We are delighted to have awarded £66,082, funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC), to support seven EDI initiatives and interventions put forward by the Academy’s member social science societies, as part of our joint EDI Project in partnership with our member societies and ESRC.
In this second round of grant funding as part of our EDI Project, an independent external assessment panel awarded funding to the British Academy of Management, the British Association for Applied Linguistics and UK Association for Language Testing and Assessment (joint bid), the British International Studies Association, the Development Studies Association, the Royal Economics Society’s Discover Economics programme, the Royal Statistical Society and the Society for the Advancement of Management Studies.
Dr Lizzy Norman-Sargent, the Academy’s EDI Programme Manager, said, “We were delighted to receive another strong round of bids for funding from the Academy’s network of member social science societies to support EDI initiatives. We look forward to the insight and learnings these interventions will provide to the wider social science community to support EDI progress.”
The British Academy of Management (BAM) will use the funding to publish and promote a Decolonising the Curriculum (DtC) Guide to provide social science educators with practical information, advice and examples to support their decolonising the curriculum efforts. The accessible guide is being prepared by two members of BAM’s Executive with specialist expertise – Professors Martyna Śliwa and Stephanie Decker FAcSS – in consultation with scholars interested in postcolonial research and pedagogy from different countries.
Professor Emma Parry, Chair of the British Academy of Management, said, “We are delighted with the AcSS ESRC funding to promote our new “British Academy of Management Guide to Decolonising the Business School Curriculum” for the benefit of the social science community. EDI and Respect are fundamental values for BAM and, as part of our mission, we seek to use the specialist research expertise within our discipline to help embed them usefully within the academic community and society more broadly.”
With both of their annual conferences taking place later this year, the British Association for Applied Linguistics (BAAL) and UK Association for Language Testing and Assessment (UKALTA) have been awarded funding to hold two workshops which will contextualise and place EDI issues at the heart of academic leadership.
Professor Zhu Hua, Chair of BAAL, and Professor Lynda Taylor, President of UKALTA, said, “We are excited to be awarded an AcSS ESRC EDI small grant, and we look forward to working together to deliver two EDI leadership workshops specifically designed for our academic field.”
The British International Studies Association (BISA) will use the funding to implement two key aspects of their EDI strategy – improve their website accessibility for all users and to monitor and support the diversity of applications to, and awarding of, BISA prizes and grants.
Juliet Dryden, Director at BISA, said, “BISA has placed a strong focus on improving EDI over the past few years, and the two project streams to be funded will drive us forward significantly. We look forward to sharing results with the learned society community.”
The Development Studies Association (DSA) will be using the funding to run workshops with early career academics of colour to better understand their needs and generate a support network; to co-develop active bystander training for managers with the Royal Economic Society addressing structural barriers to progression; and use qualitative methods to understand EDI best practice of DSA members.
Professor Laura Camfield, Council member at DSA, said, “We were delighted to receive funding to improve the retention and progression of academics of colour within development studies; this is vital for the future of our field.”
Funding was also awarded to the Royal Economics Society’s (RES) Discover Economics programme, which aims to increase the diversity of economics students by broadening the appeal of economics to potential students; changing student perceptions of economics and economists; and attracting more students from under-represented groups focusing on women, state school/further education college students and minoritised ethnic groups. This grant will support Discover Economics to deliver an in-person event on a university site with 15–17-year-olds from state schools and sixth forms, where economics is often seen as an elitist subject, with the purpose of trying to address the issues that add to the gender and socio-economic disparities within the field of economics.
Sam McLoughlin, Senior Campaign Manager for Discover Economics at RES, said, “Discover Economics is delighted to receive funding to deliver much needed outreach activities to young people in underrepresented locations with the aim of increasing diversity in economics.”
In order to put forward high-quality, well-informed initiatives to improve EDI, learned societies need to understand the diversity of their membership and how this diversity compares to the profession they represent and society more broadly. The Royal Statistical Society (RSS) will be using this funding to lead a four-month project to understand the barriers to gathering good quality member EDI data and use the insights collected to present solutions which will be reported to the wider community.
Dr Sarah Cumbers, Chief Executive at the RSS, said, “For initiatives around equality, diversity and inclusion to succeed, we need the right data. We’re grateful for this funding to overcome barriers, enabling membership organisations to better understand their diversity.”
The Society for the Advancement of Management Studies (SAMS) have been awarded funding to undertake a comprehensive scoping exercise so they can gain an accurate picture of the background characteristics of their members and participants, in order to develop an evidence-based EDI strategy, targeted actions, and interventions.
Professor Ruth Woodfield, Trustee at SAMS, said, “Our project seeks to better understand our current composition and participation rates, enabling the development of an evidence-based action plan to improve our future EDI profile and practice.”
The EDI Project aims to encourage and facilitate greater awareness of, and actions to support, EDI across social science learned societies in the wider community. You can find out more about the recipients of the first round of EDI funding as part of this project here.
For more information about the EDI project, explore our EDI Hub.