Alignment to LSE’s Race Equity Framework
Any projects funded by the race equity innovation fund need to be linked to the Race Equity Framework.
The Framework is organised into three themes:
Education: to make sure an LSE education reflects the diverse world around us and empowers students to shape more equitable communities.
Research: to make sure our School’s research and knowledge engagement activities contribute to understanding race equity within and beyond LSE.
Our People: to make sure policies and practices support racial equity and cultural change across our School.
Any project that aims to advance race equity within one or more of these three themes can apply.
Consideration of different ethnic groups
Wherever possible, we welcome projects which do not homogenise people from minoritised ethnic groups. As a School, we do sometimes use the term BAME (Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic), but recognise the limitations of the term and the different lived experiences and trajectories of, for example, staff and students from Black British backgrounds, compared with those from Chinese or Asian Indian backgrounds.
When applying for the innovation fund, please set out how this has been considered in your approach.
Intersectionality
We know that everyone has their own unique identity, which comprises many different factors. We welcome projects which consider this - for example, the different lived experiences and trajectories of a Black woman, compared to a Black man.
Intersectionality can cover a wide range of considerations, but the project itself must still have a primary lens and focus on race and ethnicity.
Action-oriented projects
While applications for the fund are welcome in relation to research, we will prioritise projects which are action-oriented or action-research based.
This is not to say that there is not more research to be done to understand and explore racial inequities, but rather that this specific fund is about implementing actions, rather than investigating issues.
We want to fund projects which are trying something new and are instigating change. The project should have tangible outputs and outcomes.
Evaluation
As well as learning from things that work, we want to learn from things which do not work, or things which could work better if they were changed.
As part of your application, we would like a light-touch overview of how you will measure impact and success, as well as considering how to make the project sustainable in the longer-term.
Avoiding a deficit approach
LSE is committed to the guiding principles of the Advance HE Race Equality Charter one of which is to ensure we do not take a ‘deficit’ approach to race equity.
This means that we must ensure our actions are not aimed at changing the individual, but rather acknowledge that LSE’s (and society’s) cultures and structures are the barriers to racial justice, and that’s where our actions should be targeted.
We are unable to fund projects which are framed within a deficit approach.