Race, racial diversity, racial inequality and the composition of the boards and senior teams of various organisations is an area of significant interest.
This article is about the composition of the boards and senior teams of various organisations involved in science, research and technology transfer in the UK, from the perspective of race. I have looked at the composition of 48 boards and teams in various organisations and the number of people of colour and the gender balance in these groups; from February 2021 to October 2023. In the UK 18% of the population are people of colour (2021). In early 2021, of the 603 people in the 48 groups I have looked at 6.6% are people of colour; 21 of the 48 groups have no people of colour (44%). In October 2023, the corresponding figures are: of the 586 people in the same 48 groups 10.8% are people of colour; 13 of the 48 groups have no people of colour (27%). The figures are shown in Table 1.
The position now is better than it was two and a half years ago. Is it good? Is it good-enough? It is good the numbers are heading in the right direction. The overall position is not good enough.
This article is about the composition of the boards and senior teams of various organisations involved in science, research and technology transfer in the UK, from the perspective of race. I have looked at the composition of 48 boards and teams in various organisations and the number of people of colour and the gender balance in these groups; from February 2021 to October 2023. In the UK 18% of the population are people of colour (2021). In early 2021, of the 603 people in the 48 groups I have looked at 6.6% are people of colour; 21 of the 48 groups have no people of colour (44%). In October 2023, the corresponding figures are: of the 586 people in the same 48 groups 10.8% are people of colour; 13 of the 48 groups have no people of colour (27%). The figures are shown in Table 1.
The position now is better than it was two and a half years ago. Is it good? Is it good-enough? It is good the numbers are heading in the right direction. The overall position is not good enough.
Table 1 Summary and breakdown of the data for People of Colour
The improvement from 6.6% of 603 people to 10.8% of 586 people is good; but 10.8% (just over one in ten) is still a long way from representative, with the 2021 UK Census data showing 18.3% (just under one in five) of the UK population people of colour.
More worrying is the continuing high number of the groups that have no people of colour: still 13 groups out of 48 (a quarter, and each with more than 5 members, a number above 10, some 20 members) have no people of colour; they are all white. A further 17 groups have one person of colour (over half of which have more than 10 members). There are some very high-profile organizations that appear blind to the issues; leadership matters. People look up and what do they see you see? They see boards and leadership teams of people not like them. They see they do not belong here – that is the message, that this apparent resolute lack of action projects.
Maybe this is harsh, unfair, what could they have done? Three years of pandemic, decades of prejudice latent in the system. Time will tell if these data are showing a continuing change or a short-term reaction to the current focus on equity, diversity, and inclusion and the discussions on these issues.
The same data from the Table1 is represented in Chart 1. These show the improving trend, and the still very long way to go for representation of people of colour.
The improvement from 6.6% of 603 people to 10.8% of 586 people is good; but 10.8% (just over one in ten) is still a long way from representative, with the 2021 UK Census data showing 18.3% (just under one in five) of the UK population people of colour.
More worrying is the continuing high number of the groups that have no people of colour: still 13 groups out of 48 (a quarter, and each with more than 5 members, a number above 10, some 20 members) have no people of colour; they are all white. A further 17 groups have one person of colour (over half of which have more than 10 members). There are some very high-profile organizations that appear blind to the issues; leadership matters. People look up and what do they see you see? They see boards and leadership teams of people not like them. They see they do not belong here – that is the message, that this apparent resolute lack of action projects.
Maybe this is harsh, unfair, what could they have done? Three years of pandemic, decades of prejudice latent in the system. Time will tell if these data are showing a continuing change or a short-term reaction to the current focus on equity, diversity, and inclusion and the discussions on these issues.
The same data from the Table1 is represented in Chart 1. These show the improving trend, and the still very long way to go for representation of people of colour.
Chart 1 Changes from 2021 to 2023 for numbers of People of Colour.
Table 2 shows the data for the split between men and women in these same 48 boards and teams: 45% of these 586 people are women, proportionately far closer to representing the UK population as a whole than for race.
Table 2 shows the data for the split between men and women in these same 48 boards and teams: 45% of these 586 people are women, proportionately far closer to representing the UK population as a whole than for race.
Table 2 Data for proportion of Women compared to Men in the 48 groups
The same data from the Table 2 is represented in the Chart 2. These show the improving trend, and relatively closer to equity than for representation of people of colour.
The same data from the Table 2 is represented in the Chart 2. These show the improving trend, and relatively closer to equity than for representation of people of colour.
Chart 2 Changes from 2021 to 2023 for numbers of Women.
Recent Activity to improve Racial diversity, equity and inclusion in in science, research and technology transfer in the UK
A number of organisations have taken positive steps in the last year to improve racial diversity, equity and inclusiveness in their organisations and the activities they fund and support. This amidst the institutional racism within all areas of British science and universities. HESA statistics show 12% of white scientists hold a professor post, whilst the figure for Asian scientists in the UK is 6.6% and Black scientists 3.5% (HESA 2018-19 data) – at least the statistics exist.
Royal Society - Career Development Fellowship
The Royal Society is launching The Career Development Fellowship (CDF) is “a four-year, postdoctoral research fellowship that aims to support the retention in STEM of researchers from underrepresented backgrounds. The scheme will initially run as a pilot with researchers from Black heritage. If successful, the pilot may be broadened to researchers from other underrepresented groups”. The scheme offers: “Up to £690,000 over four years to cover the Research Fellow’s salary and associated on-costs (at 80%), directly allocated costs (at 80%) and research expenses; a high-quality programme of training, mentoring and engagement to support career development; flexibility to accommodate personal circumstances including part-time working. There is also provision for maternity, paternity, adoptive or extended sick leave”.
Wellcome Trust
In 2022, an evaluation of the Wellcome Anti-Racism Programme found “some positive behavioural and practice shifts” but reached a clear conclusion that “there has been insufficient action taken to allow this commitment to take root” and It finds that Wellcome is still an institutionally racist organisation. It highlights evidence of microaggressions and other racist behaviours experienced by staff and grant-holders. Wellcome has announced further anti-racism actions, including a firm commitment to apply positive action principles to funding decisions, so that when applications are of similar merit Wellcome will favour those which broaden the diversity of the pool of people it supports. Director Dr Jeremy Farrer said: “Wellcome is still doing too little to use its power and influence to counter racism.
Royal Society of Chemistry
Following its 2022 Report “Racial and ethnic inequalities in the chemical sciences”, the RSC has created a dedicated Race & Ethnicity Unit, and published a series of resources and toolkits to promote inclusion and diversity.
AUTM Toolkit
Earlier this year AUTM published its Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Toolkit – a really excellent resource.
This toolkit includes valuable reading, videos and assessments to enhance the effectiveness of EDI protocols within the technology transfer ecosystem. Developed by AUTM’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, it was created to guide AUTM Members and those in the technology transfer field in identifying opportunities to expand the success of their initiatives.
EDIS - Equality Diversity and Inclusion in Science and Health
EDIS continues to organise a series of events, including most recently in September this year the EDIS Symposium 2023 on Inclusive Leadership.
EDIS is a coalition of organisations working to improve equality, diversity and inclusion within the science and health research sector, originally established by The Francis Crick Institute research centre, independent funder Wellcome Trust, and our commercial partners GlaxoSmithKline.
Change The Race Ratio
CTRR continues to lobby and stimulate improvements in racial equality in leadership across the UK. Launched in October 2020 to accelerate Race equity in leadership roles and to support the Parker-Tyler Review, CTRR now has a large body of signatories who work together as a peer group. All signatories are committed to change and making progress in transparency, inclusion, action and accountability.
ASTP
ASTP has created an EDI Special Interest Group and held a dedicated EDI session at its annual conference in May 2023.
Taking action in Technology Transfer
Here is a framework for addressing Diversity, equity and inclusion in in TT: 1. In Your TTO 2. In Your institution 3. Outside. TT is very well-placed to have a positive influence on EDI because of the nature of TT activities - very broad based research outputs and involving many different people and groups in the innovation community.
1. In your TTO - This is all about the employment and management practices of your TTO and the work-place culture. Does your TTO have an EDI-minded approach to recruitment, progression, leadership, and governance? Are under-represented groups represented? Do people understand the difference between diversity and inclusion? What is the gender balance, what is the ethnicity balance?
2. In your institution - This is about how the TTO can influence EDI within the institution that the TTO serves (university, research institute, hospital etc).
Is the TTO engaging with under-represented groups amongst the researchers and academics? Are you seeing disclosures to the TTO that fully represent the diversity of academic and research staff in your institution? Could you develop awareness raising activities, training courses that attract people from under-represented groups, for example? Are you working with role-models to help promote engagement? Are you thinking what the barriers might be?
3. Outside your TTO and Institution - There is huge opportunity for TTOs to influence EDI outside the TTO and Institution. We can look at this in terms of:
· the technologies, projects, and knowledge that we are transferring - do any of them have a positive effect on addressing EDI? Are any of them helping to address challenges across all groups of people in society, especially under-represented groups? Are there any stories we can be telling about how the TTO has helped in this regard?
· the organizations we work with, either our suppliers (patent attorneys, lawyers, consultants), or our partners (investors, companies, licensees, incubators). Do they have good EDI practices? Are they EDI-minded? If not, do you want to use any leverage you have to encourage them? In the same way we promote good ‘access to medicines’ practice in licensing deals, you can ensure licensed technology is used and applied in an EDI compliant manner.
· the spin-out companies we set up; as a shareholder we have a voice at the table for ensuring these new companies are EDI-minded from the start, in every aspect of their business activities and governance.
· the international reach of our activities, in terms of learning from and helping improve EDI practices with all our partners around the world.
It is the very nature of TT activity that places TT in such a strong position to help improve equality, diversity, and inclusion in the world. That is why we set up GEDITT (Global Equality Diversity and Inclusion in Technology Transfer).
The TT community can do much.
The national association in the US, AUTM is doing great things; let us hope the national association in the UK can pick things up as well.
Finally
As mentioned in previous years, I am not an HR professional, social scientist, nor involved in organisational data monitoring. I am sure some people are clever enough to pick holes in the approach and methodology; that isn’t the point really; it’s the bigger picture and overall patterns that are important, and for each individual group to question themselves.
There’s an old joke that does the rounds in university circles: Question “How many university academics does it take to change a light bulb?” to which the response is a quizzical “Change?!”. Let us hope this approach doesn’t continue to apply to racial diversity in the worlds of UK science, research funders, government, universities and technology transfer.
In another year’s time, what will the position look like?
Action is overdue, but never too late.
Tom Hockaday, October 2023
Recent Activity to improve Racial diversity, equity and inclusion in in science, research and technology transfer in the UK
A number of organisations have taken positive steps in the last year to improve racial diversity, equity and inclusiveness in their organisations and the activities they fund and support. This amidst the institutional racism within all areas of British science and universities. HESA statistics show 12% of white scientists hold a professor post, whilst the figure for Asian scientists in the UK is 6.6% and Black scientists 3.5% (HESA 2018-19 data) – at least the statistics exist.
Royal Society - Career Development Fellowship
The Royal Society is launching The Career Development Fellowship (CDF) is “a four-year, postdoctoral research fellowship that aims to support the retention in STEM of researchers from underrepresented backgrounds. The scheme will initially run as a pilot with researchers from Black heritage. If successful, the pilot may be broadened to researchers from other underrepresented groups”. The scheme offers: “Up to £690,000 over four years to cover the Research Fellow’s salary and associated on-costs (at 80%), directly allocated costs (at 80%) and research expenses; a high-quality programme of training, mentoring and engagement to support career development; flexibility to accommodate personal circumstances including part-time working. There is also provision for maternity, paternity, adoptive or extended sick leave”.
Wellcome Trust
In 2022, an evaluation of the Wellcome Anti-Racism Programme found “some positive behavioural and practice shifts” but reached a clear conclusion that “there has been insufficient action taken to allow this commitment to take root” and It finds that Wellcome is still an institutionally racist organisation. It highlights evidence of microaggressions and other racist behaviours experienced by staff and grant-holders. Wellcome has announced further anti-racism actions, including a firm commitment to apply positive action principles to funding decisions, so that when applications are of similar merit Wellcome will favour those which broaden the diversity of the pool of people it supports. Director Dr Jeremy Farrer said: “Wellcome is still doing too little to use its power and influence to counter racism.
Royal Society of Chemistry
Following its 2022 Report “Racial and ethnic inequalities in the chemical sciences”, the RSC has created a dedicated Race & Ethnicity Unit, and published a series of resources and toolkits to promote inclusion and diversity.
AUTM Toolkit
Earlier this year AUTM published its Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Toolkit – a really excellent resource.
This toolkit includes valuable reading, videos and assessments to enhance the effectiveness of EDI protocols within the technology transfer ecosystem. Developed by AUTM’s Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee, it was created to guide AUTM Members and those in the technology transfer field in identifying opportunities to expand the success of their initiatives.
EDIS - Equality Diversity and Inclusion in Science and Health
EDIS continues to organise a series of events, including most recently in September this year the EDIS Symposium 2023 on Inclusive Leadership.
EDIS is a coalition of organisations working to improve equality, diversity and inclusion within the science and health research sector, originally established by The Francis Crick Institute research centre, independent funder Wellcome Trust, and our commercial partners GlaxoSmithKline.
Change The Race Ratio
CTRR continues to lobby and stimulate improvements in racial equality in leadership across the UK. Launched in October 2020 to accelerate Race equity in leadership roles and to support the Parker-Tyler Review, CTRR now has a large body of signatories who work together as a peer group. All signatories are committed to change and making progress in transparency, inclusion, action and accountability.
ASTP
ASTP has created an EDI Special Interest Group and held a dedicated EDI session at its annual conference in May 2023.
Taking action in Technology Transfer
Here is a framework for addressing Diversity, equity and inclusion in in TT: 1. In Your TTO 2. In Your institution 3. Outside. TT is very well-placed to have a positive influence on EDI because of the nature of TT activities - very broad based research outputs and involving many different people and groups in the innovation community.
1. In your TTO - This is all about the employment and management practices of your TTO and the work-place culture. Does your TTO have an EDI-minded approach to recruitment, progression, leadership, and governance? Are under-represented groups represented? Do people understand the difference between diversity and inclusion? What is the gender balance, what is the ethnicity balance?
2. In your institution - This is about how the TTO can influence EDI within the institution that the TTO serves (university, research institute, hospital etc).
Is the TTO engaging with under-represented groups amongst the researchers and academics? Are you seeing disclosures to the TTO that fully represent the diversity of academic and research staff in your institution? Could you develop awareness raising activities, training courses that attract people from under-represented groups, for example? Are you working with role-models to help promote engagement? Are you thinking what the barriers might be?
3. Outside your TTO and Institution - There is huge opportunity for TTOs to influence EDI outside the TTO and Institution. We can look at this in terms of:
· the technologies, projects, and knowledge that we are transferring - do any of them have a positive effect on addressing EDI? Are any of them helping to address challenges across all groups of people in society, especially under-represented groups? Are there any stories we can be telling about how the TTO has helped in this regard?
· the organizations we work with, either our suppliers (patent attorneys, lawyers, consultants), or our partners (investors, companies, licensees, incubators). Do they have good EDI practices? Are they EDI-minded? If not, do you want to use any leverage you have to encourage them? In the same way we promote good ‘access to medicines’ practice in licensing deals, you can ensure licensed technology is used and applied in an EDI compliant manner.
· the spin-out companies we set up; as a shareholder we have a voice at the table for ensuring these new companies are EDI-minded from the start, in every aspect of their business activities and governance.
· the international reach of our activities, in terms of learning from and helping improve EDI practices with all our partners around the world.
It is the very nature of TT activity that places TT in such a strong position to help improve equality, diversity, and inclusion in the world. That is why we set up GEDITT (Global Equality Diversity and Inclusion in Technology Transfer).
The TT community can do much.
The national association in the US, AUTM is doing great things; let us hope the national association in the UK can pick things up as well.
Finally
As mentioned in previous years, I am not an HR professional, social scientist, nor involved in organisational data monitoring. I am sure some people are clever enough to pick holes in the approach and methodology; that isn’t the point really; it’s the bigger picture and overall patterns that are important, and for each individual group to question themselves.
There’s an old joke that does the rounds in university circles: Question “How many university academics does it take to change a light bulb?” to which the response is a quizzical “Change?!”. Let us hope this approach doesn’t continue to apply to racial diversity in the worlds of UK science, research funders, government, universities and technology transfer.
In another year’s time, what will the position look like?
Action is overdue, but never too late.
Tom Hockaday, October 2023