The University Funded Diversity and Inclusion Scheme

In January 2023, the University Funded Diversity and Inclusion launched a scheme to provide grants to support research initiatives across the University. These projects must be aimed at challenging discrimination and inequalities, increasing representation of under-represented groups, raising awareness of issues related to Diversity and Inclusion, and facilitating implementation of good practice at the university.

Applications were accessed by a judging panel consisting of Tina Purkis, Executive Director of HR, Professor Phil Vickerman, Pro-Vice-Chancellor of Student Experience and Moni Akinsanya, Associate Director, Diversity and Inclusion.

This funding opportunity received great interest from the university, and the panel received a high volume of applications which focused on the following:

  • Black student attainment gap
  • Care leavers
  • People estranged from their families
  • People from Gypsy, Roma, and Traveller communities
  • Neurodiversity
  • Northern Irish students
  • White young working-class male students
  • Projects targeting specific demographics/groups of student/staff/community groups
  • Decolonising/Inclusive curriculum
  • Recruitment and progression of staff from ethnically diverse communities

After careful consideration of all applications, the judging panel decided to fund the following projects:

  • Helen Collins: Using the Gypsy, Traveller, Roma, Showmen and Boaters' (GTRSB) HE and Schools Pledge to increase Liverpool GTRSB into FE and HE.
  • Denise Lee: Lean in Construction for Girls.
  • Elena Zaitseva: Understanding Barriers to Academic Achievement of Male Students from Low HE Participation Areas and Developing Institutional Interventions.
  • Ceri Daniels: ‘Story Creators’ - A collaborative inclusion project for LJMU students and pupils in the Liverpool City Region (LCR) with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND).
  • Paula McNulty: ‘Intern to Work’ - A collaborative inclusion project for LJMU to partner with Liverpool City Council (LCC) to provide supported internships to students in the Liverpool City Region (LCR) with Special Educational Needs and Disability (SEND).
  • Dominique Walker: #BlackintheIvory.
  • Amos Fatokun: Clues in the Cues - Chronicling and Contextualising Non-Western Socio-Cultural Norms for Improved Student Experience.
  • Sarah Williams: You Can't Be What You Can't See.
  • Simon Ward: The Experiences of Disabled Staff within a Higher Education Setting.

The Diversity and Inclusion Team are working to ensure the successful delivery of all the projects, and we wish them the best of luck in their research. We look forward to learning about their findings and using those findings to implement good practice at the university.

Additionally, the Diversity and Inclusion Team would like to thank the unsuccessful applicants for their interest and time spent on their applications, and we hope this would not discourage them from applying for Diversity and Inclusion funding opportunities in the future.