Newcastle University
Baddiley Clark Building
Richardson Road
Newcastle upon Tyne
NE2 4AX United Kingdom
FAO Ms Sarah Dickinson
Athena SWAN Manager
Equality Challenge Unit
7th Floor
Queens House
55/56 Lincoln’s Inn Fields
London
WC2A 3LJ
28 April 2014
Dear Ms Dickinson
Athena SWAN Gold Award Application
I am delighted to support the Institute’s application for an Athena SWAN Gold Award. As a mother of
four, an active research scientist and Institute Director, I have a strong personal and professional
commitment to the principles of the Charter.
Since IHS was awarded Silver status in 2011, we have worked hard to implement our action plan and
embed equality and diversity in all we do. We began by augmenting our SAT team to include student
representatives and also decided to increase the frequency of meetings. We have improved the
quality of Performance and Development Reviews through careful introduction of 360° processes
and personalised feedback from the Director (academics and researchers) or Institute Manager
(support staff). We have also clarified promotion criteria and invested the time of senior individuals
to help improve applications.
With wide agreement, we pool all non-allocated funds to finance an internal redeployment policy
which increases job security for research staff and allows ongoing investment in junior colleagues,
funds training and enables those without project funds to attend national and international
conferences. We also support early career researchers by funding open access publications and have
resourced an Early Career Researcher Association to promote peer-support and group-directed
learning.
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As a member of the Faculty Executive Board, I ensure that Athena SWAN considerations are central
to its deliberations. Members of the SAT team also sit on the Faculty’s Equality and Diversity
Committee and Professor Judith Rankin (SAT champion) is Chair of the University’s Diversity
committee. SAT members attend regional meetings to share learning and Judith is an Athena SWAN
panel member who assesses and supports other applications. SAT members submitted opinions to
the House of Commons Science and Technology Committee on the careers of women in science.
Within IHS since 2011, two female professors were awarded highly prestigious NIHR professorial
fellowships, two female allied health professionals won NIHR Clinical Lectureships with tenure
assured and twelve women secured external fellowships; four taking maternity leave during their
award.
As IHS continues to grow, maintaining high levels of support for all staff will be difficult. We
recognise that communication, workload and space are areas that we need to focus on over the next
three years and we have identified key actions in our action plan. Nevertheless, I am confident that,
with our Listening Forum and well-established policies and procedures, we will continue to offer
secure employment, good personal development and a positive work-life balance for all.
Finally, in the recent Employee Opinion Survey, 98% of staff reported that IHS was a good place to
work; comparable figures were 95% in the Faculty and 92% in the University. I believe this high level
of satisfaction reflects a widely shared ethos where staff feel they are treated equitably and have
strong collegiate support. I know that the entire Institute felt great pride when we won the Silver
award and feel confident that we are all highly committed to continuing to support the promotion of
women in science and achieving an Athena SWAN Gold award.
Yours sincerely,
Professor Eileen Kaner PhD, Hon FRCP
Institute Director and Professor of Public Health Research
Telephone: 0191 222 7884
Email: eileen.kaner@newcastle.ac.uk
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