Our Goals 2020 Inclusive research and experimental design

Leading the conversation

Inclusive Research and Experimental Design has been at the forefront of our minds since the EDIS 2019 symposium on the topic. This has been particularly relevant when thinking about representation in COVID-19 research and we hope to continue more work in this area next year, including sharing objectives with Wellcome’s Diversity and Inclusion Team’s new goal on ‘Inclusive Research Design and Practice’ to drive equal health outcomes.

For researchers

In 2020 we helped deliver 3 interactive workshops in a series on sex differences in circadian rhythms and sleep that are available for anyone to watch online. Discussions explored further biological and socio-cultural factors that could be considered in this fast-moving field where research is already leading to policy recommendations, showing the importance of inclusive research design and practice.

A template for these workshops will be made available so anyone in any field can start these conversations. However, in the meantime the prompt questions and answers from the interactive element of this workshop series are on the open science framework here.

There are plenty of excellent training materials freely available for researchers as well as the guidance linked to the right. The Canadian Institutes of Health Research Online Training Modules: Integrating Sex & Gender in Health Research are particularly good for all researchers involved in the bench to bedside pipeline. 

For funders

We’re collaborating with Gendered Innovations to explore the global landscape of funding policies related to inclusive research design. We will be reviewing policies related to training, funding requirements, evaluations of research and evaluations of these policies to share good practice and create action plans for funders. This work will widen the focus of inclusive research design beyond sex and gender into more diversity characteristics dependent on the cultural context and with an understanding of the social determinants of health. 

Inclusive research and experimental design includes research funding and priority setting, clinical trials, patient and public involvement, research design and research communications. We created discussion prompt panels for the EDIS 2019 symposium on these topics that you can download below.

EDIS member Wellcome Trust has also updated its clinical trials funding policy to emphasise inclusion of people from under-served groups and references NIHR’s INCLUDE guidance. You can read more about this work and its relevance to the COVID-19 pandemic in this news piece from devex.

For publishers

Some publishers have already taken the first steps to requiring elements of inclusive research and experimental design in their publishing policies. For example the British Journal of Pharmacology (owned by EDIS member the British Pharmacological Society) has updated its guidelines to authors to ensure sex is considered as an experimental variable. We will continue to push for inclusive research and experimental design to be considered as good research practice and an expectation of all research.