Earlier this month, I was honoured to host a high tea to celebrate the India-UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) partnership at the British High Commission, New Delhi on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science.
The event was attended by researchers from across India and the UK who are working in a wide range of collaborative partnerships to solve some of our most pressing challenges. Their work is empowered by diversity – different disciplines, different approaches, and different experiences. When these come together, great things happen in research and innovation.
Embracing diversity
My visit to India provided rich examples of a well-evidenced observation: diversity is not just a matter of fairness – it is fundamental to the pursuit of excellence in research and innovation (R&I). We owe it to future breakthroughs to embrace diversity.
To meet the complex, multidimensional challenges of the future, we need to welcome a wider spectrum of ideas, expertise, and ways of thinking. If we are serious about driving scientific excellence, then we must commit to inclusive diversity as a core principle.
Inclusive diversity is not about making diverse people fit into our current frameworks, nor is it about setting targets or quotas. Inclusive diversity is about us redesigning the R&I system to one that thrives on difference, creative disagreement and collaboration.
When I look at the strong partnership between the UK and India, our collaborations have been all the more successful because they create space for different thinking and perspectives. We also know that breakthroughs are more likely when we challenge the status quo, when we question assumptions, and when we welcome fresh perspectives. If we want to accelerate scientific discovery, then we must create spaces where uncertainty is valued and creative tension is encouraged.
Investing in excellence
With both countries placing research and innovation at the heart of their economies and societies, and both countries investing in excellent researchers, innovators and infrastructure, it is a truly exciting time for our partnership. There has never been a more important time for us to realise the potential of all talented people and teams in research and innovation. Our role now – UKRI and the Government of India – is to smooth the way and to build an R&I system by everyone, for everyone.
So, what does this new system look and feel like?
It is important that our R&I system remains flexible, dynamic, and inclusive to foster innovation. A system that is too rigid or uniform limits new ways of thinking, interdisciplinary connections, and novel problem-solving approaches.
Diverse careers
One way to avoid this, is to encourage diverse career paths. Traditionally, perceptions of research careers are highly linear, following a uniform path from undergraduate study to professorship. Any deviation from this path is seen as a loss, both to the individual themselves and to R&I. But what if alternative routes were celebrated as strengths rather than setbacks?
Career breaks, movement between disciplines, and non-traditional pathways present us with opportunities to enrich the research and innovation system, which is why UKRI has been making progress in this area. To encourage diversity in our research teams, we have revised and simplified project role types within funding applications to appeal to those from alternative career journeys.
We introduced the Resume for Research and Innovation (R4RI), a new narrative CV format that values a broader range of experiences, skills, and achievements. This approach shifts the focus away from individual metrics, like publications and citations, and instead recognises the value of collective, interdisciplinary and cross-sector contributions.
We also shone a spotlight on the alternative roles that contribute to R&I with our 101 jobs that changed the world campaign and citizen-led science programmes. By highlighting these less conventional but none-the-less valuable careers and contributions, we can remind people how diversity is already shaping discoveries.
Removing bias
And we have worked to remove conscious and unconscious bias in peer review that could influence the process and reinforce existing power structures. Our review of peer review examined the evidence for measures like anonymised applications, two-stage review processes, and the inclusion of non-academic reviewers in ensuring that a wider range of voices shape the future of research.
So, the equation feels simple enough. If we value difference, we drive more scientific breakthroughs. And the rewards are more than worth it.
As I saw during my time in India, it was those people who were embracing diverse thinking and bringing different disciplines together that were making bold strides forward in their research and seeing their innovations transform communities, industries, and economies.
Truly to thrive through research and innovation we must commit to inclusive diversity, we must continue to shape a new system, and we must welcome disagreeing creatively.
Top image: Professor Dame Ottoline Leyser in India. Credit: UKRI India office
