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New Royal Society reports on diversity in early-career awards

Tue, 17 Mar 2026 16:16:44 GMT

Many research funders now develop and publish statistics on the diversity of those they fund, with some comparing the profile of awardees with that of applicants to see if their selection processes are inclusive or end up favouring or disfavouring particular groups. The Royal Society has been taking this a step further, with the assistance of CRAC, for its early-career fellowship schemes, comparing those profiles with the diversity of those who are eligible to apply. This gives a fuller picture of their award-making, with the potential to shine a light on groups of researchers who potentially could but do not apply for their schemes. Such insights are obtained to inform the ongoing development of the Royal Society’s grant-making and other activities to broaden the participation of talented individuals of diverse backgrounds.

The Society has now published two reports produced for it by CRAC. The first attempted to establish the diversity profile of researchers in the UK eligible to apply for Royal Society early-career fellowships (updating previous work five years ago, but becoming increasingly difficult to do), which was then used to benchmark the diversity of applications to the schemes (results of which are in the second report). Overall, the exercise shows further progress being made but that applicants continue not to be fully representative of the profile of eligible applicants in the UK in certain respects, but with the schemes showing different variances. We feel the Society should be commended for attempting such benchmarking and being open in publishing the results and hope other funders will consider something similar.

User-focused research to increase the diversity of funding programme participation

Wed, 28 Oct 2020 14:24:46 GMT

The Royal Academy of Engineering has commissioned CRAC to undertake user-focused research to develop insights and make recommendations, to help broaden the diversity of the Academy’s Research Programmes.

In addition to analysing existing administrative data on applicants, the evaluation will comprise cognitive walkthroughs, interviews, and focus groups with potential and former applicants from underrepresented groups, research office staff and heads of engineering departments.

We are currently conducting interviews and focus groups. Please consult our Data Privacy Notice for further information about how we process your information.

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Identifying Good Practice Relating To Inclusive Selection Within The Future Leaders Fellowship Scheme

Wed, 28 Oct 2020 14:24:46 GMT

UKRI (UK Research and Innovation) commissioned the Careers Research & Advisory Centre (CRAC) to conduct research about institutions’ selection practice within the Future Leaders Fellowship (FLF) Scheme. The Future Leaders Fellowship is UKRI’s unified flagship scheme seeking to develop world-class research and innovation leaders, through outstanding support. The exceptional popularity of the FLF scheme has meant that a demand management cap was introduced in Round 7, so many institutions had to select and support only some of the applications they received.

Partly to assess the impact of demand management on the overall diversity of applicants, CRAC evaluated how inclusive host institutions’ processes are and recommended potential adjustments to their FLF processes that could enhance inclusivity during selection. This was done through analysis of the inclusive selection statements written by institutions submitting FLF applications, and deeper research in a sample of universities to examine their practice. Evidence was gathered through interviews with staff and stakeholders involved as well as with applicants themselves.

Download the report

Innovative Applicant Selection Models In PGR Admissions

Wed, 28 Oct 2020 14:24:46 GMT

The University of Cambridge has commissioned the Careers Research & Advisory Centre (CRAC) to help evaluate a project that aims to halve the Offer Rate Gap (ORG) in postgraduate research study admissions for UK-domiciled Black, Bangladeshi, and Pakistani applicants by 2025. In a four-year project, the Universities of Cambridge and Oxford will trial and assess different selection models and measures, with the aim to reduce the observed offer gap.

Drawing on its expertise in doctoral recruitment, selection processes and diversity, CRAC will provide independent, external evaluation expertise, consultancy supporting best practice identification, and additional advisory inputs across the project.

Establishing the diversity of researchers eligible for early career fellowships

Wed, 28 Oct 2020 14:14:49 GMT

The Royal Society commissioned CRAC to analyse existing data about staff in UK HE institutions in order to develop a diversity profile of those eligible for its early career fellowship schemes, principally postdoctoral researchers. The report provides such profiles against which the Royal Society can compare the diversity profile of those who apply to these schemes and obtain awards, to understand how inclusive they are. It also reveals a range of significant trends as the population of these researchers has changed over the last 10 years.

Research Project: Qualitative research on barriers to progression for disabled scientists

Fri, 29 Nov 2019 15:03:16 GMT

As part of work to address barriers to participation and success in STEM, the Royal Society commissioned the Careers Research & Advisory Centre (CRAC) to undertake a qualitative research project to understand the low level of disclosure of disability amongst scientists in the academic workforce, why this occurs and how it might be addressed.

The aims of the project were to: identify barriers which affect whether scientists disclose a disability and how these relate to progression, including any variations by career stages and other characteristics/circumstances; understand differences in the attitudes of disabled scientists to disclosing their disability in different contexts and broad disciplines; and identify and propose potential interventions that the Royal Society could make to address barriers to disclosure of disability in a range of different personal and career contexts.

Primary research undertaken in this project involved a review of existing literature on disabled scientists’ experiences was undertaken, a small number of interviews with experts in the field, and 25 interviews with disabled scientists from a range of different career stages, disciplines and who identified as having a range of different disabilities. This work was undertaken alongside analysis of specific HESA staff record data which generated some more descriptive analyses of disabled scientists’ career experiences.

Read the report in full to discover the overall findings, issues and 15 recommendations for the sector, institutions and funders.

NOC Gender Equality Survey

Fri, 31 May 2019 12:01:49 GMT

We assisted the National Oceanography Centre by implementing a gender equality survey with its staff and PhD researchers, to underpin an application for an Athena SWAN award. CRAC worked with the NOC to design the survey and bring independence to its implementation, analysis and reporting.

Development of a toolkit to increase the diversity of staff working in the arts

Wed, 03 Apr 2019 08:57:45 GMT

CRAC supported the Clear Company to develop a new toolkit of resources and guidance for the Arts Council, to help the arts and cultural organisations it funds in an effort to increase the diversity of the staff they attract, select, recruit and promote.

Graduate Development Programme – Review and Recommendations

Fri, 27 Jul 2018 15:10:57 GMT

In early 2018 CRAC and the Clear Company provided a confidential review of the recruitment and selection processes for HM Treasury’s Graduate Development Programme, in order to optimise the diversity of its graduate intake.

Engineering graduate recruitment practices: what is needed to improve outcomes for minority engineering graduates?

Mon, 11 Jun 2018 22:06:06 GMT

CRAC's research has established that employment outcomes for recent UK engineering graduates of ethnic minority background are less positive than for their white counterparts, even after controlling for factors such as attainment and university attended. The extent of these differences is greater for engineering graduates than for those studying other subjects. This project, funded by the Royal Academy of Engineering, will investigate engineering employers' graduate recruitment practices and where they could be enhanced to improve outcomes for UK engineering graduates of ethnic minority background and deliver a more diverse graduate workforce.

CRAC is planning investigations with a carefully selected purposive sample of engineering employers, to understand their approaches to graduate recruitment, their procedures and practice. This will include attraction, recruitment and selection stages, as well as some insights into early career progression. Findings will be benchmarked against best practice in other sectors. From these insights, recommendations will be made for enhancements to practice. We expect to conduct interviews with a sample of employers during autumn 2017.

Representatives of engineering employers are invited to express interest in participation by contacting Project Director Robin Mellors-Bourne

Exploring equality and diversity using REF2014 environment statements

Mon, 11 Jun 2018 21:40:56 GMT

This experimental project was commissioned by HEFCE to investigate what could be learned about equality and diversity (E&D) in the research environment, based on analysis of the 1911 ‘People' sections of the Environment Statements submitted by HE institutions to the 2014 Research Excellence Framework exercise (REF2014). Using a combination of automated text processing and computer-supported analysis, this found that:

HE institutions' focus in E&D was dominantly on gender (and to a lesser extent pregnancy/ maternity), much more than on other aspects of diversity;
The Athena SWAN gender award scheme was a major focus of what was reported.
E&D issues (including gender) were talked about more commonly in the sciences than in other broad research areas.
There was linkage between how much attention was paid to E&D in submissions and their REF Research Environment profiles (scores), although no proof that this was causal.
There was little quantitative evidence to distinguish genuine commitment to embedding E&D at the level of a submitting unit from effectiveness in completing a good submission.
Context was critical - for example, a third of occurrences of the word ‘Athena' were from submitting units that did not have an award but were aspiring or planning to achieve one.
This suggests that a combination of metrics and narrative approaches should be used in future submissions on the research environment, and that assessment panels will need to review and assess them both quantitatively and qualitatively.
As many E&D initiatives are currently at institutional level, these would be better reported and assessed through an institutional template and/or metrics, in addition to what is reported at Unit of Assessment level.
A revised, more structured environment template would be helpful, potentially including a specific E&D section, and ideally more guidance on the types of activities and measures that submitting units should cite.

Evaluation of the NERC Doctoral Training Partnerships

Mon, 11 Jun 2018 21:42:11 GMT

CRAC/Vitae has provided the analysis and reporting of a mid-point evaluation of the Doctoral Training Partnerships scheme implemented by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC). Surveys and institutional visits were undertaken by NERC’s Training Advisory Board, which provided the sources of data for CRAC to analyse.

Evaluation of the national Medical Careers website (for DoH, 2010, repeated in 2012)

Mon, 11 Jun 2018 21:47:29 GMT

UniversitiesUK, Research Councils UK, HEFCE and other research funders jointly invited CRAC to review progress made nationally in implementing the Concordat. This agreement enshrines principles for human resources, career support and training for research staff. The review was deliberately constrained to utilise only existing sources of data and information, to avoid placing additional burdens on participating organisations. Meta-analysis of universities' implementation plans and reports supported comparative analysis of national surveys (which CRAC routinely analyses and reports).

3-year review of UK progress with implementation of the Concordat to Support the Career Development of Researchers (2011)

Mon, 11 Jun 2018 21:46:18 GMT