Governance & Ethical Standards
The Cost of Black Excellence Research Institute handles highly sensitive qualitative data regarding systemic workplace trauma. Our ethical framework is designed to protect our participants above all else.
The Cost of Black Excellence Research Institute handles highly sensitive qualitative data regarding systemic workplace trauma. Our ethical framework is designed to protect our participants above all else.
Recounting experiences of workplace discrimination, microaggressions, and identity suppression is not a neutral academic exercise; it requires profound emotional and somatic labour from the participant.
Under the guidance of our Founder—a qualified trauma-informed somatic resilience coach, the Institute ensures that all primary research, interviews, and focus groups are conducted through a trauma-aware lens. We prioritise the psychological safety of our respondents. Participants are never coerced into answering triggering questions, and immediate signposting to culturally sensitive wellbeing resources is embedded into our data collection architecture.
"We refuse to extract trauma for the sake of data. Our research process must be as liberating as the infrastructure we aim to build."
The Institute holds proprietary data detailing the experiences of over 1,000 UK BAME professionals. The granular detail within these transcripts often points to specific corporate entities, managerial teams, and identifiable structural failings.
Whistleblower Protection: We guarantee absolute anonymity to all participants. When compiling our Organisational Diagnostics and Sector Reports, qualitative transcripts are rigorously scrubbed of identifying markers. We aggregate demographic data to ensure that specific individuals cannot be reverse-identified by their HR departments or executive boards.
GDPR Compliance: All data is securely processed and stored within the United Kingdom in strict accordance with the Data Protection Act 2018 and UK GDPR. We do not sell, rent, or commercialise participant contact details to third parties under any circumstances.
The Cost of Black Excellence Research Institute exists to dismantle the Excellence Tax™, not to provide public relations cover for enterprises unwilling to change. Therefore, we maintain strict ethical boundaries regarding who we partner with for Organisational Diagnostics.