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@UKRI_News has published EDI data for all 7 research councils for 5 y this morning. It's good to see there is recognition that there is a lot of interest in this data in the community--it also cites the request from @CommonsSTC enquiry which was raised by @tigerinstemm. Thread /1 https://twitter.com/UKRI_News/status/1275737934465908736
Transparency is key when it comes to promoting equality, diversity and inclusion and data not only helps us identify problems, but also deliver solutions. We can hold public funding bodies accountable based on open data. My preliminary take on my research council @EPSRC /2
EPSRC principal investigator applicants & awardees data show the no of BAME awardees have gone down from a tiny 90 in 14-15 to 75 in 18-19 while the BAME application no went up from 320 to 385. I am afraid not an encouraging trend. According to HESA we have 20% BAME academics. /3
Looking at the EPSRC PI award rate (success rate) data for BAME academics it dropped from 28% in 14-15 to 20% in 18-19, while the number of applicants went up from 320 to 385. In 18-19, it still remains 8% below the success rate of White colleagues. /4
For the first time, we can publicly see the award values. For EPSRC BAME PIs mean award value Dropped from £815 k in 14-15 to £750 k in 18-19 while the number of awardees dropped from 90 to 75. In the same period, White PIs mean award value went UP from £713 k to £854 k over 5y/5
I am a bit too upset to continue. I will be back in a bit with the rest of the analysis. Be right back.
Let's look at EPSRC Co-Is over the past 5 years now. Although according to UKRI report there has been great achievements on the Co-I front, in EPSRC it remained static. In 14-15, EPSRC awarded grants to 165 BAME Co-Is and the no is exactly the same in 18-19, 165 BAME Co-Is! /7
Although the number of BAME Co-I applicants have gone up from 520 to 755 the no of awardees remained the same. If you want to fix a leaky pipeline, this is not the way to do it. /8
The award rate (success rate) for BAME Co-Is in EPSRC dropped from 32% in 14-15 to 22% in 18-19. Shocking. The award rate for BAME Co-Is in 18-19 remains 6% lower than their White counterpart--the same was true in 14-15. /9
Moving onto fellowships, some good news finally! The no of EPSRC BAME fellows in 14-15 was only 5, which increased to 30 in 18-19. The no of BAME applications in this period has gone up from 35 to 70. In 14-15, 9% of the fellowships went to BAME which improved to 25% in 18-19./10
Looking at the success rate of BAME EPSRC fellows, I am confused. I am tempted to believe that the trend is looking promising but I cannot understand why the data for 17-18 is suppressed. There is something fuzzy going on here. /11
Finally, the mean EPSRC Fellowship award values--not so positive I am afraid. The mean award value for EPSRC BAME fellow was £675 k in 14-15 which DROPPED to £609 K in 18-19. The mean grant value for BAME fellows is £123 k less than that of their White counterparts! /11
Overall, we have reasons to be hopeful on the fellowship which was a major concern in the March 2018 UKRI EDI data release but an increase in the number of BAME fellows is coming at a cost of reducing the grant value. The disparity remains--it just has been shifted. /12
More analysis & commentary to come soon. I would like to convey my gratitude to @UKRI_News for giving us access to the raw data which makes the life of minorities a bit easier. We have to keep doing our research & advocate for EDI which can be tiring. Let's work together./13
