Our approach is inclusive and multi-disciplinary with a clear focus on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI). We have developed a guiding principle to help Connected Everything become fully representative of the digital manufacturing community it serves:

Connected Everything knows that diverse teams deliver high quality research outcomes. Furthermore, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion approaches lead to happy and healthy research teams. CEII wants to encourage, support and respect ideas from everyone and ensure our inclusive activities are representative of our network’s community.

Our EDI Principle document was first published in December 2020 and will be reviewed quarterly, alongside our action plan.

Previous EDI Projects

  • Our 2021 Networks of Networks survey has been incredibly helpful in how we have planned network activities so they are as accessible as possible for everyone. A summary of the last survey can be found here.  
  • A small group of us wrote a summary paper based on the responses of the 2021 survey and this has been accepted for the Inter-Noise 2022 conference in August.  The paper can be read by clicking here. 
  • In 2021/22 we have also developed a prototype for EDI ideation cards to help users embed EDI into their research projects.  For more information on this go to a recording of an introductory session we delivered. For an example of the prototype set of cards developed, click here.
  • During the Connected Everything Conference 2022, the project team shared some of the learnings the EDI monitoring data collected from Connected Everything funded activities. This learning was shared through a poster presentation.
  • Debra Fearnshaw, Connected Everything Network Manager was seconded to EPSRC to deliver their EDI Expectations. This work resulted in a very practical guide with examples on how all researchers and those who enable research can embed EDI in to their projects. Click here for EDI expectations blog and webpage.