Reimagining Recruitment

让一个典型的八岁孩子描述一个科学家，他们可能会重复对孤独天才的刻板印象：一个穿着实验室外套的中年白色男人。我们知道，事实上，科学、技术、工程和数学领域最好的研究是由不同成员组成的协作团队完成的，每个团队都贡献了不同的技能和观点。尽管如此，令人遗憾的是，从童年时代就记住的陈规定型观念仍然存在，研究表明，它们可以影响重要的决定，特别是在招聘方面。该提案的愿景是重新构想学术招聘，为学术研究候选人提供展示技能的替代途径。为了嵌入真实的文化变革，不仅要告诉人们，他们与一个更多样化的团队合作会更好，而且要向他们展示。我们建议通过实施和指导“孵化器”活动计划来实现这一目标-学术研究研讨会，高级学者与研究生和其他早期职业学者一起工作，可能与工业合作伙伴一起，在一个无障碍和包容性的环境中工作3-5天。与此同时，我们将开展一项相互关联的研究计划，研究STEM学科早期职业研究人员的经验以及学术界替代招聘策略的有效性。这将使循证政策的制定和传播能够推动科技高等教育和更广泛的文化变革。

Ask a typical eight-year-old to describe a scientist and they will likely repeat the stereotype of the lone genius: a middle-aged white man in a lab coat. We know that in fact the best research in science, technology, engineering and mathematics is produced by collaborative teams of diverse membership who each contribute different skills and perspectives. Nonetheless, the stereotypes remembered from childhood are sadly persistent and research shows they can influence important decisions, especially in recruitment. The vision of this proposal is to reimagine academic recruitment, providing alternative routes for academic research candidates to demonstrate their skills. To embed real cultural change, it is necessary not just to tell people that they would be better off working with a more diverse team, but to show them. We propose to achieve this by implementing and directing a programme of "incubator" events - academic research workshops in which senior academics work alongside postgraduate students and other early-career academics, potentially with industrial partners, in an accessible and inclusive environment for a period of 3-5 days. At the same time, we will conduct an interlinked programme of research into the experiences of early-career researchers in STEM subjects and the efficacy of alternative recruitment strategies in academia. This will enable the development and communication of evidence based policy to drive cultural change in science and technology higher education and more widely.