Diversity data report 2019 Diversity data report 2019 Issued: November 2020 DES6507 The text of this work is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, provided the original author and source are credited. The license is available at: creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0 Images are not covered by this license. This report can be viewed online at: royalsociety.org/diversity Contents Introduction .....................................................4 The Fellowship ..................................................11 Committees, panels and working groups ..........................19 Research Fellowship Grants ......................................26 Scientific programmes ...........................................38 Public engagement .............................................50 Publishing ......................................................62 Schools engagement ............................................67 Royal Society staff ..............................................72 Gender pay gap .................................................75 Definitions .....................................................77 DIVERSITY DATA REPORT 2019 3 Introduction The Royal Society is a Fellowship of many of the world’s most eminent scientists and is the oldest scientific academy in continuous existence. The Society is committed to increasing sections of this report such as organisers, diversity in science, technology, engineering chairs and speakers at scientific meetings, and mathematics (‘STEM’) by seeking out there is no appropriate available comparative participation from underrepresented groups, data. Consequently, different benchmarks have in order to build and develop a world in which been used across the report, or not included at studying and working in science are open to all. all for sections where there is no appropriate benchmark data. The comparative data and the As part of the ongoing diversity programme rationale behind the choice of comparator are agreed by the Council of the Royal Society, set out in the table below and in each relevant diversity data is gathered and analysed in section of the report. relation to the Society’s activities. The next data report, covering diversity across This data report covers diversity in relation to the Society’s activities in 2020, will be published the Society’s activities in the calendar year 2019 in 2021. unless otherwise specified, including election to the Fellowship, grant offers and attendees at Data collection Society meetings and events. Data is collected via a variety of methods, including printed surveys at events, online This report includes diversity data for Royal surveys and as part of registration or application Society staff, and funding and region data for to a programme. The method of collection for schools taking part in the Society’s Partnership each activity is set out in the relevant section. Grants scheme, for the first time. In March 2020, the Fellowship, Committees, As agreed by the Royal Society’s Diversity sub-groups and Boards were invited to Committee and Council, where there is national complete a diversity survey. The Society also statistical data available that can provide a invited authors and reviewers of journals, and comparative context for sections of the report, those who had participated in Royal Society such data has been included in those sections. activities and events in 2019 to complete this survey. A total of 51,973 people were contacted, There is no comparator that can be used of which 7,329 completed the survey (14%). consistently across all sections. For example, for the Fellowship, comparative data on the The categories used to group age data vary diversity of professors in STEM in the UK is across sections of this report due to differences provided. Whilst this is not a perfect comparator, in how data is collected. The Society will be it does give a robust indication of the diversity looking at ways to standardise the collection of a group from which a significant proportion and reporting of age data in future. of the Fellowship is elected. However, for other DIVERSITY DATA REPORT 2019 4 Declarations Regarding ethnicity, the Society’s diversity The contents of this report are based on data monitoring form includes 17 options for that are explicitly and voluntarily declared by respondents to select, including ‘prefer not respondents. Whilst the Society’s online data to say’. These options are aligned to those in collection methods make completion of the the ethnicity question that was included on questions on the diversity form mandatory, all the UK Census in 2011. The response data is questions contain an option of ‘prefer not to amalgamated into broad categories in this say’ and not all respondents choose to provide report, as the responses for some categories their diversity information. Where applicable, are too small to report individually. The Society individuals who have chosen ‘prefer not to say’ recognises that it would be beneficial to report or not answered a question at all are excluded more detailed ethnicity data and hopes to be from this report. able to do so in future. In the instances where a data set is too small to The table below summarises what is included in be meaningfully representative, or there is the each section of the report, the source of each risk that an individual might be identifiable, it has dataset, any relevant benchmarks used, and the been excluded from the report. limitations of each dataset. The Fellowship Data included Age, gender, ethnicity and disability data for Fellows and Foreign in this report Members in 2019. Age and gender trends over the last six years. Source Age and gender data is recorded when new Fellows are elected. Ethnicity and disability data is collected through the annual diversity survey. Benchmark Diversity of STEM professors in the UK (based on HESA data, analysed by Jisc for the Royal Society). Limitations Age data for Fellows and Foreign Members indicates their current age. Because Fellows and Foreign Members are elected for life, this data is not indicative of their age when they were elected. The data does not include ‘prefer not to say’ responses. There is no robust benchmark that could be used to compare the diversity of the Fellows and Foreign Members who are not professors. DIVERSITY DATA REPORT 2019 5 Committees, panels and working groups Data included Age, gender, ethnicity and disability data for members of Royal Society in this report Committees (including panels and working groups), Grants Committees and Editorial Boards. Source Annual diversity survey. Benchmark None. Limitations The data does not include ‘prefer not to say’ responses. The results reflect only those members who responded to the annual diversity survey. The data is therefore a self-selecting sample and not representative of all Committee, panel, working group and Editorial Board members. Research Fellowship Grants Data included Amalgamated gender, ethnicity and disability data for applicants and awards in this report to the following schemes: • Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship • Industry Fellowship • Sir Henry Dale Fellowship • Newton International Fellowship • University Research Fellowship • Royal Society Wolfson Fellowship Source Collected via the Society’s grant application system, Flexigrant, when an individual applies for a Research Fellowship. Benchmark None. Limitations The data does not include ‘prefer not to say’ responses. Diversity data for all six schemes has been amalgamated in order to avoid individuals being identifiable. DIVERSITY DATA REPORT 2019 6 Scientific programmes Data included Age, gender, ethnicity and disability data for: in this report • Attendees at Prize Lectures; • Attendees at scientific meetings; • Organisers of scientific meetings; • Speakers and chairs of scientific meetings. Source Diversity monitoring survey (either electronic or hard copy) for attendees at Prize lectures and scientific meetings, and speakers and chairs of scientific meetings. Diversity data for organisers is collected via the Society’s grant application system, FlexiGrant. Benchmark None. Limitations The data does not include ‘prefer not to say’ responses. Diversity data is not available for attendees at the Milner Award Lecture or Rosalind Franklin Lecture in 2019 and consequently is not included in this report. Data on nominees for awards and medals is not reported because individuals do not nominate themselves and are therefore not asked to complete a diversity monitoring form. The results reflect only those speakers, chairs and attendees who responded to the survey. The data is therefore a self-selecting sample and not representative of all attendees, speakers and chairs. The age data for organisers in 2019 is not comparable with the 2018 data as it was collated differently. The 2019 data was collated using FlexiGrant, whereas the 2018 data was collected via a survey and different age categories were used. DIVERSITY DATA REPORT 2019 7 Public engagement Data included Age, gender, disability and ethnicity data for: in this report • Attendees at the Summer Science Exhibition; • Attendees at other public events; • Speakers at other public events. Source Attendees of public events are asked to complete a printed diversity monitoring form or an electronic diversity monitoring survey on the day of the event. At events held outside of the Society, diversity data is collected from the event hosts where available. Chairs and speakers of events