EPSRC University Doctoral Landscape Awards 2025 - 2027 - Assurance Questions

What the assessors are looking for in your response:

You should describe how your overall equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) strategy will enable the wide participation of doctoral candidates and staff across a range of characteristics and backgrounds, and what support systems will be in place to accommodate a diversity of needs. You should demonstrate how you will embed evidence-based EDI values and practices at all levels and in all aspects of research and training practice across the lifetime of the award.

Explain how you will use your university doctoral landscape award to:

• create and maintain a positive, inclusive, and supportive environment for all students and staff, addressing a diversity of needs
  • working practices - discuss how you will support students and staff who require a flexible working pattern due to personal circumstances, such as parenting or caring responsibilities, disability or health-related reasons and cultural expectations
• champion and embed equality, diversity, and inclusion across all aspects of the training grant, including recruitment, supervision and flexible student support
  • This includes increasing access to doctoral study – eg: ensuring that the training opportunities support mobility and attract a wide range of applicants from different social, cultural and educational backgrounds, eg: recognising underrepresented gaps and make this process open and transparent
  • detail how you will deliver comprehensive inductions for new supervisors, as well as supporting continuous professional development for established supervisory teams, in line with an inclusive culture of excellent research supervision
  • how you will embed EDI values across the wider supervisory team
• provide evidence for proposed EDI activities, including baseline and subsequent updates across the lifetime of the award including monitoring and evaluation
  • EPSRC will collect data through annual monitoring and expect active monitoring
• deliver good wellbeing and support provision and opportunities for networking and collaborative working for all students.
  • propose a strategy to embed the support and provision of good physical and mental health, and wellbeing practices, for students and their supervisory teams
  • detail how you will promote a positive culture of listening to staff and student feedback, including the transparent management of complaints
• apply a suitable approach to responsible research and innovation, trusted research, environmental sustainability to ensure your Doctoral Landscape Awards’ projects are aligned with those values and create significance for society in an ethical and responsible way EDI will be a core feature of the doctoral landscape award.
  • Your approach to responsible research and innovation, trusted research, research integrity and environmental sustainability to ensure your Doctoral Landscape Awards’ projects are aligned with those values and create significance for society in an ethical and responsible way. Further guidance can be found at EPSRC framework for responsible research and innovation. UKRI trusted research policies and guidance, and Concordat for the Environmental Sustainability of Research and Innovation Practice (wellcome.org)