As the UK’s national academy of sciences, we are always guided by the data. We produce data and research to evidence our DEI programme and provide insights on the impact of our work.
In 2021, we commissioned research reports that demonstrated disparities in academic career progression of researchers from Black and minority ethnic backgrounds and that they were under-represented in the pool of applicants to the Society’s research Fellowships. As a result of this research, we introduced new Career Development Fellowship (CDFs), a four-year, postdoctoral research fellowship that aimed to support the retention in STEM of researchers from Black or Mixed Black African, Black Caribbean or other Black heritage backgrounds.
In 2025, we commissioned the Careers Research and Advisory Centre (CRAC) to produce an updated report benchmarking the diversity profiles of applicants to two of our Early Career Fellowship Schemes (the University Research Fellowships and the Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowships) against the updated demographic profiles of scientists who would be eligible to apply for these schemes (‘the eligible pool’). The findings are continuing to inform the ongoing development of the Royal Society’s Grants and D&I schemes to broaden the participation of talented individuals of diverse backgrounds in our schemes - and UK academia more widely.
- The updated 2025 benchmarking exercise showed that applicants to these two schemes continued to not be fully representative of the diversity of eligible applicants in the UK, although there were some signs of progress.
- Female researchers continued to be underrepresented amongst all applicants to the University Research Fellowship (URF) scheme (27% of applicants overall compared to 42% of the eligible pool) but were overrepresented in applications to the Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowships (DHF) scheme (75% compared to the pool of 42%). This may be due to the reputation of this scheme to offer flexibility.
- Researchers of UK nationality from an ethnic minority background continued to be underrepresented amongst both URF and DHF applicants, although the proportion has risen since the last report, as it also had in the eligible pool. Black postdoctoral researchers, in particular, comprised a very small number of applicants to the URF scheme (1%) from a continued very small eligible pool (under 2% of UK nationals, and 3% of all nationalities).
- Disabled researchers were under-represented amongst applicants to the URF scheme (4% compared to 6% of the eligible pool) but over-represented in applicants to the DHF scheme (13%). The overall number of disabled applicants remained very small, which made trends hard to discern. The number of applicants ‘preferring not to say’ was as high as those declaring a disability.