New research project exploring inequality in research funding

Members of the Business School have been awarded Research England funding to help improve research culture by addressing inequality in research funding.

Dr Charlotte Stephenson, Jo Garrick, Hannah Preston, Shereen Robinson, Sarah Shaw and Professor Annie Wei are seeking to improve understanding of enablers and barriers to research funding applications and grant attainment by people from currently underrepresented groups.

Research funding is a key measure of research excellence for Higher Education Institutions, and as such is a core feature of institutional research expectations, annual reviews, rewards and recognition, and promotion criteria. Yet, data from external research funders (e.g. UKRI diversity data) show inequality in research funding applications and awards in terms of gender, race and disability.

The research team will use current internal and external research funding data to develop Faculty-level interventions focused on research funding support, training and development, and research communications.

Dr Charlotte Stephenson comments:

We hope that by creating evidence-based actions and interventions, we will be able to reduce inequalities in research funding applications, and develop future research leadership skills and career progression of researchers and research support staff at Leeds University Business School and beyond.

Research findings and resources will be made available on the project webpage.

This work is supported by Research England under the Enhancing Culture Research funding stream.