The next stage of the SSI’s Inclusive RSE project has started, in which we are co-producing engagement methods for building inclusivity initiatives with people from underrepresented groups in RSE. 

We would like to introduce our four research partners who are working on this project:

• Miriam Tenquist is a third year PhD student in Sociology at the University of Manchester. She has worked on a project evaluating Combined Authority Employment Charters across the UK with the Work and Equalities Institute, and she supported the previous stage of the Inclusive RSE project at the SSI.
• Ruth Nanjala is a second year PhD student in Molecular and Cellular Medicine at the University of Oxford. She is currently leading the AfriSoc/AfOx mentorship program aimed at increasing the number of African people pursuing graduate studies at the University of Oxford.
• Pauline Karega is a first year PhD student in Earth and Environment Sciences, and Computer Science at the University of Manchester. She co-leads an initiative to increase awareness of Bioinformatics and Open Science in Kenya.
• Ella Kaye is a Research Software Engineer in the Department of Statistics at the University of Warwick. She works to increase sustainability and EDI (Equality, Diversity and Inclusion) in the R Project. She also runs rainbowR, a community that supports, promotes and connects LGBTQ+ people who code in the R language.

The project will be co-ordinated by Anita Banerji, SSI Research Associate at the University of Manchester, working alongside Caroline Jay, SSI Research Director.

In the first stage of the project, we also worked with Rochelle Meaden (French Studies), Adebimpe Onikan (Medicine), and Amanda Azman (Education Studies), all undergraduates at the University of Manchester, alongside Miriam. They brought with them an understanding of social science research methods, developing inclusivity initiatives and activism. Together, we explored responsible methods for understanding the experiences of people from minoritised groups, which we are now using to inform this next stage.