"We had over 30 submissions and the judging panel had an especially difficult job awarding funds with so many strong cases this year. It is fantastic to see the energy and commitment that the EDI Seed Fund helps to deliver, and I am grateful to everyone who took the time to apply." Stephen Curry, Assistant Provost (EDI)

Disability

Hearing impairments and the D/deaf community

Dr Felicitas Starr-Egger, Nikiaisha Thompson, and Dr Michael Weatherburn (Centre for Languages, Culture and Communication) will facilitate a programme of activities to raise awareness of hearing impairments and the D/deaf Community across the College.

Shining a spotlight on the inclusion of disabled participants in clinical trials

Marie Miller, Meena Reddi, and Lee Webber (Imperial Clinical Trials Unit) will review the inclusion and exclusion criteria for clinical trials, and create a framework to increase inclusion of people with disabilities and thereby make trials more robust.

 

Ethnicity and race

Black people of Imperial

Wunmi Olatidoye, President of the African Caribbean Society, will lead a media campaign to increase awareness of local Black creatives in London and demystify impressions and preconceptions of Imperial for prospective Black students.

Bringing lived experience into undergraduate medicine: a focus on excluded groups

Dr Richard Pinder, Dr Florence Mutlow, and Dr Hannah Wright (School of Public Health) will produce six short videos for use in UG teaching in collaboration with people with lived experience of health inequity and poverty in London and local communities.

Invisible warrior: race and health equity

Dr Christina Crossette-Thambiah and Dr Linda van Keimpema (Department of Immunology and Inflammation) will lead workshops to increase awareness of the complexities of race-specific diseases and shine a light on the invisible disabilities many people face.

 

Gender

Academic Women Association (AWA): a new network at Imperial College

Dr Ilaria Belluomo, Dr Nina Moderau, Professor Charlotte Bevan, and Mr Christopher Peters (Department of Surgery and Cancer) will be forming a new network in the Faculty of Medicine, with a series of events to bring together women working across different academic career levels.

STEM Mentoring: career choices and tips from inspiring women in science

Dr Stefano Sandrone (Department of Brain Sciences) will launch a new website, interviewing 10 female scientists from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds who will tell their own stories, alongside tips on careers, mentoring and role modelling.

 

LGBTQ+

Being OUT in the field: challenges of fieldwork for LGBTQ+ scientists

Christina Atchison (School of Public Health) will research the experiences of Imperial LGBTQ+ staff and students when travelling overseas for research or fieldwork, and develop strategies that promote safety and inclusion.

LGBTQ+ liberation network

Calyste Revel and Charlotte Hope will facilitate weekly museum tours showcasing significant artwork related to LGBTQ+ history and culture during LGBTQ+ History Month, reflecting the theme this year of ‘Politics in Art’.

Out Loud: Voices of Imperial's LGBTQ+ community

Corrine Tomsett and Maeve O’Sullivan will spotlight ten staff and postgraduate students at Imperial, sharing their stories and increasing the visibility of our LGBTQ+ community.

Queer STEM in South Ken!

Julia Stawarz, William Proud, Yasmin Andrew, and Vinita Khanna (Department of Physics) will run a new summer school for LGBTQ+ sixth-form students who are interested in physics and related fields.

 

Mental health

Mental health awareness explainer videos at Mechanical Engineering

Dr Antonis Sergis and Sophia Quazi (Department of Mechanical Engineering) will develop short video clips about frequently encountered mental health topics.

 

Student recruitment and outreach

Confront educational inequality mentoring program

Marieke Hoekstra and Natalie Ness (Department of Brain Sciences) will continue their partnership with a London school to provide STEMM mentoring to help students improve their chances when applying to university.

EDI communications guide for marketing, recruitment and admissions

Sarah Hetherington, Olivia Beer, and Emily Beales (Business School) will develop a specific EDI guide, featuring content on gender-neutral language/pronouns, terminology around ethnicity, and accessibility.

Offer holder caller campaign

Lizzie Burrows and Andrew Tebbutt (Departments of Marketing, Recruitment and Admissions, and Outreach) will give UG offer holders an opportunity to speak with a current student from the student ambassador scheme.

This year saw another round of very strong applications, covering the full range of EDI issues. We had 23 applications in total, requesting funding that was four times the original budget. The following projects were successful in receiving funding.

Black People of Imperial

The student African Caribbean Society, led by its President Beverly Okuneye, are continuing their campaign to showcase the Black People of Imperial, with artists using different styles and interpretations to paint Black Imperial students and staff, captioned with their narratives of their experiences. This project continues their work interrupted by COVID-19 last year.

Diverse Voices

Manjula Silva (Teaching Fellow, Department of Materials), Sarah Essilfie-Quaye (Project Manager in Research Strategy, Faculty of Medicine), Desmond Samuel (Head of Digital Communication Services, Faculty of Medicine), and others will work with artists to organise six poetry workshops on EDI related issues, enabling people to share experiences and start conversations. 

ImperialAction

Grace Fisher (Working Class Officer, Imperial College Union) will start a new campaign to support working class students at Imperial, and undertake outreach activity to prospective students from low socio-economic backgrounds.

Inclusive work experience: improving communications for people living with impairments

Fola Afolabi (Graduate Management Trainee, School of Public Health), will partner with Muna Ali (Employment Service Manager, Action on Disability) to run a pilot, providing two-week long work experience opportunities for young people living with impairments who are not in education, employment, or training. The placement students will be mentored by a Comms & Public Affairs staff member and shadow scientists across the College.

Intersectional (Career) Outcomes: EDI Programmes and Placement Strategies

Joel McConnell (Executive Director, Marketing Recruitment and Admissions, Business School), Lisa Umenyiora (Executive Director, Careers, Business School) will run a speaker series featuring executive-level EDI experts on what their organisations are doing to remove the barriers to career advancement for their employees, with a particular focus on intersecting identities. 

Latin America Visible at Imperial

Judith Cherni (Research Fellow, Centre for Environmental Policy) will deliver a participative workshop discussing and raising awareness of the often invisible Latin American community in academia.

Neurodiversity in Albertopolis, a staff and student network

Sara Rankin (Professor, NHLI), Emma Slater (Public Engagement Producer, Office of the Provost), and colleagues from other local institutions are developing a new network for neurodiverse staff and students at institutions around Exhibition Road, with a new website and workshop activity.

Novel tools for promoting EDI in the post-graduate research community

Kevin Murphy (Professor, Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction), Laki Buluwela (Professor, Department of Surgery and Cancer), and Nousheen Tariq (Postgraduate Education Manager, Faculty of Medicine Education Office) will use Quizlet, an online teaching application, to help enable discussions around EDI at informal cafes for PhD students.

Speaking authentically’: A short film and online gallery of students’ stories of authenticity

Zoe Moula (Teaching Fellow, School of Public Health), and Fola Afolabi (Graduate Management Trainee, School of Public Health) will interview BAME medical students on the topic of authenticity, to create an online video to share their stories. 

The role of perception and representation in fostering an interest in secondary school students

The Faculty of Natural Sciences EDI Coordinator will run a research project investigating the perceptions of secondary school students of male, female, Black and White scientists, using Imperial students and staff to deliver workshops in the classroom. 

TikTokScience@Imperial

Joanna Jackson (Advanced Research Fellow, Department of Brain Sciences) will produce short TikTok videos to explain basic science concepts to secondary school pupils, featuring diverse Imperial scientists as role models. 

Understanding routes to improving engagement with climate change and environmental issues by diverse groups of people

Alyssa Gilbert (Director of Policy and Translation, Grantham Institute), Simon Levey (Communications Manager, Grantham Institute), and Morena Mills (Reader, Centre for Environmental Policy) will run a research project exploring how best to engage diverse groups with climate change and environmental issues, which will shape the Grantham Institute’s new EDI objectives. 

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The following projects were funded through the College's Strategic Priorities Fund.

Addressing accessibility issues in ESE and the RSM through focus groups

The Department of Earth Science and Engineering will run focus groups to explore and clarify accessibility issues, which will inform disability awareness workshops and local actions.

African Caribbean Society Outreach Programme

Temilola Olapade-Ayomidele and Olawunmi Olatidoye from the student African Caribbean Society will deliver an outreach programme to encourage Black students to consider STEM degrees by delivering presentations in schools on the application process and their experience of being Black at Imperial.

Let’s Talk About Race @ Imperial

Sarah Essilfie-Quaye (Project Manager in Research Strategy, Faculty of Medicine) and Margaret Lawrence (Engagement Officer, Enterprise) will put together a a pilot programme helping senior leaders from the Faculty of Medicine to have open and honest conversations about race in the workplace.

Shifting the lens - a celebration of cultural diversity

Christopher Bamikole (Laboratory Manager & Section Safety Coordinator, Department of Metabolism, Digestion and Reproduction), Aleisha Miller (Clinical Project Manager, Department of Brain Sciences), Martha Salhotra (Internal Communications Officer, Communications and Public Affairs), and Grace Adeyemi (Recruitment Advisor, HR) will run a second digital campaign showcasing profiles of staff and students from Imperial’s vibrant community.

Spot a Sikh Researcher

Gurpreet Singh (Research Associate, Department of Materials) will create an awareness raising video about Sikh researchers working in the sciences across the UK.

Training Programme: Black, Asian and Ethnic Minority mental health: How to support people from BAME communities

Angela Williams (Learning and Development Officer, Estates Operations) will deliver mental health awareness training workshops that focuses on how to support students and staff from BAME communities.

The inaugural round of the EDI Seed Fund saw 21 applications received, requesting funds totalling more than four times the value of the £10,000 Seed Fund. 

The assessment panel endeavoured to allocate the Seed Fund as equitably as possible. In a few cases, the panel was able to identify alternative sources of funding for projects that could not be supported from the Seed Fund. 

Successful applications were due to be completed by the end of July 2020, however due to COVID-19 most projects were disrupted.

The following applications for the inaugural 2019-20 Seed Fund were successful:

Creative Futures

Dr Sunday Popo-Ola and Professor Sara Rankin will run workshops for school students who are under-represented at Imperial.

VisualiseU@Imperial

Dr Wayne Mitchell will take a group of Imperial students to the Reach Society Careers Conferences, which targets black students wishing to go to university.

The African-Caribbean Society Outreach Programme

Mr Kitan Oyeleke and the Society will expand their mentoring programme for under-privileged, high-achieving black students from local schools.

Shifting the Lens, MixedRaceFaces, and Black People of Imperial

These three projects will work on diversifying the physical and digital portraiture at Imperial. You can explore the output of these projects online: Shifting the Lens series, MixedRaceFaces, and Black People of Imperial Instagram account.

We Imperial

Ms Deborah Adegoke, Ms Amna Ahmed, and Mr Amr Alwishah, will run a series of discussion events, brining together underrepresented students to talk about their experiences and to generate ideas on how to improve the multicultural environment in the College.

Men, gender equality and inclusivity in the workplace

Ms Francesca Siracusa will run a workshop that aims to tackle gender inequality in the workplace by empowering men as advocates.