Equality, diversity and inclusion strategies of NIHR biomedical research centres and clinical research facilities across England: a qualitative content analysis

This study provides the first systematic analysis of EDI strategies across all NIHR BRCs and CRFs, offering a comprehensive mapping of how EDI priorities are articulated and operationalised across objectives, action plans and success measures. While both infrastructures align with NIHR's inclusion goals, BRCs generally showed more strategic maturity than CRFs. As the analysis was based solely on publicly available strategy documents, it could not determine the extent to which any strategy had been implemented in practice. Future research is needed to examine implementation and impact. The contribution of this work lies in demonstrating systematically and for the first time the ways in which EDI commitments are framed across NIHR infrastructures and their varying levels of depth and maturity. Our findings support the development of more measurable EDI frameworks and highlight opportunities to strengthen inclusion across NIHR-funded research infrastructures.