Senior leaders at the Wellcome Sanger Institute are under investigation following allegations of bullying and discrimination, the Guardian reports. The claims made by 10 former and current Sanger Institute staff members against senior management include ones against Michael Stratton, the institute's director, it adds.
According to the Guardian, the complainants described an "an entrenched culture of bullying and mistreatment" at the institute. They allege that senior staff were bullied and mistreated; staffers were pressured to leave the institute on short notice; and when complaints were made, due process procedures were not followed. The complainants further say these problems more commonly affected female staffers, it adds. The Wellcome Trust confirmed to the Guardian that an investigation was ongoing.
These allegations come shortly after the Wellcome Trust put a new anti-harassment policy in place. In May, the charity announced that researchers who have been sanctioned by their institutes for harassment or bullying could also lose their research funding. This policy has already affected the Institute of Cancer Research's Nazneen Rahman, who lost millions in Wellcome Trust funding following bullying accusations.