Grant proposal: How to answer question about Promotion of equality and non-discrimination

Question

I am working on a grant proposal. The topic of the proposal is in a technical study and do not have any direct social interaction. And the grant only provide salary for the applicant and project costs; therefore, there won't be any other recruitment.

One of the question in the grant application is to describe how the project will promote equality and non-discrimination? I understand this question is very common in most grant applications but I am not sure how can I promote equality and non-discrimination in a pure technical project.

should I include additional social engagement plan?

Answer 1

This is obviously not very relevant for your grant, but to be safe I would add something along the lines of, if and when the possibility of employing someone arose in the project in general (not just under this grant), you would consider candidates based on their technical suitability, and try to have an even representation of gender/etc in the candidate list.

Answer 2

If you are in the US, your institution should have an IRB (Institutional Review Board) that will vet any research involving human subjects, but which can also give you advice on this. In other countries there may be an equivalent office associated with the Research Support (or similar) office.

It may be that it is enough to say "Does not apply" in your case, but you should get advice from experts.