ROYAL Society of Chemistry launched a new initiative called ‘Broadening Horizons’ to reduce racism in the chemistry field.
Several leading companies have joined the initiative, and begun a scheme, to provide black and ethnic minority students studying in the UK with mentoring, industrial experience, and the opportunity to apply for internships over three years.
Broadening Horizons follows an investigation which discovered racism to be “pervasive” in the field of chemistry.
Minority ethnic researchers in the field of chemistry are paid much less and are less likely to receive grant funds or promotions.
It also found out that, there is just one black chemistry professor in the UK.
Talented students and early-stage researchers were quitting the field at every step of their careers due to prejudice, according to the Royal Society of Chemistry (RSC)’s report, which was released in March.
Several academic institutions and scientific organisations, including the RSC, are attempting to find a solution.
A minority ethnic researcher in the chemical sciences received an average grant of £320,000 in 2019/20, compared to £355,000 for white peers.
In spite of a target set by an independent study, in 2016, to have one director from a minority ethnic background on every board by 2021, it was also brought out that 37 per cent of FTSE 100 companies do not have any representation of minority ethnicities on their boards.
RSC’s chief executive, Dr Helen Pain, stated that the goal was to encourage more black individuals, in particular, to seek careers in science.
She claims that the research “shocked” a number of chemistry-based firms into action.
“It spurred them to bring the community of chemical scientists together and act in a way that can actually make a difference.”
One of the people behind the initiative has been Ijeoma Uchegbu, a professor at UCL and a co-founder of the pharmaceutical business Nanomerics.
She thinks that broadening chemistry’s diversity is both just and practical from an economic standpoint.
“It is not so much about social justice. But about getting the best quality outputs for your business. You can’t know your customer if the personnel in the company are of one type.
“There is a lot of evidence to show that if you have ethnic minority leadership, you are more profitable.”
Firms that joined hands with RSC are Unilever, GSK, Oxford Nanopore Technologies, AM Technology, Astra Zeneca, RSSL (Reading Scientific Services Ltd.), Syngenta, Johnson Matthey, and BASF (Badische Anilin und Soda Fabrik).
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