Strategy

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2022-2027

The Drivers of our EDI Strategy

Our EDI strategy aims to support and deliver on the Joint Moorfields and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology Research and Development Strategy (Joint R&D Strategy) which sets our overall ambition:

“to change lives by preserving sight and driving equity through innovation, particularly for those in greatest need.”

The strategic goals outlined in the Joint R&D Strategy are to:

continue to be at the leading edge of science and research, working with patients and partners to make new discoveries that improve people’s lives.
advance global eye care practice for diverse populations by embedding research and innovation in everything we do – driving equity through innovation.
realise the full potential of our world-class digital infrastructure and clinical, imaging and biological datasets.
empower and support our research staff to be truly world-class in their practice and deliver impactful, sight-saving research.
train and educate the next generation of academic and clinical research leaders to pioneer the future of eye care.

Our Research and Development Strategy sets out the following values:

Access – determine and overcome barriers to access.
Availability – increase availability of eyecare to more people.
Ability – provide the same level of excellence to everybody.
Affability – understand the diverse views and experiences of our staff and patients.

This document sets out how EDI will be basic to the delivery of our research strategy. It focuses on three key aspects of our work which together demonstrate the breadth and depth of what we intend to do to embed EDI and how we will do it.

EDI Strategy

Theme 1: Become a more inclusive recipient of research funding

(increase diversity across the research that is supported by our NIHR funding)

We receive research funding, so having diverse teams applying for grants and succeeding in the delivery of our projects is a central part of our strategy. In this section, we concentrate on how we will collect and monitor diversity data. This will include relevant protected characteristics across the research staff population – which includes technical, admin and support staff, researchers, clinicians and advisory committees. The collection and analysis of reliable data will help us understand whether our processes are equitable and, if they are not, what action should be taken to remedy this.

Aim: To put forward increasingly diverse teams when we apply for grants and to ensure the success of diverse teams.

Action: Record, monitor and assess diversity across the research that we support

BRC Actions

1.1: Collect data on protected characteristics of NIHR faculty and staff.
1.2: Assess diversity in leadership positions and committees.
1.3: Monitor percentage of funding allocated to different groups, beginning with gender and moving on to other protected characteristics.
1.4: Increase support of funding application submissions by under-represented groups.

CRF Actions

1.5: Liaise with HR to asses current EDI data for research delivery staff, and improve scope of this data collection in line with NIHR EDI Data survey recommendations.
1.6: Widen representation of lay members and on public advisory groups.
1.7: Design and implement mechanisms to gather robust EDI data in line with NIHR EDI Data survey recommendations.

Timings: There are gaps in our evidence base, so we need to continually update and assess the EDI data we collect and respond to what it shows. Gathering accurate data specific to the BRC and CRF is key to establishing our starting position and assessing success. Over the first two years of this strategy, we will gather data, implement our monitoring criteria and report findings annually through our corporate structure. This will allow us to identify where there may be issues and take steps to address them. As we develop our monitoring, we will also work out what is the best reference data to measure our progress against.

Responsibility: Improving diversity data and reporting will be the responsibility of both the Equality Challenge Coordinator at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and the EDI Research Associate at the NIHR Moorfields CRF.

Key success criteria:

Reliable diversity data regularly collected from NIHR Moorfields infrastructure (BRC and CRF) staff.
EDI issues identified by the analysis of data and then addressed.
Greater diversity in the membership of research teams and committees.

Theme 2: Widen access and participation for greater diversity and inclusion

(Increase the diversity of those taking part in our patient and public involvement and engagement activity, and those participating in research studies)

The NIHR Moorfields BRC and CRF have together produced a joint strategy on Patient and Public Involvement and Engagement (PPIE). Delivering this strategy is critical to widening access and participation in our research. The principles outlined in this section are aligned with our overall PPIE strategy.

Aim: Improve equality, diversity and representation in our patient and public involvement, engagement and participation.

Action: Train researchers in EDI and improve access to participation in research for underserved communities

BRC Actions

2.1: Train staff in the importance and value of EDI in research and specifically of EDI in PPIE. To engage with other stakeholders and the wider PPIE community in this training and in improving our resources.
2.2: Recruit from more diverse patient populations (e.g via ROAM), and design mechanisms (e.g. the CRF PPI/EDI reporting checklist) to gather and analyse robust EDI data in line with NIHR EDI Data survey so as to measure the EDI impact of outreach activities in our research. Key projects to include: <ol> <li>Assess the effectiveness of our recently launched community diagnostic hub services (for example at Hoxton and Brent Cross shopping centre) in encouraging more equitable access to care and reducing the capacity-demand mismatch.</li> <li>Validate our research models of health prediction in many different ethnic groups.</li> <li>Make use of the diversity of participants (e.g. in UK Biobank).</li> <li>Nurture and develop the PPIE work of our Young Persons’ Advisory Group (Eye-YPAG) to access and interest more young people in vision research.</li> </ol>
2.3: Collaborate in reviewing and updating the national James Lind Alliance-led Priority Setting Partnership for Sight Loss and Vision.

CRF Actions

2.4: Use community hubs to recruit from diverse patient groups and underserved communities.
2.5: Visit community and religious centres to encourage more diverse participation in our research through the Research Opportunities at Moorfields (ROAM) platform.
2.6: Trial and implement the CRF PPI Reporting Checklist which gathers data on and addresses study participant EDI profiles through PPI activity.
2.7: Analyse demographic data of research participants to identify under-served groups and consider how best to redress the cause/s of their under-representation

Timings: Short- and medium-term: outputs from the projects highlighted above (such as assessment of the diagnostic hub model and the roll-out of the CRF PPI Reporting Checklist) will be delivered in 2023/24. We are also doing pilot work with a Participant Advisory Group focusing on inclusion, an immediate objective of which is to improve the diversity of participants for the International Clinical Trials Day. Long-term: our community hubs recruitment and priority setting collaboration will take place in years 4-5. We will increase our recruitment to studies from within the community and aim to develop our ROAM resource further over 3 to 4 years.

Responsibility:

We map our PPIE activities against the National Standards, gathering feedback from participants and researchers (including by our annual survey of PPIE Advisors). This work is co-ordinated by the PPI Lead and reported to the BRC Executive Board and CRF Management Group.

Key success criteria:

An increase in the diversity of PPIE contributors in our research.
An increase in the number of research studies with embedded PPIE.
A change in the characteristics of our wider lay membership to reflect better the diverse patient populations we serve.
An increase in the diversity of research participants.

Theme 3: Improve and invest in the talent pipeline

(support our research and administrative teams across the BRC and CRF)

Investing in our employees is what we (the BRC and CRF) do as part of the NIHR infrastructure to ensure that our workforce is diverse, and this starts with how we recruit into our teams. As employers, we also want our workforce to feel they can genuinely be themselves, partly because feeling comfortable and happy at work is vital if people are to do their best work – and for this we need an inclusive culture. As this section is about our NIHR workforce, the actions are applied to both BRC and CRF awards unless otherwise specified.

Aims:

Improve the diversity of our workforce and build on the EDI aims for our staff across the organisations in our partnership.
Implement the action plan set out by the Athena Swan award including the design and implementation of an anti-bullying and harassment charter and action plan that is essential to fostering a fully inclusive culture.
Attract, train and mentor a new, more diverse generation of world-class research leaders and teams of co-workers in the field of vision and eye health.

Actions:

Recruitment:

3.1: Adhere to best practice guidelines in inclusive recruitment (e.g. Athena Swan) and purposefully attract diverse applicants to every role. including to: <ol> <li>adopt a name-blind PhD application process to mitigate racialised gender bias.</li> <li>target advertising of posts to equity networks, mailing lists such as Higher Education Race Action Group (HERAG), and websites including Black British Academics.</li> <li>broaden fair recruitment training with guidance on shortlisting, interviewing etc.</li> </ol>
3.2: Continue to analyse diversity recruitment data to see if all groups have an equal chance of success and develop action plans if the analysis shows this is not the case.

Outreach:

3.3: Support the EDI related activities of non-profit organisations such as Women in Vision UK.
3.4: Increase the number and diversity of people who want to consider a career in eye health. Our new diagnostic hub model is introducing people from the community to new jobs in eye care (e.g. technicians). As we share the findings from this innovative project and roll it out further, we expect to engage with more people from more diverse backgrounds in this conversation.
3.5: Continue to connect with a wider range of people, for example, through festivals such as the annual Bloomsbury art/science festival, and through our work with community groups/hubs and religious centres.

Accreditation:

3.6: The UCL Institute of Ophthalmology (IoO) received an Athena Swan Silver award in 2021 and this status lasts 5 years. It involves a mid-term review and a full accreditation during the period of this EDI Strategy. Our intention is to deliver on the existing plan and to achieve at least Silver accreditation in 2026.
3.7: For staff employed by Moorfields Eye Hospital and therefore under NHS terms and conditions, monitoring will take place under the Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES) and the Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES). Both Moorfields Eye Hospital and the IoO will ensure that the recommendations from their own annual reviews are incorporated into their individual EDI plans.

Staff Surveys :

3.8: The BRC and CRF will issue their own EDI staff surveys (incorporating the NIHR Diversity Questions) and run focus groups aimed at, for example, learning more about the experiences of fairness, opportunity, and bias amongst CRF staff. These initiatives will establish baseline metrics and iteratively identify key areas for improvement.
3.9: Both the BRC and CRF will aim, over time, to contribute to high scores in inclusion in the Research and Development section of Moorfields Eye Hospital staff engagement survey.
3.10: Both the BRC and CRF staff will enhance training in EDI and inclusive leadership, recognising that this will be critical to improving EDI measures.

Development and communications:

3.11: The BRC and CRF will identify our highest calibre researchers and support them, (for example, through our Academic Career Development mentorship scheme) to reach their full potential as future research leaders. The equality impact of these schemes will be analysed through the EDI data profile of the mentorship programme and a participant survey analysis incorporating the NIHR diversity question set.
3.12: By implementing appropriate support structures, such as mentoring, we will increase both the number and the diversity of researchers making successful applications to the NIHR Senior Investigator, Professorial and Fellowship schemes. This support will also help increase the diversity of researchers with active representation on funding panels, committees and in advocacy roles.
3.13: We will promote development opportunities to all staff to further their careers including encouraging staff to attend management training and join mentoring schemes run by Moorfields Eye Hospital and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology.
3.14: We will ensure every member of staff understands and delivers on our commitment to EDI; all staff will have to do at least one online annual training course. We will continue to develop the training offered on EDI in line with best practice.
3.15: We will encourage staff from under-represented groups to join Staff Networks run by Moorfields Eye Hospital and UCL Institute of Ophthalmology.
3.16: We will continue to prioritise the conversation about bullying and harassment through the Institute of Ophthalmology’s FullStop team, which actively works to reduce these behaviours, to improve reporting of them and to support those affected by them. We will do this by involving the most senior researchers in a new initiative to raise awareness of these issues at all levels, and by actively highlighting their harmful impact using anonymised personal testimonies. This approach is in line with the NIHR Policy on Preventing Harm in Research.
3.17: We will issue a regular EDI communication of the NIHR Moorfields infrastructure staff and researchers.

Timings: Delivery of EDI training to our staff is a short-term goal and this will be expected to continue with new recruits. The Athena Swan action plan states that action will be taken in 2023/24 to ensure the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology adopts best practice in inclusive recruitment. The next Athena Swan accreditation will take place in 2025. Staff engagement surveys are issued annually; the monitoring of Workforce Race Equality Standard (WRES) and Workforce Disability Equality Standard (WDES) also takes place at a national level.

Responsibility: Day-to-day responsibility for taking this theme forward will lie with both the Equality Challenge Coordinator at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and the EDI Research Associate at the NIHR Moorfields CRF.

Key success criteria: The BRC and CRF will become more inclusive over time, with a greater diversity of role models at all levelsof the workforce. This will be measured through success in accreditations such as Athena Swan, positive scores in engagement surveys and reflected through diversity monitoring.

Theme 4: Evidence-led approaches to diversity and inclusion

(basing our approach to EDI on clear evidence from diversity data we continually gather across our research activity)

In this theme, we highlight the work we want to do to improve access to and availability of eyecare and to reduce any variations where they exist. We have addressed improved data collection mechanisms throughout this strategy and have set out in detail elsewhere what we are doing as an employer, so we have interpreted this theme to focus on our research impact. This is the heart of what we do.

We helped lead the Public Health England ‘Atlas of variation in risk factors and healthcare for vision in England’, which reports considerable inequalities in the availability and delivery of eye healthcare services and outcomes across the UK. Specific ethnic groups were shown to have a much higher risk of vision loss, often due to non-availability of diagnosis and/or treatment. We have specific objectives to address these issues.

Aim: To achieve equity through innovation, particularly for those with the greatest need.

Action: deliver on research objectives in the BRC and CRF application that will specifically aim to address variations in healthcare.

BRC actions:

4.1: Make a major impact on common and rare blinding disorders, to reduce large disparities in life opportunities.
4.2: Develop novel ways to detect and predict individuals who are at risk of losing vision and start preventive measures earlier.
4.3: Discover new information about what causes eye diseases and how best to prevent, minimise or treat them. When tailored to individuals, this can improve equity of opportunity.
4.4: Continue to research and discover molecular, cellular and tissue functions in the eye including in blood vessel, inflammatory and nerve processes that will lead to better diagnosis and treatment for people.
4.5: Build on previous successes in developing new and improved types of regenerative treatments that can be made available nationally and internationally.

CRF actions:

The CRF has over 50 early-phase and experimental medicine studies planned for the Moorfields CRF from 2022-2027. These focus on research areas prioritised by the NIHR James Lind Alliance Sight Loss and Vision Priority Setting exercise which involved 2,220 participants including patients and clinicians (and gathered 4,461 answers to questions). These include common chronic conditions such as:

4.6: Age-related macular degeneration: There are 500,000 people with this condition in the UK and 71,000 new cases every year. Currently, there are no treatments for dry macular degeneration which accounts for 90% of cases.
4.7: Glaucoma: Primary open angle glaucoma (POAG) affects about 2% of people in the UK aged over 40 years.
4.8: Diabetic eye disease: about 30% of the almost 400 million people with diabetes globally, also have some form of diabetic retinopathy, 10% of this is sight-threatening.
4.9: Rare conditions that currently have no (or limited) treatments such as optic nerve disorders, degenerative myopia and inherited retinal disorders.

Timings: This is a 5-year strategy which will be updated in 2026.

Responsibility: The actions in this theme will be the responsibility of the Theme Leads and Principal Investigators leading the individual research projects. Progress of these actions will be monitored through the governance structures of the BRC and CRF (Theme Management Groups, CRF Management Group, BRC Executive Board).

Key success criteria: How research projects impact on treatment, access and availability. Progress will be assessed each year with the submission of our NIHR Annual Report. This is assessed by NIHR who provide a RAG (Red, Amber, Green) rating.

Theme 5: Collaborate with partners for impact and sustainability

(to strengthen our role within our local, national and international networks, in achieving relevant, effective research outcomes and being influential advocates for EDI).

The BRC and CRF are part of a wide local, national and international network. Our partners specific to this strategy are:

Moorfields Eye Hospital NHS Foundation Trust
UCL Institute of Ophthalmology
University of Bristol
International Centre for Eye Health, London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

Moorfields BRC Young Persons’ Advisory Group (Eye-YPAG)
Moorfields Eye Charity
Esme’s Umbrella
Birdshot Uveitis Society
Stargardt’s Connected
Thomas Pocklington Trust
The Macular Society
Glaucoma UK
Retina UK
Blind Veterans UK
Royal National Institute for the Blind

NIHR BRCs at UCLH and GOSH
NIHR CRN Ophthalmology Clinical Study Group
NIHR Local Clinical Research Network (LCRN) North Thames
NIHR CRF Forum (North Central London)
UCL Partners Academic Health Science Centre
UK Clinical Research Facility Network
NIHR Applied Research Collaboration North Thames EDI Group

Aim: Transform our research culture and deepen relationships with our partners so that we become strong advocates for EDI within our network.

Action: Engage with a diverse range of stakeholders and learn from each other through an EDI forum.

BRC Actions:

5.1: We have co-produced this EDI strategy with our EDI lay advisors and will continue to monitor its progress and delivery with them, and through an EDI forum with our partners and stakeholders.
5.2: Collaborate with sources of expertise (e.g. patients, charities, social enterprises and advisors) in developing accessible communication tools. Our active membership of the recently established NIHR ARC North Thames EDI Committee is part of this knowledge-sharing.
5.3: Improve understanding of the importance of EDI achievements and adherence to anti-bullying/harassment policy to being awarded external funding.

CRF Actions:

5.4: We will strengthen co-production possibilities with the Research Opportunities at Moorfields (ROAM) resource, BRC Research Community and Public Advisory workforce.
5.5: Develop links with community-based collaborators who are best placed to increase involvement of NIHR CRN Ophthalmology Clinical Study Groups into our PPI cohorts.
5.6: Establish and nurture community outreach partnerships (e.g. with charities, community organisations and social clubs) to access and encourage those from underserved groups to take part in local artificial intelligence-driven hospital referral initiatives.

Timing: Our short-term goal is to establish and join an EDI forum that will be the conduit for collaborative activities and shared learning with key stakeholders. We will continuously seek to learn and share knowledge of best practice in equality, diversity and inclusion.

Responsibility: Increasing our impact through collaboration will be the responsibility of both the Equality Challenge Coordinator at the UCL Institute of Ophthalmology and the EDI Research Associate at the NIHR Moorfields CRF. Relationships will be managed through relevant Principal Investigators and research teams. Progress in each area will be regularly discussed at management group meetings and reported to BRC Executive Board and CRF Management Group where appropriate.

Key success criteria:

Co-develop best practice recommendations for EDI in eye health research.
Increased impact of our research through delivering it in partnership.
NIHR Moorfields Infrastructure is recognised by its partners for our work on executing and implementing this EDI strategy.

Conclusion

To become strong, influential advocates for equality, diversity and inclusion, we will need to constantly learn what works, and what makes the most difference. This strategy sets out how vitally interdependent our diverse collaborations and partnership populations are. By learning from our workforce, patients, partners and the wider scientific and social world, we can collectively make a difference which has a positive impact on all of us.

On this page:

The Drivers of our EDI Strategy Theme 1: Become a more inclusive recipient of research funding Theme 2: Widen access and participation for greater diversity and inclusion Theme 3: Improve and invest in the talent pipeline Theme 4: Evidence-led approaches to diversity and inclusion Theme 5: Collaborate with partners for impact and sustainability Conclusion