UCL-Institute of Child Health
Athena SWAN
1st Self-Assessment Team Committee Meeting
Tuesday 29th January, 3:30pm, PUW 4, ICH
Present:
Dr Shamima Rahman (Chair)
Professor Maria Bitner-Glindzicz
Dr Jenny Morgan
Professor Andy Copp
Professor Pete Scambler
Professor Jane Sowden
Mr Mark Tiwarri (HR Representative)
Dr Sara Mole (LMCB Representative)
Ms Harriet Jones (UCL – HR Athena Swan Representative)
Miss Elisa Fassone (Post-Doctoral Researcher)
Ms Chris Thalasselis
Apologies:
Dr Andy Stoker
MINUTES
1. Introduction
Dr Rahman explained the purpose of the creation of the Self-Assessment Team,
thanked all of the Committee for agreeing to take part in taking this initiative forward
for the Institute of Child Health and continued by reiterating the aims of the Athena
SWAN initiative as follows: Athena SWAN is a UKRC-funded organisation that arose
from a collaboration of the Athena Project and the Scientific Academic Women's
Network (SWAN), whose aims are to advance women's careers in science,
technology, engineering and medicine. It aims to do this by addressing gender
inequalities and tackling unequal representation of women in science, by means of
changing cultures and attitudes across organisations.
Awards have been made since 2006, and by April 2012 there were >100 award
holders, including some departments within UCL (notably LMCB which has a Silver
award).
Achieving Athena SWAN Silver status became extremely important in 2011 when the
Chief Medical Officer announced that medical schools will only be shortlisted for
biomedical research centre and unit funding in future if they hold a Silver award. It is
therefore imperative that ICH applies for a Silver award during 2013.
It was agreed that we will plan to have monthly meetings during 2013, aiming to
submit our application in November.
2. The application process
Dr Sarah Mole (LMCB Representative – Silver Award Department) introduced herself
to the Committee and went on to explain the application process. The main aim is to
identify where problems lie and take positive action to rectify these. She confirmed
that this was an opportunity to assess the needs of the Department and convey the
findings in an honest and frank way. Some of the areas we need to take a closer
look at are:
Core hours for departmental meetings
Flexibility in terms of work life balance
Interview panels – how are these made up in relation to gender?
Committee Membership - look at gender balance
Invited speakers – aim for a 50/50 split
Creation of a questionnaire for new starters
Look at grant applications/success rates in relation to gender
As a result of the findings following data analysis, the committee will need to work on
a 3 year action plan, this should be based on a couple of the weaker areas identified
and we will need to state how we, as a Department, plan to make the necessary
improvements required, state what the positive actions in place are and measure the
impact of general practice.
2 individuals need to be identified and used as case studies, the purpose of this
being to show how ICH has helped their career within the last 3 years. One of the
individuals should be a member of the SAT.
We must consult with staff as a means of measuring the impact of any changes to be
made and use this as an opportunity to learn what the problems are.
3. Progress of data collection
Data has been provided by UCL HR and UCL Student Services. The ICH HR team
will begin to work on the analysis of the staff data and Dr Rahman’s team will analyse
the Student Data.
4. Forward Planning
It was agreed that the Committee will meet on a monthly basis to discuss the
progress of the application. Dates to be circulated in due course. An Athena SWAN
dropbox will be created, successful applications will be made available to all to
critique and provide feedback on.
The main action points are:
Creation of a questionnaire
Mentorship scheme-Professor Gudrun Moore
Senior promotions data
Committee diversity
HR raw data analysis
Student data analysis
Dates of future meetings
Widening participation
5. Any other business
No other business.
Mark/Chris
Shamima/Mark
Andy
Chris Thalasselis
HR Team
Elisa/Chris
Chris
Shamima