1.1. EASTBIO DTP is committed to promoting and developing an inclusive and supportive environment. We aim to consolidate a PhD programme free from unfair discrimination in all our practices, from recruitment to research training, and to enable staff and students to fulfil their full potential. In 2023/24, EASTBIO runs a ‘guaranteed interview’ scheme for all BAME nominated candidates who have a home-fees status and we also consider candidates with one or more protected characteristics at two points in the recruitment process, at shortlisting and at the offer stage following the EASTBIO interviews. The protected characteristics for home-fees students include age 30 and over, disclosed disability and socioeconomic characteristics, for example the postcode at the time of leaving secondary education indicating low participation in higher education (UK candidates only), first generation in higher education and caring responsibilities or care-experienced. The information you the applicant are asked to provide is required for three reasons: (a) to monitor, assess and review our recruitment process in terms of equality, diversity and inclusion and (b) to report to the DTP funding body, UKRI BBSRC and (c) to flag application numbers where they indicate that an applicant is from an underrepresented group in our cohorts to date according to the above criteria. Once you will complete the EDI form, the system will automatically generate a unique to your response “Receipt Number” (in the form of 952767-952749-101484854) that we ask you to copy from the final Survey page, and paste on your EASTBIO Application Form. You may wish to select the "Prefer not to say" option on all our mandatory questions if you do not wish to provide any personal information. The EASTBIO team will use this information to process data post-recruitment. For the first two purposes mentioned above, we will use strictly anonymous data. For the third purpose that informs our recruitment process, we will match the unique survey response number to your application and extract a list of ‘flagged’ candidates that will be shared with the EASTBIO academic leads who will be chairing the selection panels. This would only be used to prioritise one interview place or award over another in a situation – at shortlisting, interview or allocation of studentship - where two candidates are equally ranked (of equal merit). This sensitive information will only be accessible by restricted administrative and programme staff and will NOT be made available to those engaged in the scoring and shortlisting of applicants. For information about how we process your personal data in general, please see our privacy statement at http://www.eastscotbiodtp.ac.uk/. This is a mandatory requirement of your EASTBIO application for funding and you can email enquiries@eastscotbiodtp.ac.uk if you have any questions in relation to this form. Confirm in the box below that you have "read and understood this guidance." a.1.a. I have read and understood this guidance.