Incorporating Equity, Diversity and Inclusion in a Canadian Biobank

Equity, diversity, and inclusion (EDI) is an established concept and is an important issue in health research. It is now recognized that measures to address EDI in research can have a positive impact on the value of health research outputs and health outcomes based on this knowledge. EDI strategies, guidelines, and education and training are now embraced by national research funders and local research organizations. However, these initiatives are very broad and not specific to the field of biobanking. We have, therefore, set out to develop and implement a formal research biobank EDI action plan. This article describes the creation of an EDI action plan that provides an intentional approach to identifying and achieving EDI actions and priorities for our research biobank. The plan is framed by the definitions of EDI and an understanding of the topics, issues, and groups within the EDI field. The plan is founded on a set of guiding principles and delineates three pillars of work that align with team, participant, and researcher domains. The plan identifies a set of 31 actions that are categorized by implementation time frames, in order to positively address EDI issues across these pillars. The completion of these actions will help us to mitigate against bias and enrich our biobanking and research services. Ultimately, our goal is to realize more diverse participation in research supported by our biobank. This would support health research to explore and better understand differences in disease biology and the efficacy of medical treatments across all people.