Equity

Equity: The fair treatment, access, opportunity, and advancement for all people, while striving to identify and eliminate barriers that have prevented the full participation of individuals and groups in the research system.

Visit the Government of Canada Guide on Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Terminology for definitions of equity-denied, equity-deserving, and equity-seeking groups.

Prioritizing equity in your research:

• Learn about and describe biases and systemic barriers that may be experienced in your team, department, or discipline
• Understand the research goals or needs that may be experienced in your team, department, or discipline.
• Identify strategies that engage biases, barriers, goals, or needs. Explain how you will enhance team members or knowledge users’ capacity to:
  • Access;
  • Direct;
  • Participate;
  • Benefit from the research project or the broader research system.

Diversity

Diversity (functional): The ways of knowing, pedagogies, frameworks, outputs, and methodologies a researcher prioritizes.

Diversity (representational): The variety of dimensions, qualities and characteristics each unique person represents.

Prioritizing diversity in your research APPLICATIONS:

• Consider the dominant approaches in your field and who or what perspectives may be excluded.
• Identify how you will foster mentorship and opportunities to build pathways into academic and non-academic research for students, particularly those from equity-deserving groups.
• Identify how you will incorporate a range of experiences and expertise in your research. Consider how your research can be spotlight equity-deserving groups, in relation to:
  • Ways of knowing and being.
  • Research questions, goals, and frameworks.
  • Methodologies.
  • Outputs and impacts.
  • Knowledge translation strategies.

Inclusion

Inclusion: Creating a culture that embraces, respects, accepts, affirms, celebrates and values unique and individual identities.

Prioritizing inclusion in your research APPLICATIONS:

• Identify how you have or will:
  • Foster safety and belonging within your team.
  • Extend decision-making power, economic, and social resources to team members, so they can navigate the research system.
  • Extend decision-making power, economic, and social resources to participants and knowledge users, so they can navigate the research system.

Human Rights

Human Rights: Ontario legislation that prohibits actions that discriminate against people based on a protected ground in protected social areas.

Prioritizing inclusion in your research APPLICATIONS:

• Identify how you enact EDI frameworks, incorporating preventative and responsive measures to address harassment and discrimination in both the research environment and design.

EDI considerations can help respond to individual biases and systemic barriers that shape who accesses and thrives in the research system. When tailored to each discipline, EDI can enhance representation, rigour, and innovation.

Researchers must also ensure their work is compliant with EDI-related governance frameworks that shape the research system. This includes frameworks adhered to by funding agencies and Brock University.

These frameworks prompt safe research environments, inclusive research projects, and equitable processes used to assess research. For example, federal and provincial legislation require researchers to be mindful of protections against discrimination in hiring and the duty to accommodate new team members in the workplace. Other frameworks encourage peer review committees and institutions to ensure measures of Research Excellence reflect a range of research impacts, mentorship, leadership, and service contributions.

Researchers at Brock are encouraged to consider how their work relates to the following governance frameworks:

1. Ontario Human Rights Code (1962)
2. Accessibility for Ontarians with Disabilities Act (AODA) (2005)
3. Brock University Respectful Work and Learning Environment Policy
4. The San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) (2012)
5. Truth and Reconciliation Commission of Canada Calls to Action (2015)
6. Tri-Agency EDI Action Plan (2018)
7. Accessible Canada Act (ACA) (2019)
8. Brock University CRC EDI Action Plan
9. Scarborough Charter (2021)
10. Brock University Strategic Plan 2025-2030

Researchers are encouraged to reflect on the following prompts:

• How do uphold these frameworks in your research environment, the design of your study, or department?
• Is your team aware of rights and responsibilities, as outlined in these frameworks?
• Do you know why each framework was created?
• Are you aware of challenges and progress in fulfilling these frameworks?
• Are you aware of group needs or research experiences that may not be reflected in the frameworks, such as first-generation graduate students?

Researchers should clearly describe barriers, needs, and EDI strategies as they relate to research practice and research design.

Research practice includes health, safety, and access in the research environment, as well as the recruitment, onboarding, and professional development processes that support research team members.

EDI application questions about research practice may refer to:

• Team Composition
• Trainee Recruitment Processes
• Training Philosophy
• Research Training Plan
• Past Training of HQP

Research design refers to the research questions, design, methodology and data collection, analysis and interpretation, and the dissemination of research results.

EDI application questions about research design may refer to:

• Methodology
• Knowledge Translation or Mobilization
• Sex and Gender Considerations
• Most Significant Contributions to Research
• Research Potential

To learn more about an inclusive lens to research contributions, visit the Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA) Rethinking Research Assessment: Building Blocks for Impact resource or the Research Excellence at CIHR webpage.

For additional support in developing or writing about an EDI strategy, please contact the EDI in Research Advisor (vacant).

To learn about promising practices in research at Brock, please reach out for our Canada Research Chair and Grant Writing Resources.

For examples of systemic barriers in higher education and the research system, please review the following sources:

1. The equity myth: Racialization and Indigeneity at Canadian universities (Henry et al., 2017)
2. Strengthening Research Excellence through Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (NSERC, 2017)
3. Landscape of Accessibility and Accommodation in Post-Secondary Education for Students with Disabilities (NEADS, 2018)
4. Underrepresented & Underpaid: Diversity & Equity Among Canada’s Post-Secondary Education Teachers (CAUT, 2018)
5. Equity Diversity & Inclusion: Ten Tips For Enhancing Equity, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) in University Administration (NSERC WISE Atlantic, 2020)
6. Findings from CIHR Environmental Scan on Accessibility and Systemic Ableism in Research Funding Systems (2021 – 2022) (Tri-Agency, 2022)
7. Advisory committee to address anti-Black racism in research and research training: Final report and recommendations (SSHRC, 2023)
8. Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the Post-Secondary Research System (CCA, 2024)
9. Women in Academia Project (HEQCO, n.d.)