EDI Statement

Last updated: May 2026

Statement on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

The Hub is committed to the promotion and implementation of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) principles across all aspects of its operation. This document has been initially drafted by the Hub’s EDI champions – Assistant Director, Dr Ciara Rafferty (Queen’s Belfast University) and Hub Manager, Dr Georgia Mortzou (Heriot- Watt University) – and further shaped by discussions at leadership executive and advisory board levels. The document is a summary statement of all the initiatives that have been/will be implemented in this area in the course of the five-year programme and serves as a commitment by all involved in the work of the Hub, irrespective of role or seniority, to uphold key EDI principles, act within the scope of this strategy, promote good practice and report incidences of non-compliance. The strategy is complementary to standard EDI policies in force at all academic/research institutions involved in Hub work delivery, such as e.g. institutional HR practices.

The Hub’s EDI strategy aims to:

• Provide a framework of initiatives targeted at improving the project diversity and inclusion, and serve as an example of good practice within the wider community.
• Ensure that diversity and inclusion are reflected in the project leadership and governance structures with the remit to cascade down all aspects of project operation and management.
• Contribute to systemic change by encouraging all team members to give proper consideration to EDI matters and by providing them with the resources necessary for their implementation when planning future research or parallel activities.
• Serve as the underlying basis upon which to structure other Hub strategies, including staff retention, skills and training, user/public engagement, communications and impact.

EDI has been embedded in the project since the initial stage of research design and decision-making around the operational infrastructure of the project in terms of e.g. leadership, governance etc. Existing and planned EDI initiatives underpinning our approach can be summarised as follows:

• A research plan that has been developed following a co-creation, consultative process, involving all relevant experts irrespective of seniority or indeed role, and with relevant input from many industrial partners from across sectors.
• Intergenerational and gender/ethnically diverse leadership and governance structures. These include Early Career Researcher (ECR) representation as standard in Work Package (WP) technical oversight, as well as through representation on the Hub’s main governance structure, the Leadership Executive team.
• Assigned responsibility for general EDI planning and overview to specific individuals within the management team and dedicated resources to facilitate delivery.
• A transparent approach to governance, through dissemination of relevant paperwork to the whole investigating team after each meeting.
• A comprehensive, detailed and achievable EDI strategy with clear objectives, measurable outcomes and achievable goals, covering all aspects of project delivery.
• Encouraging all partners to adopt open and fair recruitment practices, supported through unconscious bias training, and undertaking to advertise all vacancies widely.
• Use of Positive Action, as appropriate, to promote and encourage the participation of underrepresented groups in the activities of the Hub.
• Encouraging adoption of flexible working arrangements across all role structures and promote good work/life balance.
• Fair and transparent recruitment for board members (e.g. advisory board), making sure to not overburden people with responsibility/extra work.
• Ensuring all routine meetings are held during core hours, outside major religious observance days, and with hybrid participation options available, including use of assistive technology.
• Ensuring relevant paperwork for all meetings is circulated with plenty of notice to allow participants time to reflect, organise their workload, follow up on actions and contribute meaningfully.
• Ensuring invitations to technical meetings are extended to all team members, including PhD students working on aligned projects.
• Ensuring diverse representation of speakers/panels when organising events, and when these take place in person, use fully accessible venues as standard.
• Use of inclusive language/imagery throughout in all communications and project resources.
• Reviewing EDI regularly and following up on suggestions, including with corrective actions where certain initiatives have been found to not be working.
• Encouraging all project members to consider adopting relevant ally initiatives such as declaring their pronouns in their email signature to help normalise conversations about gender non-conformity and to encourage respect for other people’s self-identity.
• Making all team members aware of the project EDI strategy and action plan through internal communications.
• Fully embedding EDI considerations across all Hub strategies.
• Incorporate the use of EDI-informed feedback forms and impact assessments in the delivery of all major project activities.
• Exchange ideas and discuss impact of EDI initiatives at cross-Hubslevel discussions to improve future practice.
• Reach out to, and partner with, other major EPSRC funded projects in this space such as the University of Leeds-led EDI Hub+ and Heriot-Watt University-led EDI Caucus
• Create and distribute across all project members a digital accessibility guide for use when creating resources such as presentations
• Make openly available to all project members and collaborators a bank of dedicated resources to enhance awareness of relevant issues.
• Disseminate career progression opportunities to ECRs to support their professional development.
• Commit to appropriate acknowledgement of personal contributions where appropriate.
• Encourage all project members to adopt the CRediT contributor role taxonomy (https://credit.niso.org/), beyond simply acknowledging author contributions in journal articles, e.g. when presenting slides on the work of the Hub.
• Incorporate EDI focused roundtable discussions in the agenda of technical project meetings as a platform for project-wide discussions to evaluate progress with the strategy delivery and invite input on future initiatives.
• Offer the opportunity to all team members to provide feedback (including anonymously) on the Hub’s EDI action plan and to report instances of exclusion and discrimination.
• Organise dedicated skills enhancing initiatives targeted towards career development of ECRs, such as specialist workshops or PhD+ fellowship schemes
• Incorporate EDI considerations in dissemination of outputs beyond well established routes (e.g. open access publications) and by exploring alternative routes (trade media papers, press releases, white papers, publications for schools, podcasts, etc.) to ensure transparency and access for the wider community.
• Decentralise outreach by considering activities outside the capital and beyond participation in well-known science festivals.
• Make career pathways and highlighting the work of role models in the sector a focus of outreach activities, especially with reference to unconventional routes to established roles.
• Make all members (and especially new, international recruits) aware of EDI initiatives such as Researcher Concordat, Technician Commitment, PRISM Network.
• Provide allyship to minority and disadvantaged groups in the sector by highlighting relevant events/initiatives through the project platforms (website, social media) and internal communications.
• Keep all members informed of changes to EDI strategy/action plan through internal communications.
• Publish EDI statement on project website to ensure transparency on commitments.
• Create code of conduct for Hub meetings and events specifically referencing non-tolerated discriminatory, bullying or disrespectful behaviour.
• Be transparent about speaker selection process – either in communications sent to delegates or text in website or part of Chair’s remarks in opening session of each event.
• Secure quiet spaces in venues when running big events for timeout, breastfeeding or prayers for those who need access to separate spaces for any of these activities.
• Highlight EDI initiatives/representation statistics about the Hub in standard Hub slide deck which is used as background information when introducing the project to new audiences and potential collaborators/future partners.
• Include student representative in the planning committee of the IQN Hub Summer School, scheduled to take place in summer 2027.
• Communicate to the project team award nomination opportunities and encourage them to nominate colleagues who are currently doing exceptional work so that they get appropriate recognition.
• Make EDI a matter of personal responsibility.