UK Research and Innovation: Ethnic Minorities

Lord Young of Acton Excerpts

Monday 15th December 2025 Lords Chamber

Asked by

[Lord Young of Acton]

To ask His Majesty’s Government whether any UK Research and Innovation-funded grants to study in UK universities are not open to white or Asian applicants; and if so, what assessment they have made of the appropriateness.

[The Minister of State, Department for Energy Security and Net Zero, and the Department for Science, Innovation and Technology (Lord Vallance of Balham) (Lab)]

Last year, UK Research and Innovation funded around 1,800 training grants to support about 27,000 PhD students. Some research organisations ring-fence a small proportion of UKRI-funded studentships for groups they can demonstrate are underrepresented in order to break to down barriers to opportunities and address inequality. None of the training grants funded by UKRI entirely excludes white or Asian students from applying for a PhD studentship. Around 1% of all UKRI studentships are ring-fenced by research organisations for widening participation.

[Lord Young of Acton (Con)]

My Lords, I declare my interest as the director of the Free Speech Union. I thank the Minister for that Answer. I am afraid it is true that white and Asian applicants are told they cannot apply for at least one post, a post-doc post, funded by UK Research and Innovation. This is symptomatic of the capture of the research excellence framework by radical progressive ideology, as evidenced by recent research by Professor Eric Kaufmann at the University of Buckingham. I know that the Minister shares my concern and has recently taken steps to reduce the weight given to equity, diversity and inclusion in the REF. Would he like to take this opportunity to assure the House that, in future, research funding will be based on the applicant’s intellectual merit and not the colour of their skin?

[Lord Vallance of Balham (Lab)]

I think the noble Lord may be referring to the scheme run by the Laboratory of Molecular Biology, which is one of the world’s greatest research institutions, with 12 Nobel Prizes to its name. It has rightly taken two posts out of 128 specifically to increase black representation among scientists. This is very similar to what happened in 1995, when the Dorothy Hodgkin fellowships made positions for women more easily accessible; that led to a huge number of very successful women scientists emerging as a result of that. In terms of the research excellence framework, there is an increased weighting for research outputs, which I believe to be correct. There is, however, a significant weighting on strategy, people and research environment. A culture where bullying is tolerated, challenge is suppressed and diversity is not embraced is not conducive to great science.