Breaking Bad Barriers to Pursuing Research

A concordat to research equity (part 1)

Abstract

This research looked to cast light on intersectional issues by considering barriers faced and connecting the difficulties encountered in pursuing a research career with participation in various identities.

Job instability, international (im)mobility, an undiversified workforce, biases faced in research collaborations and in hiring processes are just some of a wide variety of barriers affecting researchers in their day-to-day work life and in establishing and progressing their careers. Some of these barriers, due to their nature, adversely affect particular identities more than others.  This can lead to negative outcomes for individuals who are prevented from successfully pursuing their career of choice, reinforcing identity stereotypes and perpetuating a lack of inclusion.

Our research sought to identify real, potential and perceived barriers that exist to leading or taking part in research, recognising their existence and impact in our own multidisciplinary engineering and science academic department’s context. Barriers were explored through a survey in the first instance with subsequent focus groups. We considered 4 macro-areas of barriers: Belonging and Community; Time and Timing; Access to Resources; Communication and Information. This research tested the completeness of our understanding and elucidated the impact of the barriers on researchers’ careers. Further, we explored individual and community identity, also considering those groups of people displaying identity traits traditionally underrepresented in academia in STEM, and particularly Engineering, deriving greater nuance from lived experience and the importance of fairness, kindness and belonging in the workplace.

Funder Acknowledgement

The authors would like to acknowledge the Enhancing Research Culture fund from University of Warwick's National Centre for Research Culture, and also WMG’s Summer Internship scheme.