Research
BHF publishes its first policy on diversity in research design
As the biggest independent funder of cardiovascular research in the UK - investing around £100 million in research into conditions affecting the heart and blood vessels each year - BHF has a responsibility to ensure that the research we support is representative of, and could lead to future advances for, everyone who needs it.
That’s why we have introduced a policy on diversity in research design, setting clearer expectations that, wherever possible, the research we fund is designed to be representative and inclusive.
Our expectations
We expect that researchers consider and account for relevant demographic factors, such as age, sex, gender, ethnicity and socio‑economic status, when designing and delivering their studies. This includes that:
- Research involving animals should not be single sex, unless there is a strong scientific justification.
- Research involving human participants should aim for a sex/gender distribution which reflects the prevalence of the condition being studied. For example, for conditions where prevalence rates are generally balanced between men and women, such as stroke, the aim should usually be to have a roughly 50:50 split. Whereas we would usually expect clinical research on microvascular angina, which is more common in women, to involve a higher proportion of women.
Recognising that more inclusive research design and practice can require additional funding, our new policy also clarifies that BHF will consider funding such costs if these are applied for and fully justified in grant applications.
Why this matters
Research is an essential part of advancing care for people living with cardiovascular disease. But many people are currently under-served by cardiovascular research. For example, despite cardiovascular diseases being a leading cause of death among women, women have been consistently under-represented in cardiovascular clinical trials, and many areas of pre-clinical research tend to focus on male animals or cells.
Since 2023, researchers applying to most BHF research funding schemes have been asked to explain whether and how factors such as age, sex, gender or ethnicity have been considered as part of the design of their research project. We also updated guidance for our committee members and independent expert reviewers to ask them to take this information into account when assessing applications.
A recent review of answers to these diversity and inclusion questions found that most of our grant applicants are considering strategies to improve the representativeness of their research at the outset, and that this information is considered as part of BHF’s grant assessment processes.
But we believe that formalising our expectations, through this new policy, makes it clearer to our research community and supporters that funding research that is inclusive and representative of the people who need it is a priority for BHF.
Moving forward together
We are committed to ensuring the research we fund is representative of the people who need it. While we’ve made clear progress, wider culture change in this area is still required. Collaboration across the UK research ecosystem will be essential to achieve this.
Our new expectations align with policies recently published by other UK funders and the MESSAGE (Medical Science Sex and Gender Equity) initiative, which BHF contributed to. We will continue to refine our guidance as new evidence emerges and explore opportunities to work in partnership with other funders and organisations to accelerate progress.
If you have any questions or would like to suggest ideas for how we can better support our research community in this area, contact us at [email protected].