Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: LSW update, November 2025
This update from LSW is the first in a series that we intend to share to highlight our ambitions for EDI, the progress we have made, and the work we still have to do.
The Learned Society of Wales is deeply committed to inclusion and belonging across and within our Fellowship and staff team. We have made continuous improvements to our ways of working, with a focus on equity and on fostering greater diversity. As we reflect back on Black History Month, we wish to pause and consider the work we have undertaken so far on race and ethnicity and share our vision for our journey ahead.
As Wales’ national academy, we are proud to be part of a country which has clearly stated its ambition to be anti-racist and we operate with deeply embedded commitments to Equity, Diversity and Inclusion.
As a charity, we play a key role in fostering research and knowledge for the benefit of Wales and we emphasise the positive impact that diversity has on these outcomes. It is well established that greater diversity enhances problem solving, drives innovation and leads to better decision-making across all areas of research and wider knowledge sectors. We see this reflected in the disciplines we represent and actively celebrate the contributions diversity brings.
We believe meaningful action is the strongest demonstration of our commitment to equity and diversity. Our commitment to reflecting the diversity of Wales is inseparable from our pursuit of excellence in research and knowledge – they strengthen and sustain each other. In recent years we have continued to progress this by increasing the nomination of individuals from ethnic minority backgrounds as part of our efforts to address historical underrepresentation within the Fellowship. This has been successful so far, with more a quarter of fellows elected in 2024 and 2025 identifying as being from an ethnic minority background but we recognise there is still more to be done across many areas – including acknowledging and addressing the importance of intersectionality.
In addition, we have supported the launch and ongoing development of the Welsh Ethnic Minority Professors Initiative (WEMPI) which is being developed to offer peer support and mentoring to academic staff. Alongside this, we continue to embed change within our processes to remove barriers and unconscious bias. These include the recent introduction of an independent member into our Fellowship scrutiny process to provide consistency and EDI insight in the election process.
We celebrate and stand with our colleagues from the Fellowship and staff team and reaffirm our inclusion and allyship. We believe passionately that the future of Wales and indeed, the future of research and knowledge in Wales lies in diverse and inclusive thought.