Supergen Cross Hub Report: Impact of COVID-19 on Equality, Diversity & Inclusion and Research

Supergen Bioenergy Hub, Supergen Energy Networks, Supergen Energy Storage, Supergen SuperSolar, Supergen Offshore Renewable Energy, H2FC Supergen

In the second half of 2020, the EDI Champions from several Supergen investments collaborated on a survey of members, to better understand the impact of the COVID pandemic on our research community. The questions were designed to elicit a better understanding of our community’s view of best practice for inclusive events, for diversity in applications to Supergen funds, and in supporting researchers through a global pandemic. Since March 2020, areas of the United Kingdom experienced lockdown to different extents and over different time periods. We therefore asked respondents, for questions about the impact of the pandemic, to reflect on the period since mid-March 2020. The survey was issued in the autumn of 2020 and responses were received during October and November of that year. It comprised an online form, promoted to Supergen members through emails from the respective Supergen headquarters. The survey was designed with a mixture of likert-scale and closed (yes/no) questions, along with free text boxes for more open-ended responses. There were five sections to the survey. Section 1 asked questions about the respondent’s protected characteristics and employment status. Section 2 asked about caring responsibilities. Section 3 asked about events. Section 4 asked about funding schemes. Section 5 asked about the impact of the COVID pandemic. The results are presented in the sections which follow.