Skip to main content

Black History Month

Empowering Black Researchers: Research Opportunities in the UK

20 October 2025
Mari Nowell

Mari Nowell

The number of Black Professors in the UK has slowly increased over the past few years from 155 in 2020 to 250 in 2024 (HESA numbers are rounded to the nearest 5) reflecting ongoing efforts to improve diversity in higher education. That said, Black representation among science in the UK professors still lags way behind other disciplines with higher rates of attrition in the transition between PhD to postdoc. There is clearly a major issue with retaining this rich talent in science.

This is starkly apparent with the story of Professor Robert Mokaya – a Professor of Materials Chemistry and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Global Engagement at the University of Nottingham – who naively assumed that he simply hadn’t yet had the opportunity to meet any other Black Chemistry Professors in the UK during his working life. That was until he was made aware  – through a Royal Society of Chemistry report  – that he was the only one. When talking about how he got to where he is today, he credits his supporters who “put sense into” him and to look at how he was performing compared to everyone else around him and apply for promotion because he really was as good as everyone else.

One of the UK’s newest black Professors to be appointed – and only the 73rd female black professor in the UK – is Professor Bernadine Idowu, a Professor of Biomedical Sciences at the University of West London. In a Royal Society blog from 2024, Professor Idowu tells us how she was one of only six Black students on her biochemistry course and that it would have been helpful to have some form of formalised peer mentoring available to her to support her career aspirations. In an interview with Professor Idowu by the Young Historians Project, Bernadine talks about how she helped implement an ‘Open Doors’ programme in Kings College London which showcased individual achievements of the BME community at Kings. An ostensibly minor activity (e.g. putting up pictures of individuals across campus promoting the website), helped to “validate” her peers studying at Kings  –  “seeing people that look like them and that they do belong.”  Her passion to support her peers drove her to develop the ‘Black in Biomed’ initiative that helps to encourage young Black students to pursue a career in science.

Limited visibility, mentorship and networking has been highlighted as a key issue faced by Black researchers. Professor David Mba – a Professor of Mechanical Engineering – is one of only two Black University Vice Chancellors in the UK. When asked by Universities UK how Universities can better support Black academics, David highlighted that schemes targeted at Black leaders will help them progress in the higher education sector. “If Black academics feel that they’re part of a community, they will stay…., we need to think about how we harness that potential and give them the opportunities to progress.”

We have seen a few exciting initiatives coming through over these past few years with research organisations and funders recognising the importance of bespoke mentoring, networking and funding to help foster a more inclusive and diverse research environment. I’ve gathered a few examples here…

Spotlight on MRC

In 2023, the Medical Research Council (MRC) Executive Board, Strategy Board and Council approved the formation of the Black in Biomedical Advisory Group (BBRAG) to help address the under-representation of researchers from Black heritage backgrounds across MRC and UKRI. Since its inception, BBRAG has funded:

MRC also recently launched a  MRC Board and Panel Associates Scheme (closed Sep 2025) providing researchers from underrepresented groups the opportunity to gain valuable experience of expert review, serve on an MRC funding board or panel and receive mentorship as part of a two-year programme. Keep an eye out to see if this scheme will open for applications again!

EPSRC Ethnicity and race equality actions

EPSRC analysis of ethnicity data shows that proportion of principal investigator awardees who identify as Black are underrepresented compared to the overall Engineering and Physical Science (EPS) academic researcher population. Also, whilst there has been an increase in the proportion of Black researchers participating in peer review for EPSRC (15%), this is still not representative of the EPS academic population (20%), leading to immediate positive action by the council to increase the representation in the Peer Review College to 20%. To achieve this, EPSRC actively encourage self-nominations to the EPSRC Peer Review College from ethnic minority colleagues.

EPSRC also aims to increase the diversity of membership on their advisory bodies and in order to meet this commitment EPSRC may – where candidates are as qualified as each other – prioritise candidates based on ethnic under-representation.

Vacancies for SATs arise every two years and are currently open! (closes 7th Nov 2025).

Other UK research funders have introduced some other exciting initiatives to retain the talent pipeline of excellent Black researchers in scientific research  and I’ve highlighted a few here:

Research funding Opportunities:

  • Wellcome Trust Accelerator Awards offer up to £200,000 for (highly flexible) activities for early and mid-career researchers of Black, Bangladeshi, and Pakistani heritage that will help reach the next career stage. (annual pilot scheme running until 2028)
  • Wellcome Trust positive action – Wellcome is introducing positive action in its competitive open funding calls and schemes. For those calls and schemes which include a shortlisting stage of full applications, additional places may be provided for applications from groups which are underrepresented in UK academic research – including researchers from a Black heritage background
  • Royal Society Career Development Fellowship – Offers up to £690K research funding over four years  – as well as training and mentoring – for early career (less than 24 months post-doc) researchers from Black heritage, including mixed Black background . This has been a pilot scheme (run in 2024 and 2025) and is currently open for applications (closing date 18 Nov 2025)
  • MRC Emerging Innovators Fellowship a three-year training and development position for postdoctoral scientists of Black Heritage who have just completed their doctoral studies, or who are seeking a second postdoctoral position (re-opening Spring 2026)

Mentoring, networking & internships:

  • Windsor Mentoring Fellowship – a mentoring programme that aims to increase the transition of UK STEM undergraduates, graduates and post-graduates from diverse backgrounds and under-represented groups into STEM employment
  • Windsor Fellowship – Royal Society Chemistry mentoring scheme exists for Chemistry graduates
  • LinkedIn Black Leaders in Higher Education UK – a society for people with Black (African/Caribbean) heritage holding positions of professorial, strategic academic or professional services leadership in UK Academia
  • Royal Academy of Engineering Access mentoring – Support to applicants from groups that are persistently underrepresented within UK engineering through the grant application process including Black applicants (including any mixed ethnicity groups that include Black ethnic backgrounds)
  • Black Researcher Consortium – a strategic initiative launched in April 2025 to address the underrepresentation of Black researchers in the UK. It was designed by Black researchers and Black-led organizations in collaboration with leading research institutions and provides networking and mentorship activities
  • 100 Black Women Professors NOW – a unique leadership programme, designed to improve equity of opportunity for Black women in Higher Education. The programme provides mentorship, coaching and networking activities
  • Health Data Science Black Internship Programme – 8-week paid summer internship open to all Black people, ideally suited to individuals with a degree in mathematics, physics, engineering or computer / data sciences, and bioinformatics-allied subjects to gain hands-on experience of carrying out and learning more about health data science. *opening Nov 2025 for the 2026 intake*

Post graduate Scholarships:

Unblock Magazine

Unblock is a new magazine emerging from  Cardiff University / Prifysgol Caerdydd Wellcome Trust funded by the Cardiff Ignite Research Leadership Development Programme that will feature voices and experiences of female academics of Black and/or racially minoritised backgrounds with the first edition launching in the next few months (2025 – 2026). The project is managed by Daniela Duc, Ivana Rozic, PhD, FHEA and Dr Tomos Owen.

If you would like to share your experiences and provide content for this magazine, please do contact the Unblock Editorial Team: Unblock@cardiff.ac.uk

Research Funding support

If anything in this article has piqued your interest and you would like support for a research funding application, please do get in touch with the Research Development team here in Cardiff (RIS_Research@cardiff.ac.uk) and we would be very happy to support you!

If you are reading this outside of Cardiff University, then do reach out to Professional Service colleagues in your host organisation to ask for support.

Our team in Cardiff also runs a Fellowship support programme for members of Cardiff University, designed to support post-doctoral researchers to the next stage of their career, regardless of your academic discipline.

So, what are you waiting for? Get applying!