Diversity in Research Podcast

This episode is inspirational and aspirational as we continue exploring what we learned at the EARMA Conference 2023. Right before the conference, EARMA elected Dipti Pandya, chair-elect of EARMA as the first woman of colour. So we had a chat with her and Rosie Madnick, the past president of NCURA, and the first black woman to chair that organisation, about the role of representation. Rosie gave D...

We had the pleasure of participating in the EARMA Annual Conference in Prague. We hosted our own panel, Jakob was part of a discussion table - and we listened to presentations, looked at the posters and had lots of discussions and fun. In this episode, we follow up on the conference by reflecting on the role of diversity and internationalisation at the conference generally and in specific sessions...

In this episode we talk to Clemens Striebing about the book that he co-edited called "Diversity and Discrimination in Research Organizations" (link below). We talked about the difference between discimination and diversity, and why that matters, because often we actually talk about anti-discrimination initiatives when we talk about diversity, and that is making the discussion unclear. We...

We don't want to admit it, but it's been a few years since we were research advisors. Not that we're old - not at all, but it's been a while since we worked with funding databases to identify research funding for researchers. So imagine us getting an introduction to Streamlyne's software FundFit. We found it really interesting and wanted a chat about what it can and can&ap...

It’s absolutely bonkers we don’t talk more about Nigerian research policy!  Have you ever said that to yourself or your colleagues? No! Well, you should.  Nigeria is Africa’s largest economy and the country with the largest population on the continent as well. And in 2050 it will have the 3rd largest population in the world. So an important country that will only grow in importance.  We were sligh...

Admittedly we sometimes live in a bubble where all things diversity and internationalisation are incredibly interesting and incredibly important. And they are. But how about the research managers and administrators who support researchers in writing grant proposals?  We needed a snap back to reality, and who better to help us with that than Niels Tudor-Vinther. Niels was work with European researc...

We're back with the first episode of season six (can you believe it!). We kick off with a conversation with Julius Wesche about science communication and particularly social media. For science communication to work you need attention - but not all researchers with a minority background like the attention as it can draw focus on their personal characteristics etc. and steer the communication i...

When we learned earlier this year about Kevin Guyan's book "Queer Data: Using Gender, Sex and Sexuality Data for Action" we knew we had to have him on the podcast.  We talk about what queer data is and what the queering of data is. The latter probably being less familiar to the listeners.  And we talk about the pros and cons of queer data. Why it can actually be problematic for the...

In this episode, we take the opportunity to examine the recent European Commission report "Approaches to inclusive gender equality in research and innovation". In a change of approach, instead of inviting the authors to talk to us, we did our own analysis of the report and chatted about what universities can do after reading the report. We liked the direction of travel outlined in the re...

In the episode, we talk to Stephane Berghmans, Director of Research and Innovation at the European University Association.   Stephane was in the room as the "Agreement on Reform of Research Assessment" was written, and we expect him to play a key role in the implementation as well.    We talked about how the agreement came about, why it is important - and of course, what happened to dive...

Science diplomacy is a great concept, and one of the things that inspired us to move into this work. Actually Jakob thought about writing a PhD on the topic for a while. But one thing is talking about the concept - another to put it into action in a time of war as we see now with the war in Ukraine. So we invited professor Rasmus Gjedssø Bertelsen from the Arctic University in Norway (UiT) for a c...

In this episode, we talk to Uzma Sulaiman, associate director of Community Jameel, an independent, global organisation.  The opportunity to chat with Community Jameel grabbed our attention as we rarely get to talk to a research funder from the Global South, specifically one targeting societal challenges in the Global South with Global South academic leads. We had a great conversation about their w...

There is no doubt that there are many immediate consequences for women in the US when it comes to the overturn of Roe vs Wade. It almost doesn't bare thinking. But we all should, and Katie Rose Guest Pryal caught our attention with an article in The Chronicle called: "Abortion is a Higher-Ed Issue " (link below). Katie is an Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of North Caroli...

We saw the leak, but still. It couldn't happen. But it did. In June the US Supreme Court overturned Roe vs Wade, the verdict that in 1973 ensured women's right to abortion on a federal level in the US. In a controversial concurring opinion Justice Thomas basically promised to overturn the right to gay marriage, gay sex and contraception as well if the right cases were presented. So we de...

In this episode, we talk to Erika Valenti from Emerald Publishing and Ashley Richard from the University of Manitoba about the Emerald-led initiatives "First voices First" and "The Power of Diverse Voices". They focus on giving voice to indigenous people on their own terms and expanding the notion of what we consider research, with a focus on North America. Ashley also tells us...

In this chat we talk to Daniel Spichtinger from Austria on the topic of open science, why the EU Commission felt a need to develop a strategy for international research collaboration,  what happened to "open to the world, how to understand " and what is "open strategic autonomy". We discuss the role of science diplomacy in an increasingly complex international world, and of cou...

On the one side, social media is increasingly considered a part of societal and research impact in academia and it is a chance for us all to get in contact with like-minded people we would otherwise never interact with. On the other side, we know that minority groups are increasingly targets of harassment and attacks on social media and that there are risks to using social media metrics as a measu...

Northumbria University is currently working through the process to achieve the Race Equality Charter (https://www.advance-he.ac.uk/equality-charters/race-equality-charter). We talk to Professor Tom Lawson, Deputy Vice-Chancellor and historian about the approach Northumbria is taking, why achieving the charter is important to them and how it fits into the bigger diversity and inclusion picture. We...

Oh, to be in the mind of a research funder! How do they think? How do they work? What is that secret to get that grant? The secret of course is that there is no secret, but in this episode we can share with you a little about what global public research funders think about equality, diversity and inclusion in research. We talk to Roshni Abedin (UK) and Ana Maria Fonseca de Almeida (Brazil). They a...

The lyrics from a famous Danish aid song from the 1980s at some point says "Africa, the country that every child knows". And unfortunately, that still sums it up today. Even though we know it is a continent and not a country, we too often think about it as one - to the extent, we think that much about Africa in the context of research at all (South Africa being the exception). So we deci...

Representation matters - and in this episode Dr. Laura Heath-Stout explains why. Laura is an archaeologist, she's queer and she has a disability. We talk about how archaeological findings risk being misinterpreted, the challenge on being queer in an international setting such as an archaeological dig. But this is not just a topic for archaeology or the humanities - this is for everybody, so w...

Happy Research Administrators Day! To celebrate Research Administrators Day we decided it was time to learn more about how research management and administration looks like from a Global South perspective. So we had a chat with Therina Theron and Savita Ayyar. Therina is the president of SARIMA ( Southern African Research and Innovation Management Association) and Senior Director of R&I at Ste...

Most watched in disbelief as Taliban regained the power in Afghanistan. Many Afghans escaped but most stayed behind trying to keep society going and maintaining as positive a future as possible for Afghanistan.  One of them is Obaidullah Baheer, lecturer at the American University in Kabul. We had the opportunity to talk to him about the situation in Afghanistan and how we can best support him and...

You just have to admire the five people behind "The Lost Voices".  We had the fortune of talking to them about the campaign. They started as a group of London based postdocs with diverse backgrounds who found it difficult to navigate academia and couldn't imagine having a career in research. That made them initiate "The Lost Voices" where they told their stories of race, r...

This has been a long time coming.  But luckily we found Gowri Gopalakrishna and Krishma Labib from Amsterdam UMC , and they we're more than happy to be part of this conversation of the role of diversity in research integrity. They told us about their own research on research integrity (fx the Netherlands Research Integrity Survey and the diversity of the 7th World Conference on Research Integ...