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NIHR recruits research organisations to promote race equality in health research

Published: 09 August 2021

Organisations delivering health research in higher education, local government, the NHS, the private sector and voluntary sector will take part in a three-month reflective assessment of their delivery of race equality in health research led by the NIHR.

From August to December 2021, sixteen organisations will trial a new framework to assess how their current policies, practices and organisational culture could be changed to better serve diverse communities, foster improved race relations and ultimately improve healthcare delivery. This is ahead of a wider rollout of the final framework in spring 2022, which all research organisations will be encouraged to adopt. 

Inspired by the public who have lived experiences of challenges we are trying to address, the Race Equality self assessment framework was developed by the NIHR Race Equality Public Action Group (REPAG), which is co-chaired and led by public members. The group engaged a range of researchers, leaders and public involvement leads, to develop the framework. REPAG then held three online public consultation events to refine the framework, each attended, led and facilitated by Black, African, Asian and Caribbean heritage people.

Jeremy Taylor, NIHR Director for Public Voice and Director of the NIHR Centre for Engagement and Dissemination (CED), which is leading on this initiative, said: "I am very excited that we have reached the stage of testing out our Race Equality Framework. This will be an important tool in creating a more inclusive research culture."

The pilot will help develop NIHR’s work to address current inequities in research, including the fact that the ethnic diversity of those who participate in clinical research often does not reflect that of the wider population affected by the particular issue being researched. This means that health research frequently does not meet the needs of the whole population, which in turn distorts healthcare delivery. 

Professor Krysia Dziedzic, NIHR Senior Investigator and Director of the Impact Accelerator Unit, School of Medicine, Keele University, and host of one of the pilots said: "The framework is inspired by the voices of people from Black and African, Asian and Caribbean heritage. Through this framework, the Race Equality Public Action Group (REPAG) has set out achievable ambitions for NIHR research and its implementation. Working with REPAG, Midlands Innovation Health, Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent AHP Council, Keele has secured funding for an Ambassador with lived experience of race inequality to co-produce and implement our pilot. This is just the start.”

Dr Pavel Ovseiko, Senior Research Fellow at the University of Oxford and the NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre, who coordinates the pilot in Oxford, said: “I am proud that many organisations representing the NIHR research infrastructure in Oxford have come together and joined their considerable expertise in this important pilot. The Race Equality Framework will guide us on the steps we can take to ensure that all the public and taxpayers, who support and fund the NIHR, benefit from the NIHR research regardless of their race, ethnicity, and cultural heritage.”

Christine McGrath, Director of R&D, University Hospital Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, said: “Our involvement in this pilot is incredibly timely and important to our wider efforts to increase equity across our research. Through the pilot we hope to generate learning that enables us, NIHR and the NIHR infrastructure to advance this agenda in partnership with our academic and NHS partners.” 

Full list of partner organisations taking part in the trial:

Alder Hey Children’s Hospital
Doncaster Council 
University Hospitals Birmingham NHS Foundation Trust, in partnership with the University of Birmingham, which includes:
NIHR Birmingham Biomedical Research Centre
NIHR Trauma Management MedTech Co-operative (Trauma MIC)
NIHR / Wellcome Trust Clinical Research Facility Birmingham (CRF)
NIHR Surgical Reconstruction and Microbiology Research Centre (SRMRC)
NIHR Applied Research Collaboration West Midlands (ARC WM)
Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust, which includes:
Vocal
NIHR Manchester Biomedical Research Centre
NIHR Manchester Clinical Research Facility
University Hospitals Southampton NHS Foundation Trust, which includes:
NIHR Applied Research Collaboration (ARC) Wessex
NIHR Southampton Biomedical Research Centre
NIHR Southampton Clinical Research Facility
Institute of Applied Health Sciences, University of Aberdeen
Keele University
Midlands Innovation Health
Midlands Partnership NHS Foundation Trust
Staffordshire and Stoke on Trent AHP Council
University of Oxford
NIHR Oxford Biomedical Research Centre
NIHR Oxford Health Biomedical Research Centre
NIHR Applied Research Collaboration for Oxford and the Thames Valley
NIHR Oxford Cognitive Health Clinical Research Facility
The Centre for Reviews and Dissemination, University of York
Roche Products Ltd
NIHR University College London Hospitals Biomedical Research Centre
North Central London Research Consortium
James Lind Alliance


Read more in our
news story on the formation of REPAG from October 2020.

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