D&I Working Group

We have a responsibility to recruit diverse populations to our research. However, people who are recruited into clinical trials are not always representative of the wider population. For example, a clinical trial that recruits mostly white-British people will not match the ethnicity of the general population. The EDI working group’s mission is to better understand the barriers to more inclusive clinical trials and to take action to improve diversity within our research.
Ethnicity is not the only measure of diversity. Barriers exist for many different groups. We use the term ‘under-served’ to describe communities that deserve better service from health research. Underserved communities can include people with different sexes and genders, people with disabilities, older and younger people (‘age extremes’), people from poorer backgrounds (‘lower socioeconomic status’), or others listed , it is our responsibility to ensure our research is inclusive and accessible.
Reasons for the lack of representation vary. For example, there may be longer term issues of trust between clinical trials researchers and communities, or researchers may not have considered the best ways to make their research inclusive. We are addressing those issues in a number of ways. We have developed training and resources for staff and have a working group which supports the development of EDI strategy and infrastructure. We also work closely with the PPIE working group, to better understand how we can work with communities to facilitate both involvement and participation in research.