Realising Disability Inclusion: Career development opportunities launched

13 Nov 2025

Exciting new project for disabled PGRs/ECRs

University of Manchester photograph taken from above

A new project, Realising Disability Inclusion, has just launched to improve career development opportunities for disabled Post Graduate Researchers (PGRs) and early career researchers (ECRs) at the university.

The project is inspired by the team members Professor Steven Pierce, Professor Jackie Carter, Dr Katie Twomey, Laura Howard, and Kai Prince’s three years of advocacy for disabled PGRs and colleagues. During this time, limited career development opportunities due to access barriers were a recurring issue. This included both physical barriers like difficulty getting onto campus for seminars and paying for conference passes, and deeper institutional barriers including the difficulty of advocating for access needs to supervisors/line managers.

Our recent Your Voice Matters colleague survey showed that only 47% of respondents feel their career aspirations are being met here currently, and this number was even lower for respondents with a disability, at 37%. This project is a great opportunity to remove some of those barriers for career success, for disabled PGRs/ECRs.

Through the work of members in the disabled PGR group and the Disabled Staff Network, and new funding through our University’s Research culture and environment framework, we’re delighted to announce the following project outputs:

Disabled PGR/ECR Career Development Fund: Up to £1000 per individual to cover any additional costs incurred by disability while engaging with career development, from carers and taxis to adapted hotel rooms or fieldwork equipment. Find out more and apply now.
Disabled Leadership Mentoring: This is a leadership course aimed at improving disabled peoples’ confidence in work. More information coming soon.
E-Comic for Supervisors/Line Managers: Launching in December, this comic shares the real experiences of Laura, a disabled PGR, and her supervisor Dr Konstantina Drosou. It highlights the barriers they faced and how they worked together to overcome them, offering a practical blueprint for supporting disabled researchers.

While this project won’t remove every barrier, we hope it will help level the playing field. Disabled academics bring valuable skills and perspectives to the university, and we’re proud to support greater career equity and measurable progress. 

Further information

Catch-up on a video of Laura Howard, Professor Steven Pierce and Professor Jackie Carter speaking about their activism in the University and the impact it's had.
Get involved with our Disability Staff Network
Check out the ‘Let’s Talk Disability’ podcast
This project is one of seven projects funded by the Enhancing Research Culture Fund, part of our University’s Research culture and environment framework.