Britain’s flagship research agency is imposing equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) conditions on its grants. It is therefore jeopardizing the government’s plan to boost economic growth by making the UK a global centre for artificial intelligence. A £24.5 million UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) fellowship for AI specialists requires applicants to “embed EDI at all levels and in all aspects” of their research, linking that duty to webpages promoting Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ+ activism and a definition of “transphobia” so tendentious that even Stonewall has since revised it.
In some ways, we shouldn’t be surprised. A recent analysis of UKRI’s material shows that social justice terminology has risen 25- to 50-fold since the early 2000s and doubled again since 2020, with “equality” now appearing more often than “excellence”. Yet this latest fellowship exposes the economic risk of attempting to attract the world’s most capaable—but often most contrarian—researchers through a funding round that demands ideological compliance.
