The proportion of minority ethnic individuals drops from 60% at the undergraduate level to 47% at the postgraduate level and to 26% in staff positions, with even fewer at leadership roles.  

Workstream 1 focused on understanding and improving equity, diversity and inclusion within research recruitment. The aim was to identify barriers that affect who enters and progresses through research careers, while developing practical approaches to support more inclusive recruitment practices.

Over the course of the project, the team:

• Key outputs from the workstream include evidence-based insights into recruitment and retention, recommendations for institutional practice, and the co-development and update of recruitment guidance, tools and training materials to support more inclusive recruitment across the University.
• Worked closely with HR to analyse staff diversity data collected at multiple time points, enabling the exploration of diversity trends across research roles and career stages. Particular attention was given to understanding representation patterns, progression, retention and the impact of newly introduced socioeconomic background data. 
• Delivered workshops with hiring managers, stakeholders and researchers across the University to explore recruitment practices and identify challenges throughout the recruitment journey, from workforce planning and advertising through to selection and onboarding.
• Conducted interviews, focus groups and engagement activities with researchers, postgraduate researchers and professional services colleagues to better understand experiences of recruitment, inclusion, belonging, retention and research culture. 
• Reviewed existing recruitment processes, guidance and institutional practices to identify barriers to inclusive recruitment and progression.
• Explored practical interventions including alternative interview formats, improved guidance for recruiting international candidates, broader advertising approaches and support for navigating emerging challenges such as the use of AI within recruitment processes.