI (adding structural considerations of Justice). See here for an overview of the differences in these acronyms as well as other diversity related terms and associated acronyms that may be useful to you.

Why enhance EDI in application processes?

Recent research, personal testimonials, and opinion pieces indicate an increasing interest, within companies and institutions, for Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) issues. These, however, have also highlighted significant shortcomings in the way selection processes are structured, put into practice, and evaluated, often leading to discrimination against underrepresented groups.¹

Changes to embed EDI considerations into application processes (whether for employment, funding or other opportunities) not only contribute to making our communities and institutions fairer and more equitable, but it is well known that teams which are diverse in many respects contribute to producing better outcomes.²Diverse teams, nonetheless, have also been historically discriminated against in funding competitions and academia more generally.

Structural changes are thus needed to implement measures that ensure application and selection processes are fully supportive and inclusive of underrepresented individuals, shifting the responsibility onto institutions and funding agencies.³However, succeeding in a diverse recruitment drive or funding scheme is not the end of the story, a culture of inclusion is required to ensure such individuals thrive⁴, hence the inclusion, in this toolkit, of sections on the post-award stage and ongoing support.

Why use this EDI in application processes toolkit?

This toolkit is intended to provide you with clear step-by-step guidance as well as act as a decision tool to enable you to efficiently and easily incorporate EDI considerations into application processes. This addresses the concerns many have around the increased workload traditionally associated with EDI best practice.

The toolkit contains a clear step-by-step process, supported by an extensive range of specialised practical resources suitable for different types of application processes, and is flexible in enabling different levels of EDI interventions suitable for different application processes and types of projects.

The development of the EDI in application processes toolkit – get involved!

We hope that the toolkit will enable greater efficiencies and improve ways of working through best practice sharing. Currently the content is based on our experiences of running Durham University’s Impact Acceleration Account (Lizzie Ranson) and CES Transformation Fund (Rachel Kendal, Lorna Winship, Sarah Wright) as well as discussions with various interested parties across Durham University and our Advisory Board⁵. Please do get in touch if you have any feedback, positive or negative, and if you have guidance or advice that could be usefully included.

To navigate this site, you can follow the toolkit in the order intended by clicking through the tiles, starting with the top left tile on this page, and following the [NEXT] tiles on subsequent pages. Alternatively, you can use the menu at the top of the screen to go directly to specific sections. The menu will either show up as three horizontal lines, or a list of sections with drop-down menus, depending on the size of your screen. It is replicated as an overview at the very bottom of each page (after the Durham University logo) if you would prefer to use that. At any time, you can click on the logo in the top left to return to this page.

This toolkit is a living project, so if you have any suggestions, queries, or comments, please share them with us by email to editoolkit.durham.ac.uk!