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A network launched to promote ethnic minority entrepreneurship has helped hundreds of ethnic minority businesses gain access to finance, new markets, mentoring and business support as well as raising awareness of the £25-£32 billion contribution these firms make to the UK economy every year.

Launched in 2010, the Enterprise and Diversity Alliance (EDA) based at Birmingham Business School, has brought together a unique grouping of corporations, banks, professional associations, academics and ethnic minority entrepreneurs. The EDA's pioneering initiatives supporting ethnic minority entrepreneurs overcome a range of obstacles to business growth has won the network's Co-Directors Professor Monder Ram OBE and Professor Kiran Trehan a £10,000 award for Outstanding Impact in Business and Enterprise in the 2017 Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Celebrating Impact Prize.

"Minority entrepreneurs are often excluded from important networks – like banks, mentors and gatekeepers to large organisations," explains Professor Monder Ram. "This relegates their businesses to the margins."

The EDA has a simple ambition – to lift these barriers and make diversity and enterprise everyone’s business. "The contribution of ethnic minority and migrant communities to UK plc remains underappreciated," says Professor Ram. "Such groups are amongst the most entrepreneurial – yet they struggle for recognition."

Backed by the British Bankers' Association (BBA), policymakers and professional bodies including Association of Chartered Certified Accountants (ACCA) and the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC), the EDA has worked to share academic and practical knowledge, develop closer relationships between minority businesses and the corporate sector, and provide direct support including access to finance, human resources expertise, marketing and IT support and mentoring.

Partnerships with banks including Barclays and Nat West have helped hundreds of ethnic minority and women-owned businesses grow thanks to bespoke financial advice and mentoring. More than 30 workshops on how to gain access to finance and markets held in Birmingham between 2011 and 2016 have raised awareness of the support available and helped dispel the myth that bank financing is inaccessible.

The practical support of the EDA is invaluable, says Professor Ram, since many of the organisations and agencies that previously supported minority businesses have ceased to operate due to austerity cutbacks. "Currently, no other nationally-recognised resource is promoting good practice when it comes to diversity and enterprise," he says. "We are an imaginative attempt to fill this void, working with the private sector on an agenda often associated with public sector agencies."

Research and awareness are also key EDA objectives. Professor Ram initiated an annual Ethnic Minority Business conference in 1998. Now in its 21st year, this event is recognised internationally for networking and disseminating policy and research.

EDA also had success influencing policy makers at the local level via Local Enterprise Partnerships and nationally and internationally, too. An influential UK government report (Burt Report 2015) on 'inclusive business support' adopted many of the EDA's recommendations on engaging with minority enterprise. The EDA was also highlighted by the European Commission in a 2016 guide to promoting on good practice in supporting migrant entrepreneurship.

Now in its fifth year, the ESRC Celebrating Impact Prize 2017 recognises and rewards the successes of ESRC-funded researchers who have achieved, or are currently achieving, outstanding economic and societal impacts. In awarding the prize for Outstanding Impact in Business and Enterprise, the judging panel described Professor Ram and Professor Trehan's achievements as "impressive –particularly the buy-in they had achieved with both ethnic businesses, the British Bankers Association, specific banks and other organisations".

Further information

• Professor Monder Ram OBE, Birmingham Business School
  Email: m.ram@bham.ac.uk
  Telephone: 0121 415 8438

Notes for editors

1. Professor Monder Ram OBE, Director of the Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME) and Co-Director of the Enterprise and Diversity Alliance (EDA) and Professor Kiran Trehan, Co-Director of EDA were awarded the 2017 ESRC Celebrating Impact Prize for Outstanding Impact in Business and Enterprise and a prize award of £10,000. The awards ceremony took place at Central Hall, Westminster on 21 June 2017. EDA is one of several initiatives from the Centre for Research in Ethnic Minority Entrepreneurship (CREME) also based at Birmingham Business School, University of Birmingham.
2. The ESRC Celebrating Impact Prize is an annual opportunity to recognise and reward the successes of ESRC-funded researchers who have achieved, or are currently achieving, outstanding economic and societal impacts. First run in 2013 and now in its fifth year, the prize celebrates collaborative working, partnerships, engagement and knowledge exchange activities that have led to significant impact of ESRC-funded research. In addition to the prize for Outstanding Impact in Business and Enterprise, prizes were presented in five other categories:  Outstanding International Impact, Outstanding Impact in Public Policy, Outstanding Impact in Society, Outstanding Early Career Impact (in partnership with SAGE Publishing) and Impact Champion. 
3. The Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) is the UK’s largest funder of research on the social and economic questions facing us today. It supports the development and training of the UK’s future social scientists and also funds major studies that provide the infrastructure for research. ESRC-funded research informs policymakers and practitioners and helps make businesses, voluntary bodies and other organisations more effective. The ESRC also works collaboratively with six other UK research councils and Innovate UK to fund cross-disciplinary research and innovation addressing major societal challenges. The ESRC is an independent organisation, established by Royal Charter in 1965, and funded mainly by the Government.