UCL-Institute of Child Health
Athena SWAN
7th July 2015, 2:30pm –4:00pm, June Lloyd Room, ICH
Present:
Professor Andy Copp
Dr Fani Deligianni (Postdoctoral
Representative)
Ms Lydia Leon (PhD Representative)
Ms Natalie Mark
Ms Lara Thomas
Professor Jenny Morgan
Professor Maria Bitner-Glindzicz
Dr Mona Bajaj-Elliot
Dr Dan Kelberman (Postdoctoral Representative),
Ms Wendy Knowles
Professor Jane Sowden
Dr Andy Stoker
Dr Erin Walker
Apologies: Professor Ros Smyth (Director), Professor Gudrun Moore, Dr Sara Mole (LMCB
Representative), Professor Pete Scambler, Dr Nikhil Thapar, Ms Kathy Kennedy
Notes
1. Welcome New SAT Members
Jenny Morgan welcomed Dr Phillippa Mills to the ICH Athena SWAN Self-Assessment
Team. Fani Deligianni is stepping down from SAT and Jenny thanked her for her
contribution. Fani will speak to other post-docs to identify a replacement.
2. Future applications
It was noted that for an application for gold to be successful, SAT would need sufficient
resources to be able to adequately support its work. The budget for 2015/16 is currently
being determined and due to budget constraints may not be significantly higher than the
amount awarded last year. Wendy will explore with Pip whether there is any scope for
making savings elsewhere in the budget to increase the SAT budget.
3. Subcommittee meetings
Jenny Morgan to circulate information regarding each of the subcommittees which should
meet each month in the period leading up to the gold application. Jenny advised that
Subcommittee members would be responsible for arranging their own meetings in the short
term until a replacement for Michael Williams is appointed.
4. Programme Management meeting
It was highlighted that there should be an Athena Swan representative at each of the
Programme Management meetings to update the programmes on what is happening in
Athena Swan.
5. Promoting Athena Swan Action Plans
Some members of the Committee felt that web links would be better for promoting Athena
Swan rather than a handbook and queried what was happening with this.
There was discussion about the progress with the staff survey and which questions were
most appropriate. Mona asked members to review the proposed questions and feed back on
which are most relevant. The committee all agreed that question 5 can be dropped in the
survey. The consensus was that the survey needed to go out as soon as possible and that
this was a priority.
It was noted that it had not been possible to access the data from the previous survey as
Michael had the password and had left without passing the information on. Wendy will look
into resolving this so that Mona and Steve can access the data.
6. Athena Swan Gold Application
Committee agreed that SAT members should all read at least one of the Gold applications
from other organisations in order to get a feel for the style and content before we start
drafting out own application.
Erin agreed to prepare a table which compares ICH’s Sliver Award to Gold applications
which could be accessed by all SAT members. For the Gold application the committee
agreed that we need to show that we have achieved everything included in the Sliver Award
plus additional beacon activities.
Deadline for Survey November 2016
It was noted that writing tasks will shortly be assigned to committee members. The new
forms can be found on the shared drive.
7. Workload Models
The Committee agreed that the Workload models should be made available and that there
should be an online workload model balance. Maria noted that she will be visiting the
Sociology and Language department on Friday to look into the work they have done in this
area.
8. Post Doc Awards
The committee felt that while the previous awards had been successful there may be room
for some improvement. This would be discussed with Gudrun Moore.
9. Maternity Room
A room has been identified on the ground floor which would be suitable space for mothers to
express breast milk on their return to work after maternity leave. Kathy was confident that
she should be able to secure funding to support this initiative from Philips Avent and it is
hoped that we could have this in place by autumn 2015.
10. MADs
Phillippa Mills updated the committee on MADs activities; such as swap shops, basic life
support sessions that are aimed at parents, and noted that Emma Sweeney from UCL HR
will be coming to the next meeting to present on the new child tax credit scheme.
Phillippa informed the committee that Andy Duncan will be leaving ICH and therefore the
MADs group shortly and we need to find another male volunteer to take his place.
MADs to start up again in September 2015.
11. Core Hours
The Committee felt that Core hours should be promoted at within Programme/Section and
research group meetings. Maria has designed a poster to advertise core hours and this will
be displayed around ICH to promote the commitment to this.
12. AOB
It was noted that Ros Smyth was unable to attend the next few meetings due to other
commitments. The Committee felt that it was important for the Director to be able to attend
wherever possible and agreed to look into the possibility of alternative meeting days and
time so that Ros is able to attend more meetings.
It was noted that the action plan should be updated and discussed further at the next
meeting.
13. Date of Next Meeting
10th September 2.30-4.00 June Lloyd Room