‌Image: People at Solas Festival as part of the What I’d Like You to Know About Me Project. Photograph by Karen Gordon.

When research collaborations between universities and BAME groups are successful they can have significant impacts – on government policy, scholarship, the creation of new artworks and archives and the capacity of individuals and organisations to contribute to new knowledge.

However, there are profound structural obstacles to these collaborations, including:

• The fact that research partnerships tend to emerge from existing social and institutional networks which exclude communities without strong social or cultural links to individuals within universities.

• The lack of investment in organisations that support and represent BAME communities, leading to a limited capacity to become involved in research.

• The negative impact of previous extractive research and mistrust of universities, which are perceived as white majority institutions.

Recommendations for university leadership and research support services:

Staffing and Brokerage – Universities should ensure staff, particularly public engagement teams, and governance bodies reflect the ethnic diversity of their local communities, using paid community brokers to work with communities where expertise does not exist in the university. Engagement strategies, training, and employment should be subject to monitoring and review.

Where do you start with making contact? Universities should have a first contact point for university-community collaborative work, this would really help communities to explore or
initiate research that they see as relevant or want to do. (Community partner)

Funding Development – Funding needs to be available at two levels for collaborative partnerships; institutional level to develop and sustain partnerships; and project level funding of research activities. Universities should aim to create long term partnerships beyond project funding and should be willing to provide for additional costs that may arise in collaborative projects.

Leadership and Monitoring – All universities should establish a Pro-Vice Chancellor level post for developing fair and mutual university-community partnerships with pay related Key Performance Indicators and responsibility for addressing BAME under-representation.

Campus Development – Where new campuses are being developed, universities should consider how BAME organisations can share in the space or how the location of campuses can open up relationships with diverse communities.

Finance and Contracts – University services should work to ensure that internal processes do not have a negative impact on partnerships. They should ensure that contracts and information are in plain English, make payments in a timely manner, without burdensome form-filling, and have contacts for community partners who are trained in and aware of the issues facing smaller community organisations.

Communication and Openness – Universities need to improve accessibility for potential partners and communities more broadly, they should have clear points of contact for external organisations and work with partners already engaged in work around inclusion, diversity, and equality. Where universities have historic links to slavery this should be acknowledged and investments made with relevant communities.

I was in fear of the institutions that administered the degrees. It’s because there was this assumed perception that somehow, they knew more, these spaces knew more, had the authority, these spaces wrote the books that you would have to study in a language that was often alien, these spaces delivered the individuals that created the laws, you knew these spaces historically rejected you, and didn’t reflect your history, the faces in these spaces didn’t represent you and often didn’t like you ... So, when entering these spaces, you didn’t feel comfortable. (Community leader and academic)

Ethical Procedures – Ethical procedures need to be developed to reflect the complexities of partnerships with diverse groups with different cultural traditions and acknowledge that some groups may have experienced risk and exploitation in previous partnerships or procedures.

Still from a performance of In Flux. Photograph by Andy Barrett