FOI2022/00082 and IR2022/00160: The ‘Leicester sex work project’
Case reference FOI2022/00082
Published 1 August 2022
Request
Request Received: 14 March 2022
This FOI request relates to the promotion of policy to public bodies and the "Developing Good Practice within Higher Education: Student Sex Work, Safety and Inclusion" project at the University of Leicester (the 'Leicester sex work project') that has been funded by the ESRC Impact Acceleration Account (IAA) at the University of Leicester.
Professor Teela Sanders is the lead academic on the 'Leicester sex work project' and according to your website, she is also a member of your Strategic Advisory Network (SAN).
1. Was Teela Sanders involved in any way in the approval of the 'Leicester sex work project'?
2. Was Teela Sanders' membership of the SAN a factor in the approval of the 'Leicester sex work project'?
3. Is it usual for the ESRC to fund projects, like the 'Leicester sex work project', that are primarily focused on promoting policy to public bodies?
4. If so, when was the decision made to fund the promotion of policy to public bodies? Was Teela Sanders involved in that decision?
5. If not, why and how was the 'Leicester sex work project' approved? What contributed to its approval?
6. If ESRC-funded projects involve the promotion or recommendation of policy to public bodies, are those policies or recommendations required to conform strictly to the law of the land and the Equality Act 2010, including its public sector equality duty (PSED)? If not, why not?
7. If so, what steps does the ESRC take to ensure that such policies or recommendations conform to the PSED and do not risk negatively impacting people with protected characteristics or the relationships between those with and without such protected characteristics, and that they do in fact promote the advancement of people with protected characteristics and contribute to improvements in equality?
Response
Response Sent: 12 April 2022
I can confirm UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) do not hold the information relevant to your request.
Whilst reviewing your request it became apparent some questions are not requesting information held in a recorded format by UKRI. However, to provide advice and assistance we would like to share some context and explain the role of UKRI and Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).
ESRC support collaboration via Impact Acceleration Accounts (IAA). IAAs are institutional awards used to deliver funding mechanisms for social science knowledge exchange at research organisation level. ESRC has awarded IAA funding to 26 research organisations across the UK. The funding started in April 2019 and runs for four years. Further information can be found on the Supporting collaboration- ESRC[1] webpage.
IAAs are awards made to research organisations by the ESRC to help social scientists collaborate with businesses, policy makers and communities to create research opportunities which positively impact society and the economy. Research organisations have robust mechanisms to decide how to invest this funding in knowledge exchange activities that best suit their institutional strategies and opportunities.
Dissemination of the Toolkit for Student Sex Workers - Keeping safe and access to support was funded via an IAA at the University of Leicester. University of Leicester has further information on the ESRC IAA[2] publicly available on their webpage.
Therefore, as it is the research organisations who make decisions on how the funding is invested, we would suggest redirecting your request to the University of Leicester in this instance. Further information on the Universities FOI procedure can be found on their webpage[3].
We can confirm membership of the Strategic Advisory Network (SAN) has no bearing on decisions made about IAA funding. Further information and the SAN terms of reference[4] can be found on our webpage.
Further information on ESRC research funding can be found on the ESRC research funding guide[5].
[1] https://www.ukri.org/what-we-offer/supporting-collaboration-in-the-uk/supporting-collaboration-esrc/impact-acceleration-accounts/
[2] https://le.ac.uk/enterprise/expertise/social-science/esrc-impact-acceleration-account
[3] https://le.ac.uk/ias/foi
[4] https://www.ukri.org/about-us/esrc/how-we-are-governed/strategic-advisory-network/
[5] https://www.ukri.org/publications/esrc-research-funding-guide/
Internal Review Response Sent: 1 August 2022
Details of this response are provided in the attached document.
Documents
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