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Responsibilities of the research team leader

Read about the responsibilities of the research team leader.

Lead by example

  • Seek out and engage with learning opportunities to improve your understanding of EDIW
  • Raise your awareness of race and privilege
  • Learn about institutional gaslighting
  • Increase your awareness of ongoing barriers faced as a result of demographic characteristics such as gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, family. background, caring responsibilities, disabilities, culture, religion, age, neurodiversity, mental wellbeing
  • Be aware of how you respond to someone who has a different background and demographic characteristics to yourself
  • Continuously reflect on your own practices
  • Acknowledge mistakes and biases
  • Become an ally to members of historically marginalised communities
  • Learn how to be an active bystander
  • Be prepared to be challenged
  • Develop active listening skills
  • Raise your awareness of mental health issues and sources of support
  • Understand the importance of the language you use and your behaviours
  • Be aware of power imbalances
  • Understand and be aware of cultural and religious holidays and practices
  • Continually raise yours and the recruitment team's awareness of the role bias can play in all aspects of recruitment
  • Develop inclusive recruitment practices from application to appointment and induction
  • Be equitable and understand the role of unconscious biases in supporting, mentoring, praising and promoting all team members.
  • Develop inclusive supervision practices
  • Understand inclusive research design
  • Share good practice with colleagues and collaborators.

Networking and conferences

  • Reflect on the diversity of your collaborators and network
  • Understand how you meet and form collaborations
  • Work to diversify your network
  • Understand the barriers others face to networking
  • Understand the barriers to attending conferences
  • Learn how to create inclusive conferences.

Creating an inclusive culture

  • Create a code of conduct with shared values
  • Be prepared to challenge
  • Encourage allyship
  • Create a culture where differences are valued
  • Create a sense of belonging for all
  • Listen to an act on reports of bullying and harassment
  • Create and petition for an inclusive environment where everyone has a sense of belonging and reasonable adjustments are the exception e.g., quiet rooms; accessibility software of equipment; accessible equipment and work spaces; prayer rooms; lifts; gender-neutral toilets and washrooms; accessible notebooks; data sharing and presentations; inclusive and accessible meetings; consider the diversity of needs before choosing booking conferences; travel arrangements; food; consider needs and cultural preferences to ensure social events are inclusive and accessible

Inclusive research design

Every aspect of the research pipeline is at risk of bias and offers opportunities for increasing diversity and inclusivity.

  • Project background and hypothesis e.g. bias in sources of supporting literature
  • Plan e.g., awareness of impact on participants and their families, local populations, environment, impact on research team and/or support staff such as placements field trips, travel
  • Data acquisition eg, bias in cell lines, omics databases, human or animal subjects, source of plant or environmental samples
  • Sharing of data eg, accessibility by researchers in low and middle-income countries
  • Impact eg, limited local impact or global
  • Communicating results eg, accessibility, inclusiveness of materials on a website
  • Public engagement eg, increase the diversity of the cohorts, review accessibility (venue, resources, food and drink) inclusiveness including language and imagery
  • Output dissemination eg, authorship recognise all contributions including technical support.

Team leader checklist

  • Do you lead by example when it comes to EDIW? 
  • Do you understand the barriers faced by individuals as a consequence of their race, age, gender, sexuality, caring responsibilities, disability, mental well-being, culture, ethnicity, and socioeconomic background? 
  • Do you know how to create an inclusive research environment? 
  • Do you reflect on your own biases and how they impact your opinions of others? 
  • Do you support everyone in your team? 
  • Do you listen and act on concerns raised by your team members? 
  • Are you an ally? 
  • Do you share inclusive practices with your colleagues? 
  • Do you support investment in inclusive infrastructure eg, quiet rooms, prayer rooms, accessible software, accessibility in the laboratories? 
  • Do you support attendance at conferences for all eg choose conferences that are inclusive, in countries that do not discriminate against LGBTQ+ individuals? 
  • Do you consider EDIW in your research design? 
  • Are your outreach activities accessible to all? 
  • Is the membership of your patient or others diverse? 
  • Are your collaborators from diverse backgrounds? 
  • Do you make an effort to seek out collaborators from diverse backgrounds? 
  • Do you support your research with publications from non-colonial countries? 
  • Do you regularly attend EDIW workshops, training, and seminars?