Advanced Strategic Platform for Inclusive Research Environments (ASPIRE)

Science, engineering and technology research is vital to the UK's future. It underpins UK performance and growth as a modern economy, informs public policies (eg. for healthy well-being and environmental sustainability), and contributes greatly to its capacity for innovation. Our research base, however, is only as good as the people who make it. Many groups (eg. women, ethnic minorities, LGBTQ and those with other protected characteristics) are under-represented, particularly in leadership roles. This highlights the fact that our research base is not drawing on researchers from the entire talent pool, resulting in both lost opportunity for individuals and major, quantifiable losses to the economy and society. Until we have fully inclusive and diverse research communities, it is unlikely that our research base will achieve its full potential.
We have been striving to establish fully inclusive research environments in science- and engineering-related disciplines for over 30 years. Despite substantial investment, however, there is little evidence of significant improvement. For example, in 2016, only 19% of all UK Professors in science-related disciplines were women. The reasons behind such under-representation are complex and often system-wide. The most significant factors arise through cultures and attitudes in the workplace. If we are to build a more inclusive research environment, therefore, a step-change is required in our approach. We need to focus on long-term behavioural and culture change, rather than on improving staff statistics (eg. the number of female professors in post) and performance metrics (eg. research activity).
To address this, ASPIRE will explore existing good and bad practices in equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) from across the UK (and further afield). Through a series of consultations on needs within the sector, technical development and testing phases, ASPIRE will develop an interactive, web-based tool (set of materials, guidance and shared learning) for a range of users such as universities, businesses, charities, professional bodies, funders and EDI specialists, such as the Equality Challenge Unit. By its very nature, ASPIRE will encourage collaboration and information-sharing and support engagement by a more diverse network of institutions, participants and stakeholders through its workshops and pilot studies as the project progresses.
ASPIRE will also develop a new EDI impact framework to measure genuine and meaningful changes in attitude and behaviour across the sector. This framework will extend simple metrics-based evaluations and include more comprehensive evaluations of culture change. By providing a means to measure success (impact) in changing the culture of institutes and organisations, ASPIRE will accelerate sector wide implementation of effective EDI practice.
ASPIRE will, for the first time, provide a toolkit which is nationally available, can appropriately measure the implementation of inclusion initiatives across institutions, link implementation with meaningful markers of culture change (impact) and provide recommendations for scaling across the sector.
ASPIRE is an ambitious, yet achievable, project with a multidisciplinary and collaborative team with the expertise and clear motivation to develop this new tool. ASPIRE brings together specialists from both the private and public sectors, and includes specialists in EDI, impact and knowledge mobilisation, behavioural psychology, web-based platform design and implementation, and global leaders in policy development, researcher development and national capacity building.

The immediate impact of ASPIRE will be the development of a new evidence-based resource comprising extensive shared learning and enabling improved inclusivity in research institutions. This resource will reflect not only the materials, tools and strategies needed to improve inclusivity, but also core issues underpinning successful implementation and long-term use (eg. acceptability, usability, appropriateness and de-implementation (replacement) of traditional practices). This repository, coupled with implementation and scaling protocols, provides the crucial mechanism by which disparate sector-wide practices can be synthesised, evaluated and ultimately replicated through multi-organisation implementation. The primary beneficiaries of this new resource will be (i) the project partner institutions who will implement and test the learning and (ii) stakeholders engaged throughout the needs-assessment who will have access to the tool.
The associated short-to-medium term impact is achieved through wider scale use of ASPIRE. Project leads will work with key networks (such as universities, funders, professional bodies and the Equality Challenge Unit) throughout the study, to build advocacy and a user-base within the sector. In parallel, a targeted communication and engagement strategy will raise awareness of ASPIRE across the research community. Through a series of dedicated outreach and implementation-focused activities, the ASPIRE model will be translated to multiple organisations and secondary beneficiaries comprising (i) agencies beyond the initial project membership, (ii) individuals, teams and departments within these organisations. Longer term, continued upscaling across the sector will benefit more individuals across each of these tiers, in less traditional research environments (eg. non HEI) and internationally.
To measure the impact of ASPIRE across institutions, a comprehensive impact framework for inclusion strategies will be developed to benchmark, monitor and track meaningful improvements over time. As blunt, institutional level metrics (eg. numbers of women in SMT posts) do not necessarily reflect an improved culture, here such measures will be contextualised within a fuller impact map to demonstrate the connectivity and aggregation of changes needed for embedded culture change. Illustrative impact indicators (to be fully identified in phase 1) will include:
Immediate impact:
- New evidence based resource synthesising inclusivity best practice
- Feasible and user-acceptable tool
- New impact indicator framework for inclusivity (reflecting meaningful development and step-changes along an impact pathway)
- Improved availability of inclusivity best practice, materials and implementation plans
- Improved process for institutions to review and modify existing inclusivity practices
- Improved understanding of risks to sustained inclusion
Short to medium term impact
- Improved institutional capabilities in strategic decision making (re. inclusion), evaluation, tracking and review
- Improved individual-level knowledge, skills and confidence in inclusion matters, demonstrated across career levels
- Reduced barriers to inclusion at individual, departmental, institutional and beyond-institution levels
- Refined impact framework and clarity on inclusion impacts within institutions
- Improved clarity on pathways, risks, step-changes and systemic facilitators for inclusion
Longer term
- Improved and sustainable inclusive research environment
- Upscaled improvements in inclusivity across sector (via multiple organisational use of tool)
- Improved sector-wide understanding and operationalisation of inclusivity best practice
- Replicable sector model for inclusivity to support international development