NIHR Cambridge BRC / NIHR Cambridge CRF Joint EDI Action Plan

The table below refers in more detail to the actions needed in three key areas to achieve our vision of an inclusive, people centred research culture. These are:

• Inclusive leadership, governance and processes (objectives 1.1 and 1.2)
• Inclusive Training and Research Career Opportunities (objectives 2.1 and 2.2)
• Inclusive Research Participation and Involvement (objectives 3.1 and 3.2)

To read the NIHR Cambridge BRC and NIHR Cambridge CRF Joint Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy visit this page.

To download an accessible word document of the Action Plan, click here.

	Specific Actions	Measure/reporting	Responsible	Timescale
1.1	1) Assess, summarise and share available data on demographics of relevant staff groups and post holders	Summary report annually to Exec and hospital board, shared with steering committee	BRC & CRF Execs, EDI lead	Short term (1 – 2 years)
	2) Development of recruitment policies for leadership roles at BRC level	Qualitative feedback after recruitment	BRC & CRF Executive	Medium term (3 – 5 years)
	3) CRF will continue to comply with CUH EDI recruitment policy for posts above Band 8a	Mandatory reporting	CRF Manager	Ongoing
1.2	1) Initiate or maintain EDI as a standing agenda item across BRC/CRF committees, record and share findings	Initial audit of meetings, repeated annually	BRC Exec, CRF Management Committee, co-opted members, theme leads	Short term (1 – 2 years)
	2) Investigate opportunities within BRC, CRF and R&D research structures (eg. research support, funding applications, training, governance materials) to highlight EDI obligations and promote best practice (such as use of Equality Impact Assessments)	Summary report of opportunities and changes, audit of outcomes, feedback from staff	BRC manager, CRF operations lead, R&D governance, capacity building lead	Medium term (3 – 5 years)
2.1	1) Develop and evaluate mechanisms to collect demographic information about applicants and awardees	Staff and trainee feedback survey, annual review of data	BRC Capacity building lead	Medium-term (2 – 3 years)
	2) Collect information about fellowship application and completion experiences to understand barriers to application, acceptance, and completion	Qualitative feedback from applicants, trainees, annual report to BRC director	BRC Capacity building lead	Medium term (2 – 3 years)
	3) Track progression of funding recipients in their careers	Annual summary, shared with Exec, case studies shared	BRC Capacity building lead	Long term (3 – 5 years)
	4) Implementation of the CRF workforce development plan will be monitored and reported to identify and address barriers to development opportunities and career progression	Staff feedback survey	CRF Education Lead	Medium term (2 – 3 years)
2.2	1) Survey of EDI training needs and awareness and perception of currently available resources	Survey of researchers, participants and public contributors, review of feedback	BRC Inclusive research lead, BRC EDI lead	Short term (1 – 2 years)
	2) Collate, highlight and/or commission appropriate and relevant EDI and cultural competence training for researchers and affiliated staff	Create resource of available training	BRC Inclusive research lead, BRC capacity building lead	Medium term (2 – 3 years)
	3) Track training compliance and share findings	Annual reports of compliance to BRC director, findings shared at BRC steering committee	Capacity building lead, BRC manager, CRF manager	Long term (3-5 years)
3.1	1) Work to improve the demographic data we collect on research participants and public contributors	Surveys and workshops with stakeholders, response to NIHR and other national findings	Research governance team, PPI lead, PPI champions	Long term (3 – 5 years)
	2) The CRF will continue to collect CRF participant data (gender, age, ethnicity and postcode) and will expanding data collection of other protected characteristics when national systems wide guidance is agreed	Summary report of findings	CRF PPI Lead	Long term (3 – 5 years)
	3) The CRF Participant Experience Survey (service evaluation) will be refreshed to include optional disclosure of anonymised expanded protected characteristics	Summary report of findings	CRF PPI Lead	Short term (1-2 years)
	4) The CRF will continue to collect study EDI recruitment plans at study approval	Summary report of findings	CRF PPI Lead	Short term (1-2 years)
	5) Identify and share barriers to and enablers of participation and involvement in local and regional research	Workshops to identify workable collection plan, annual report and sharing of findings	BRC Inclusive research lead, BRC PPI lead, CRF PPI Lead	Long term (3 – 5 years)
3.2	1) All BRC themes and CRF to lead on a regionally-delivered REACH Roadshow of a relevant health issue for a relevant population	Qualitative feedback from attendees, case study written up and findings shared with PPI champions	Theme leads, BRC and CRF PPI champions, BRC & CRF PPI Leads, BRC Inclusive Research Lead	Medium term (2 – 3 years)
	2) All BRC themes to have at least one patient- or community-led or identified research project	Annual report, qualitative feedback from participants	BRC Theme leads, BRC PPI champions, BRC PPI Lead, Inclusive Research Lead	Long term (3 – 5 years)
	3) The CRF will expand existing collaborations with Traveller communities to understand and act on barriers to research involvement and participation	Collation of findings	CRF PPI Lead	Short – long term
	4) Annual community research inclusion ‘event’ to highlight and champion best practices in inclusive participation and involvement in research	Qualitative feedback post event, summary report of findings and recommendations, number and diversity of attendees	BRC PPI Lead, BRC Inclusive research lead	Short term, ongoing