The Wellcome Trust, the UK’s largest charity funder, is an “institutionally racist” and must do more to promote diversity, health research charity admitted in one small curve on Wednesday.
Its board and senior management have promised to make Wellcome “an anti-racism organization” both in the way it treats its employees and in the funding of outside researchers. outside. The move came in response to the findings of a internal investigation racism in the trust was announced on Wednesday.
The trust’s leaders said they would establish “a funding stream specifically for black and colored researchers” and “apply positive action principles to decisions research funding, so that when applications have similar value, Wellcome will support those that expand diversity.”
Jeremy Farrar, director of the charity, said: “Wellcome has and continues to play a role in perpetuating racism in its own practice and in the broader field of research. “I apologize for the actions and actions behind this, as well as the hurt and disappointment these have caused.”
Other medical research institutions have recently acknowledged structural racism, including the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, but Wellcome hopes its scale and influence would give its anti-apartheid program a broad academic and scientific impact.
“Through harmful action and inaction, Wellcome is perpetuating and exacerbating systemic racism in the broader field of research in which it operates,” an 85-page review commissioned. rights from The Social Investment Consultancy and The Better Org after admitting for the first time in June 2020 that it perpetuated racism.
“As a charity that will spend at least £16 billion over the next decade on science to address the pressing health challenges people are facing, we know Wellcome has the power,” said Farrar. great power”. “We’ve done too little to use this power to combat racial inequality in research.”
The report does not systematically compare Wellcome’s performance with other funding bodies, or charities such as the British Heart Foundation or government organizations such as Research and Innovation UK. Older brother.
But it does give a few examples of good practice elsewhere. For example, the Institute for Cancer Research makes a special effort to support staff from black and minority communities, it said.
Even within Wellcome, the audit uncovered “good practices across the organization. . . A good example is the mental health group that established an anti-racism working group to support the implementation of anti-racism principles and toolkits into their day-to-day work. “.
However, it said many Wellcome employees “experienced discrimination and harassment” with 25% of those who identified as black and people of color reporting they were treated unfairly or discriminated against. trial for their identity. Employees had to rely too heavily on their own networks to effect change, it said, with inadequate support from the organization’s leadership.
After the report was published, Wellcome received rave reviews on social media. “Thank you for your openness here,” said Hilary Snaith, manager of the University of Edinburgh’s infectious diseases network. “I wonder how many other organizations would be willing to share a similar report and acknowledge their identified shortcomings.”
Wellcome said details of the foundation’s new anti-racism program will be discussed over the next few months.
