The DISCOVerY Project: Understanding the impact of the COVID pandemic on the career progress of Disabled researchers in the UK

This website explains our journey through the DISCOVerY project, a project that studied the experience of career progress of academic researchers who are minoritised by disability, race, gender and caring responsibilities. It also examined how the COVID pandemic affected their career progress. Between May 2024 and November 2024, we conducted three waves of research to investigate the impact of the pandemic on researchers:

Focus groups: We conducted focus groups and interviews with researchers at early, middle and late career stages in May 2024. We found that the motivation for becoming a researcher was largely altruistic and underpinned by the desire to seek social justice for inequalities observed and experienced during formative years. Establishing a career in research was often contingent on support from key individuals who advocated on researchers’ behalf. We also found that the pathway for career progress varied based on disability and race. For academics, aligning research with teaching duties was particularly important. Researchers across the career stages experienced little empathy for their minoritised status. Open dialogue with managers is important for support with career progress, especially among late-career researchers.

Online surveys: We designed a survey from the themes identified in the focus groups. The survey examined researchers' career pathway from training to being a researcher to gaining support with career progress and developing an independent field of research. Researchers in academic and research organisations around the UK are took part regardless of whether or not they have protected characteristics.

Hundred and twenty-eight participants from research and academic institutions across UK completed the survey. Preliminary analyses reveal that:

1. Researchers with sensory impairments or multiple disabilities perceived receiving more support during the COVID pandemic than researchers who were not disabled.
2. Among disabled researchers, greater perceived support from the institution predicts having a greater sense of career progress.
3. Racially minoritized researchers perceive more benefits of research support than non-British White researchers. Among racially minoritized researchers, seeking career guidance and choosing a career in research because of the stability it offered predicts having a greater sense of career progress.
4. Among White researchers, receiving institutional support and perceiving the benefits of support with research predicts having a greater sense of career progress.
5. Among women and among those with caring responsibilities, the type of employment contract predicts having a greater sense of career progress

Interviews: 17 participants who identify as disabled the online survey took part in an online interview about their lived experience of their career progress following the COVID-19 pandemic.