Royal Society President Prof Sir Adrian Smith told BBC News that the low numbers of black scientists in the UK was “unacceptable”.
Dr Mark Richards, who is one of the UK’s very few senior black scientists, and who helped the Royal Society develop the scheme, said that although the number of fellowships is small, it is hoped that they will make a big difference.
Black scientists have told BBC News that they feel unsupported, overlooked for promotion, unfairly rejected for grant applications, and that they believe the UK research system is institutionally racist.
The data reveals that a greater proportion of black people are dropping out, at every stage of their scientific careers, than their white counterparts, whereas many other ethnic minority groups have lower dropout rates.
Dr Richards, who is a physicist at Imperial College, also addressed potential criticism of the scheme; that it is positive discrimination for individuals who would not get funding on the merits of their research.
Sandile Mtetwa, who is a black PhD student at Cambridge University told BBC News at the time that the RSC’s initiative would make a big difference to those thinking of leaving research.
The original article contains 816 words, the summary contains 193 words. Saved 76%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
This is the best summary I could come up with:
Royal Society President Prof Sir Adrian Smith told BBC News that the low numbers of black scientists in the UK was “unacceptable”.
Dr Mark Richards, who is one of the UK’s very few senior black scientists, and who helped the Royal Society develop the scheme, said that although the number of fellowships is small, it is hoped that they will make a big difference.
Black scientists have told BBC News that they feel unsupported, overlooked for promotion, unfairly rejected for grant applications, and that they believe the UK research system is institutionally racist.
The data reveals that a greater proportion of black people are dropping out, at every stage of their scientific careers, than their white counterparts, whereas many other ethnic minority groups have lower dropout rates.
Dr Richards, who is a physicist at Imperial College, also addressed potential criticism of the scheme; that it is positive discrimination for individuals who would not get funding on the merits of their research.
Sandile Mtetwa, who is a black PhD student at Cambridge University told BBC News at the time that the RSC’s initiative would make a big difference to those thinking of leaving research.
The original article contains 816 words, the summary contains 193 words. Saved 76%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!