29 July 2026
Dr Kevin Guyan has been awarded ESRC impact funding for the project, Box Breakers: Improving Organisational Data Practices for Minoritised Communities.
Launching on 1 August 2026, the project will help UK data professionals better understand the lives and experiences of individuals located ‘outside’ of normative categories, improve organisational practice and foster more positive interactions between LGBTQ communities and data systems, including the design of diversity monitoring forms.
UK organisations use large volumes of data on identity characteristics – including gender, sex and sexuality – to allocate resources, manage people and deliver services. Poorly designed data systems (e.g. where individuals are miscategorised or not counted) harm both individuals and organisations, yet awareness of these harms has not led to sufficient action.
Box Breakers will create and trial tools that translate research findings into formats that support data professionals to recognise and respond to the harms of exclusionary data systems. These tools include The Impossible Form – an interactive resource that resembles a typical diversity monitoring form but behaves in unexpected ways – alongside a supporting lunch-and-learn guide.
The Box Breakers project aims to transform how data professionals represent people whose identities exist beyond conventional categories.Dr Guyan, Chancellor’s Fellow and Director of the Gender + Sexuality Data Lab
The project runs from August 2026 to July 2027. Keep an eye on the Gender + Sexuality Data Lab website for project updates and future opportunities to get involved.