The UKRI is working towards a goal that binds creating new opportunities and overcoming the world’s most pressing challenges by focusing on three main pillars: equality, diversity, and inclusion (EDI).
Indeed, diversity is believed to be a key enabler of talent and skills, which as a result will drive business innovation and support culture change, and ultimately promote business growth.
One of the UKRI’s main objectives is People. In fact, there is a huge incentive from the UKRI with its Innovation Academy to prioritise talent, and skills as a primordial way to support UK business innovation through programmes to strengthen leadership and commercialisation skills based on EDI.
Innovate UK will have a leadership role that will point out skill gaps in businesses and try to readjust them by connecting businesses with partners to provide them with adequate tools to enhance and grow skills and have access to a talented and diverse workforce.
UKRI has great potential to make the UK a global innovation hub with its very encouraging goals to harness diversity.
Meanwhile the organisation has different objectives in the quest for diversity, where it will introduce the No Limits mission working with partner organisations to create an inclusive innovation ecosystem.
As part of its quest for diversity, UKRI will also launch two competitions providing grants for early-stage businesses led by diverse founders and businesses, as well as a dedicated No Limits Investor Partnership programme providing grants to be matched by private equity investment.
The No Limits mission consists of finding new and diverse talents in addition to uniting regional and national change-makers with shared ambition – for the UK innovators and the UK innovation ecosystem to represent UK society.
Also, there is a clear priority for women’s inclusion, as UKRI has the plan to deliver new funding of £2.5m to support Women in Innovation awards and another £2.4m for Young Innovators awards, including EDGE support.
Furthermore, UKRI wants to encourage more innovation and celebrate the success of new projects and will do so by creating a new award, the Inclusive Innovation Awards.
Most Importantly, UKRI wants to raise awareness of the huge diversity gap present in the innovation ecosystem.
To solve this problem, a new EDI Caucus will be established providing evidence of equality, diversity, and inclusion in the research and innovation ecosystem.
UKRI is determined to encourage more people from a diverse group of backgrounds to innovate, engage, and support underrepresented groups, and provide aligned funding streams to ensure success at all stages of business growth.