About
This project was awarded £2 million by the Economic and Social Research Council and is led by The Inclusion Initiative at the LSE, in collaboration with researchers from the Institute for Fiscal Studies, University of Sheffield, University College London and University of Warwick.
Dr Grace Lordan, Director of The Inclusion Initiative, leads this innovative collaboration to advance the understanding of the barriers to creating diverse workforces, and providing new evidence on the impact of diversity on business performance, and how firms can maximise the benefits of diverse teams. It also explored the crucial role of the education system as the start of the ‘leaky pipeline’ in which individuals from under-represented groups lose access to career opportunities, creating a substantial ‘lost potential’ of highly qualified individuals.
A multidisciplinary team tackled the project’s questions using cutting edge qualitative and quantitative methods from several disciplinary perspectives. The team worked with businesses to design, test and implement the recommendations from its research, directly affecting practice and hence workplace diversity. This allowed for an immediate impact on improving the opportunities of under-represented groups, in addition to increasing diversity in a way that maximises the benefits to firms.