EDI+ Research And Innovation Network+ For Equality, Diversity And Inclusion In The Energy Research Community

The vision for the EDI+ network is to acknowledge and address key challenges and equip a cohort of researchers and their organisations to make lasting changes towards a diverse, equitable, inclusive and accessible research community. This will have impact beyond the academy and set a precedent, offering the means to tailor EDI action among the diverse organisations participating in energy research. It garners the best of scientific and social science evidence and critical approaches from the humanities to put EDI challenges in appropriate perspectives and make them available for action. It is action-oriented and based on an effective Theory of Change Model that considers:
-> the desired outcomes (aims) for the network (An energy research community that is equal, inclusive and diverse)
-> the evidence-informed assumptions for achieving the outcomes (such as findings from the Inclusion Matters programme)
-> the activities that, based on the assumptions, should be implemented to achieve the aims (prioritising time, training and support for action)
Evidence suggests that key barriers to effective change in EDI can be condensed to be:
- Lack of Time to develop deep, evidence-based understanding of local issues
- Lack of Access to the power structures required to enact change
- Lack of resource and evidence-based solutions to issues that are found
- Isolation from peers with experience of EDI driven change
In response, we propose a fellowship programme, which recruits EDI champions from diverse energy research institutions; trains them in EDI issues; research methods for analysing organisational contexts, how to make organisational changes, and how to implement and evaluate plans of action; and supports them to publish their results. All fellows will have the support of a named senior executive of their organisation, all of whom will engage in cross-institutional reciprocal mentoring to embed learning and change in the institutional context. We name these 'fellowships' (despite the possible connotations of the term 'fellow') so that they will have prestige on the participants' cv's, emphasise the research-basis of the actions, and lend weight to their change-making activities under the network.
The 'fellows' will form a mutually supportive network that should endure beyond the life of the funding scheme. EPSRC funded fellows will be complemented by industry- and government- funded fellows to expand the network beyond the funded call, and with the establishment of an alumni network, will offer the potential for the network to endure beyond the funding period.
Selected training events will be open to the wider energy research community, who will also have access to a toolkit on EDI actions in context and all other network publications. Additional impact activities will include workshops and presentations to coincide with existing conference and research events, to maximise the reach of the network. Findings will be shared and promoted through a 'network of networks' approach across the energy research community nationally, and internationally.