University of Liverpool 2025 Prosper cohort: recruitment summary

The 2025 Prosper cohort of the University of Liverpool has just started (see above a picture from the induction session).

We selected a cohort of 30 postdocs through our tried and tested competitive process. Diversity targets were set with the same principles as previous cohort, including the first business-as-usual cohort from 2024.

The cohort makeup across the three disciplinary areas is;

• Biomedical and Biological Sciences – 50% of the cohort (54% of the wider UoL postdoc population)
• Physical and Environmental Sciences and Engineering – 20% of the cohort (39% of the wider UoL postdoc population)
• Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences – 30% of the cohort (8% of the wider UoL postdoc population)

We met our target of a minimum of 20% of the cohort from each disciplinary area. The proportion of applications we received was greatest from Biomedical and Biological Sciences (59%) > Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences (18%) > Physical and Environmental Sciences and Engineering (18%). We will seek to encourage more applicants from Physical and Environmental Sciences and Engineering for next year's cohort.

The cohort is 57% female, 43% male, compared to the 45% female, 55% male makeup of University of Liverpool postdoc population.

We did not meet our 50/50 female/male gender representation, with females being overrepresented. This is a very similar gender split as we had for our 2024 cohort (57% female, 40% male, 3% preferring not to say).  By discipline only biomedical and biological sciences has more males than females in the cohort (53% male to 47% female).

The further breakdown by disciplinary area is;

• Biomedical and Biological Sciences:
  Target: 50% female, 50% male
  Cohort makeup: 47% female, 53% male
• Physical and Environmental Sciences and Engineering:
  Target: 30% female, 70% male
  Cohort makeup: 27% female, 13% male
• Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences
  Target: 60% female, 40% male
  Cohort makeup: 40% female, 20% male

We met our target of a minimum of 25% BAME representation within the cohort.

• BAME – 27% of the cohort (27% of the wider UoL postdoc population)
• White – 70% of the cohort (55% of the wider UoL postdoc population)
• Information refused – 3% (1% of the wider UoL postdoc population)
• Not known: 0% (16% of the wider UoL postdoc population)