UNIVERSITY OF WARWICK
Notes from the Athena Network Group
Held on
Tuesday 6th May 2014
Present:
Sandra Beaufoy, Katherine Branch, Alexandra Cristea, Mark Hadley, Wilfrid
Kendall, Mia Khan, Claire Martin, Sunita Palmer, Alison Rodger, Sandy Sparks
Apologies:
Liz Blagrove, Sue Burrows, Oliver Cooper, Ann Dixon, Suzanne Evans, Jen
Henderson, Vanessa Goodship, Richard Moffat, Charlotte Moonan, Nav Patel,
Naila Rabbani, James Smith, Julia Smith, Orkun Soyer, Charikleia Tzanakou,
Annie Young
1.
Matters arising
S Beaufoy to circulate the slides on the WBS presentation on the Academic Balance
Model.
2.
Recent Athena SWAN Awards
REPORTED: (by S Beaufoy)
(a) That the Department of Physics had successfully renewed their Silver Athena
SWAN award.
(b) That Computer Science has re-submitted for an Athena Bronze award.
(c) That WBS have submitted for a Bronze award in the pilot of the Gender Equity
Charter Mark, the result of which will be known in August 2014.
(d) That three other University have departments that have received Athena Gold
awards in the recent submission round:


Biology at York
Physics at Cambridge
Biology at Queens, Belfast
(e) That 11 research institutes had joined the Athena Charter in the first month of
eligibility, of which 6 have already been successful in achieving Athena awards as
part of the research institute pilot. The 11 research institutes are:







British Antartic Survey
British Geological Survey
Centre for Ecology and Hydrology
The James Hutton Institute
John Innes Centre
Moredun Research Institute
National Institute for Medical Research




Natural History Museum
The Pirbright Institute
Rothamsted Research
Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute
RESOLVED:
(i)
(ii)
3.
That S Beaufoy will examine the Gold award departments’ submissions, to
identify what ‘gold’ initiatives they have in place, and disseminate the
information to the group.
That departments’ should identify if they have links with any of the research
institutes who have signed up for the Charter to see if there can be
collaborative work done to share best practice.
Progress on Departmental Action Plans
(i)
Statistics
REPORTED: (by W Kendall)
(a) That the mentor scheme for academic staff not on probation is
progressing
(b) The workload allocation model is progressing.
(c) There have been a number of good outreach projects involving females in
the department. An event scheduled for June 2014 called ‘Future
scholars’ has two female and two male speakers.
(ii)
Chemistry
REPORTED: (by K Branch)
(a) The next Welfare and Communication Group meeting was scheduled for
that afternoon, where data collection and analysis as well as other actions
will be discussed.
(b) That Chemistry is considering going for a Gold award in November 2015.
(iii)
Warwick Medical School
REPORTED: (by S Palmer)
(a) That WMS have shared data with Charikleia Tzanakou’s project.
(b) The Dean of WMS will now meet with maternity/adoption/paternity
returners to ensure their transition back into the work place is going well.
(c) That the Athena impact/initiatives is communicated in the department
via a weekly Newsletter.
(iv)
Physics
REPORTED: (by M Hadley)
(a)
(b)
(c)
(v)
That as a follow up from their Institute of Physics JUNO renewal,
Physics are looking at actions that were highlighted for attention by
the JUNO panel.
That discussions were taking place as to the best way to monitor
impact of JUNO/Athena initiatives.
That the department may look at a different approach to go for a Gold
award.
Psychology
REPORTED: (by M Khan)
(a) That there are a number of imminent changes in Psychology - Mia Khan is
leaving, and a new Head of Department is being recruited, so both
replacements will need to be briefed on Athena.
(vi)
Computer Science
REPORTED BY: (A Cristea)
(a) That the department have submitted in the April submission round.
(b) That a female speaker has been invited to give a seminar in the
department.
4.
Any Other Business
REPORTED: (by S Palmer)
That WMS would like to host an event for the Ada Lovelace Day on Tuesday 14th
October 2014.
RESOLVED:
That it may be more practical for departments to jointly organise an event, for both
the Ada Lovelace Day and International Womens’ Day.
5.
Date for next meeting
The date of the next meeting is Monday 7th July 2014 at 12:00 hrs in the MOAC meeting
room.