BU Research Blog

From September the MRC are introducing a new policy that will require researchers to consider diversity when designing clinical and preclinical scientific experiments. They will become the first funder to require diversity to be considered. The changes are to ensure that research is relevant and beneficial to everyone in society. It will be effective for all funding applications submitted after 1st September 2023.

Researchers will need to consider characteristics such as gender, age, ethnicity and whether someone’s socio-economic status is relevant when applying for MRC funding.

This builds on the requirement introduced in March 2022 that all applications involving animal or in vitro research should include both sexes.

Further guidance for applicants and peer reviewers will follow.