Helping bring EDI to the forefront across a vital institution

National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)

The National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) is the UK government’s primary funder of clinical, public health and social care research. Their mission is to improve the health and wealth of the nation through research. Bell has worked closely with NIHR since 2021 on several EDI initiatives with the ultimate objective of reducing health inequalities, by fostering an inclusive environment engaging the talents and energy of diverse people in all areas of their work and improving the relevance and quality of their research. Our initial brief in this area was for their first Diversity Data Report 2020-21.

The first part of this project was the primary copy phase. After NIHR provided us with an interim report with all tables and footnotes, Bell lifted, consolidated and edited sections of that copy for the full report, combined with some original copywriting. This made up the key initial section of the report (before the presentation of full data). We then designed the full 59-page document as a segmented interactive PDF, following NIHR brand guidelines, broken down into sections on Applications for Funding, Application Outcomes, Award Holders and Selection Committees. All data was based on four characteristic categories – sex, age, disability and ethnicity.

We drew 58 key data charts and tables in a clean, consistent style to make the data as easy to digest as possible. These were accompanied by key highlights and explanatory text. Once completed, we did a cut down for a 29-slide PowerPoint presentation and also delivered an HTML version for their website.

Following the launch of this report, we became involved in the development of the first overarching NIHR EDI Strategy. We project-managed the process internally at NIHR for several months. From this, we developed a look and feel for their EDI initiatives in harmony with their corporate brand and also created their Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2022-2027, a 21-page document with live links and original infographics which we designed, typeset and provided copy review, consolidation, editing and copywriting. We also transformed this into a PPT deck and a single-page top-line summary.

For the following Diversity Data Report 2021-22, we followed a similar format to its predecessor, with the addition of a global health section, and identical bar chart styles for the presentation of all data, for which we had to establish a way of combining data with two different data ranges into one comparative bar chart. As with the first edition, we delivered the interactive report as well as a PPT version and HTML summary. Finally, we extended this to just analyse RCT Participants (Randomised Controlled Trial Participants) for 2022 with another 21-page interactive PDF.

“Working with the Bell Team was a great experience. We had a very short turnaround time and they really stepped up to support us. We quickly developed a co-production approach and they were really responsive to our comments and feedback. I really valued their advice and challenge in how we presented our data and the actions and commitment we wanted to convey. We will be continuing to work with the team.”

Caroline Magee, NIHR EDI Programme Board Member