Senior managers will be paired off with ethnic minority staff at Bradford University as part of project to promote diversity.

The scheme is being launched by the university to get more staff from ethnic communities into senior management positions.

Academics are launching the project internally but hope to roll it out to outside employers in the future.

The Cultural Understanding in Leadership and Management project is being run by the University's Centre for Inclusion and Diversity which will be officially opened on Friday.

The centre aims to promote diversity in the workplace both in Bradford and across the world. It employs six people and is based in the University's School of Health Studies.

The centre's director Professor Udy Archibong said: "The project is about understanding talent so that in future senior management will come from all backgrounds. We want senior managers and members of different cultures to learn from each other."

The centre has also been commissioned to carry out research projects to promote diversity and equality by both the National Health Service and the Commission for Racial Equality.

The university has been asked to benchmark schemes within the NHS which are run to promote diversity in the workplace and the CRE has asked the centre to produce a study into the role of the voluntary and community sector in promoting equality and diversity.

The centre has also built up links overseas and is running projects in Paksitan, Ghana and Nigeria. In Pakistan it is working with the Bradford Mirpur Health Link to help more women into a career in nursing.

And it is also working alongside the Cross River State authority in Nigeria to develop ways of ensuring women, disabled people and people from different ethnic backgrounds can find routes into the employment in the country.

On Friday, Dr Walter Eneji, the deputy governor of the Cross River State of Nigeria will help launch the centre. And a keynote speech will be delivered by Lord Victor Adebowale, one of the first people's peers to be elected in 2001. Lord Adebowale is chief executive of Turning Point, a leading social care organisation.

Professor Archibong said: "Our aim is to develop a world class centre of expertise in applied research, policy and programme development and consultancy on inclusion and diversity."

She said that positive action was essential to ensure workforces reflected the community. "It's 40 years since the Race Relations Act in this country and things have still not changed. Institutions do not reflect the community they serve. We think that if you do not adopt a radical approach and adopt corrective measures then nothing will change."

The University's Centre for Inclusion and Diversity will also run a masters course in Diversity Management.

e-mail: john.roberts@bradford.newsquest.co.uk