The Nottingham BBSRC Doctoral Training Partnership recognises and prioritises its responsibility to operate in a way which creates equality of opportunity for all of our applicants and students, supporting the recruitment of a diverse student cohort and running an inclusive programme.
Recruitment:
- we offer an applicant mentoring scheme, AMPlify, to support applicants from black and black mixed backgrounds
- we offer a Guaranteed Interview Scheme for applicants from black and black mixed backgrounds
- we ensure the anonymisation of name, gender, age and previous institution of study in application assessments
- we focus on motivation and potential in our application assessment criteria
- we advertise PhD opportunities as widely as possible, aiming to eliminate jargon from our advertising and showcase diverse role models in our imagery
- we ensure all interview panellists have undertaken unconscious bias training
- we provide questions in advance of interviews for all applicants
- we monitor our EDI data closely, including data on socio-economic background of candidates and caring responsibilities
Within the Studentship:
- we include equality, diversity and inclusion focussed training in our programme, for students and supervisors
- we listen to our students' feedback and involve them in the governance of the programme through a Student Forum
- there is a dedicated Welfare & EDI Officer working in the DTP team
- enhanced stipends are available for any care-experienced individuals and young carers who join the programme
Student Events and Networks:
Funded by BBSRC, Nottingham BBSRC DTP and SWBio DTP ran a series of national student networks to support students from a range of backgrounds:
- Ethnic Minorities student network
- LGBTQIA+ student network
- Neurodiversity student network
The processes that support the training programme are designed with inclusivity and flexibility in mind. Feedback is also reviewed to drive continuous improvement.