Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is the practice of ensuring fair treatment for all. At UKERC, we aim to foster an inclusive culture that values diversity and maintains a working and social environment in which the rights and dignity of our staff, researchers, students, partners and stakeholders are respected. As an interdisciplinary research consortium, we are committed to involving diverse groups in the conversation around our future energy system.
The sections below outline our EDI policies and key contacts. It is important to note that, as we are a consortium, we cannot enforce policies regarding training or recruitment at our participating institutions. However, we fully expect our partners to have undertaken diversity training, particularly in unconscious bias (and allyship if available), and to ensure that recruitment panels are diverse.
We are also committed to providing opportunities that advance diversity in energy. For example, in November 2023 we delivered an inclusive writing retreat to help build capacity and develop skills so that attendees could take advantage of authorship opportunities in the sector.
These documents lay out our approach to EDI within the consortium. It has been approved by UKERC’s Co-Directors and UKRI. It will be reviewed annually by our EDI Champion and relevant HQ staff.
However, we recognise that UKERC is not as diverse as it should be. The Plan is therefore a ‘living document’ and we invite the wider community, particularly underrepresented groups, to provide feedback. We will consider all comments received. Please contact Jessica Bays with any suggestions.
Our EDI Goals represents a mix of pre-existing goals and goals that have been added following the writing of the EDI Plan and our Mid-term Review Action Plan, as well as on suggestion from members of the EDI SubCo to date.
We are keen to ensure that UKERC outputs are as open as possible and do not exclude based on the format or language used. We have therefore compiled a list of resources that can be used to help in the development of activities and outputs:
Inclusive language resources:
Accessible events guidance:
UKERC’s EDI activities are managed by our Operations Manager, Jessica Bays, with support from our Engagement Officer, James Curwen.
Dr Caroline Kuzemko is the Deputy Director for EDI and in this capacity she champions UKERC’s EDI work, holds the leadership team to account for progress with EDI goals, and also chairs the EDI Committee.
Members of the committee are:
Our complaints process is outlined in the EDI Plan under ‘Bullying and Harassment’. Complaints must be made via host institutional processes, but where the complaint arises from UKERC activities, please contact the Co-Director at the relevant institution for support. In their absence, or if they are involved, UKERC’s Director Rob Gross and Operations Manager Jessica Bays will ensure appropriate support.
Our commitment to EDI extends to flexible working. We aim to enable all staff and participants with caring commitments to join our events and fully engage with our activities.
If staff or participants require additional care arrangements to attend UKERC meetings or events, we will (within what is permissible under the constraints of our grant) seek to reimburse any expenses that go beyond ordinary care. This will be done in line with EPSRC’s guidelines for supporting carers. Please contact Jessica for more details.
Many of us undertake hybrid working – while remote working has its benefits, we recognise it also brings many challenges (outlined in more detail in the EDI Plan). We therefore aim to model best practice in remote working by encouraging our staff to: