UK Research and Innovation: Ethnic Minorities

Baroness Royall of Blaisdon Excerpts

Monday 15th December 2025 Lords Chamber

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I think the noble Lord may be referring to the scheme run by the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, which is one of the world’s greatest research institutions, with 12 Nobel Prizes to its name. It has rightly taken two posts out of 128 specifically to increase black representation among scientists. This is very similar to what happened in 1995, when the Dorothy Hodgkin fellowships made positions for women more easily accessible; that led to a huge number of very successful women scientists emerging as a result of that. In terms of the research excellence framework, there is an increased weighting for research outputs, which I believe to be correct. There is, however, a significant weighting on strategy, people and research environment. A culture where bullying is tolerated, challenge is suppressed and diversity is not embraced is not conducive to great science.

[Baroness Royall of Blaisdon (Lab)]

My Lords, does my noble friend the Minister agree with the multiple analyses of major funders, including UKRI and the US National Science Foundation, which have consistently found that white applicants have higher grant awards than ethnic minority researchers? Indeed, in 2020-21, UKRI PI awardees were 81% white and 1% black. The major reason, I suggest, is that black, Asian and other minority ethnicities are underrepresented in academia; we have just 160 black professors, of whom only a quarter are women. Does the Minister agree that efforts to address these stark inequalities should be welcomed rather than criticised?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

Just to add to the starkness of those numbers, it is 160 black professors out of 22,885 professors overall. These are stark figures, and we need to do things to make sure that we get opportunity right. Yes, the figures are also stark for grants. It is interesting that the analysis of schemes that have been put in place already shows that, as a result of those schemes, not only does confidence increase for black scientists but the preparedness and quality of their applications also increase.