This year one of the big People and Culture highlights has been the renewing of our Athena Swan Silver Award, in recognition of our success and progress in promoting gender equality and inclusion. In particular, the report highlights our achievements with communications across the department, flexible working, and the promotion of new senior females to both chair and professorship levels.
We’re now working on delivering our Future Action Plan, where we’ll be focusing on improving the inclusion as well as career development of different groups in the department, including new or emerging PIs, students, parents, minoritised groups and people outside researcher roles. We will also be looking at systemic gender inequalities such as pay gaps.
Much of what is in our Future Action Plan was informed by last year’s staff survey and we are now already looking ahead to the next staff survey coming up in the spring.
Another of our major initiatives this year is the launch of applications for open-ended contracts. We know that fixed term contracts have long been a challenge for many staff, both professionally and personally, and we are glad to be able to offer a scheme whereby open-ended contracts can now be applied for in many circumstances.
Our PI lunches, aiming to give PIs a space to discuss key issues, learn from each other and network more effectively, have been well attended. Over the past year we have focused on topics including good research culture in groups, PDRs and career conversations and inclusive staff recruitment top tips as well as how to be successful in grant applications and tackling scientific bureaucracy. We have received positive feedback on these peer to peer meetings and always interested in hearing ideas for future topics.
In the past term we have moved from monthly to termly People and Culture themes to be more strategic and focused on key areas whilst ensuring we give attention to important ongoing areas of interest and causes, such as Black History Month and disability awareness.
Over the past couple of months our theme has been connections and there has been some fantastic work to help develop and improve connections across the Department, such as hosting connection and well-being staff and student cafés, Christmas crafting, writing retreats and a focus on career development in grant applications, introduction of the student buddy scheme and launching our new department Linkedin page where we can keep everyone up to date on our activities.
Thank you to everyone who has been involved in these activities and to all those involved in and contributing to our People and Culture work.