Protected: Before You Get Started: General Considerations
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Welcome!
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 disabled individuals), DEIB (adding Belonging) or even JEDI (adding structural considerations of Justice). See here for a low-down 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.2 Diverse 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.3 However, 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.
1 Nobles et al., 2022. Science must overcome its racist legacy. Nature 606: 225; Bombaci & Pejchar, 2022. Advancing equity in faculty hiring with diversity statements. Bioscience 72: 365.
2 Banal-Estañol et al., 2019. Evaluation in research funding agencies: Are structurally diverse teams biased against? Research Policy 48: 1823-1840; Rock & Grant, 2016. Why diverse teams are smarter. Harvard Business Review; McKinsey Report (2020).Diversity wins: How inclusion matters.
3Odedina, F.T., Stern, M.C. (2021). Role of funders in addressing the continued lack of diversity in science and medicine. Nat Med 27, 1859–1861.
4 Bersin, J. and Enderes, K., 2021. Elevating equity: The real story of diversity and inclusion. Resources: The equity initiative.
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To begin using the toolkit, please select the tile titled “before you get started” below. If you’re working on a specific part of an application process, rather than creating one from scratch, you can dive straight into the most relevant section by selecting a tile below.
Protected: The Job Description or Funding Opportunity
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