UKRI response to Black female academics on funding decisions called inadequate

Black female academics and activists who sent an open letter to UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) over a year ago, voicing concerns over unfairness in the agency’s funding decisions say the agency’s response offers nothing new.

‘I consider it to be inadequate – they’ve had an entire year to compose the response, and there’s no new insight in it,’ says Ruby Zelzer, one of the authors of the letter. ‘UKRI has acknowledged that there is persistent systemic racial inequality, but what they’re doing towards actually fixing it is a different question altogether.’