ATHENA SWAN CHARTER

ANNUAL REPORT

SEPTEMBER 2014

CONTENTS

PAGE

SUMMARY 1

1. BACKGROUND AND UPDATE ON THE ATHENA SWAN CHARTER 2

2. GOVERNANCE AND NETWORK GROUP 3

2.1 Athena Steering Group 3

2.2 Athena Network Group 4

3. GENDER EQUALITY CHARTER MARK (GEM) 5

3.1 Gender Equality Charter Mark Trial – WBS 6

3.2 Experience of WBS in submitting for a GEM award 6

4. SUMMARY OF WARWICK ATHENA SWAN SUBMISSIONS 7

5. RESEARCH CONFIRMS POSITIVE IMPACT OF THE ATHENA

SWAN CHARTER 12

6. GOOD PRACTICE INTIATIVES IMPLEMENTED AS PARTOF THE ATHENA SWAN PROCESS 13

6.1 ESRC Funded Project 13

6.2 GENDER-NET 13

6.3 Your Life – The Call to Action Campaign 14

7. WHAT IS PLANNED NEXT? 17

APPENDIX 1: PROGRESS MADE AGAINST THE SILVER ACTION PLAN 19

SUMMARY

The University of Warwick became a member of the Athena SWAN Charter in 2009. The

Charter recognises and celebrates good employment practice for women working in

Science, Technology, Engineering and Medicine (STEMM) in Higher Education and attempts

to address gender inequalities within disciplines. Continued commitment to the Charter is

enabling the University to raise its Equality and Diversity profile, both internally and

externally, and is providing a framework on which to build on current good practice.

Further information about the Athena Charter can be found at:

http://www.athenaswan.org.uk/html/athena-swan/.

This is the third Annual Report on Warwick’s Athena work, which details the significant

progress made on Athena initiatives since the University joined the Charter in 2009. Future

reports will also include Warwick’s progress on the new Gender Equality Charter Mark

(GEM), which will be formally launched in November 2014 - (see Section 3).

Progress is reported against initiatives implemented since the Athena Institutional Silver

award was conveyed to Warwick in November 2013 (see Appendix 1 for progress on the

Silver Action Plan). Many of the Athena initiatives have historically formed part of the

University’s Equality Objectives 2012-2015 and progress (as of May 2014) against the

objectives can be seen at:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/equalops/singleequalityscheme/)

It is proposed to review the Equality Objectives for 2015 onwards in line with the new

University Strategy. Attention during 2013/14 has focused on starting to work on the

actions identified on the Silver Athena Action Plan and assisting the remaining STEMM

department, Computer Science, develop their Bronze Athena submission. Guidance and

support has also been given to WBS whilst working on their Bronze submission in the GEM

trial.

1

1. Background and Update on the Athena SWAN Charter

The Athena SWAN Charter evolved from work between the Athena Project and the Scientific

Women’s Academic Network (SWAN), to advance the representation of women in science,

technology, engineering, medicine and mathematics (STEMM). With the support of the

Equality Challenge Unit (ECU) and the UK Research Council (RCUK), the Charter was officially

launched at the Institute of Physics on 22 June 2005, with the first awards conferred in

2006. The Charter has grown consistently from its inception, and now has 116 member

institutions who have signed up to the Charter.

A decision by the Department of Health in 2011 to link National Institute of Health Research

Biomedical Research Centre and Biomedical Research Unit funding to Athena SWAN Silver

awards, resulted in an increase in membership from medical and dental schools. Warwick

Medical School (WMS) was the first medical school to achieve Athena success (which was

described by ECU as a ‘landmark achievement’), and qualified WMS to fulfil the research

funding council’s requirements.

In addition, RCUK set out a ‘Statement of Expectation for Equality and Diversity’ for

institutions receiving research council funding. RCUK expects recipients of funding to

‘provide evidence of ways in which equality and diversity issues are managed at both an

institutional and departmental level’. Participation in the Athena Charter contributes to

such evidence.

The ECU has seen a considerable amount of interest in the Athena Charter from abroad. In

November 2014, ECU will be launching a three-year pilot to extend the Charter to the higher

education sector in the Republic of Ireland. This will be funded by Ireland’s Higher

Education Authority, and will be the first time the Charter has been run outside of the UK.

Interest has also been expressed by the Australian Academy of Science, and discussions may

take place as to the practicality of such a Charter Mark being introduced in Australia.

A comprehensive guidance document on the Athena awards process is currently in

development. This document will outline a new appeals process for unsuccessful

submissions, which is something institutions have been requesting for some time. New

2

submission forms are also being developed, but Athena policy is that there will be a period

of time where both old and new submission forms will be accepted. ECU will also be

providing a programme of panellist training, to help make the assessment process more

robust. An updated set of benchmarking data will also become available as part of a re-

vamp of the EUC Athena SWAN website.

2. Governance and Network Group

2.1 Athena Steering Group

The Warwick Athena Steering Group continues to meet termly. The membership of the

Group has recently been expanded to include the Chairs of the Faculties of Arts and Social

Sciences, in preparation for launch of the Gender Equality Charter Mark (GEM) (see Section

3). There have also been changes in the representation from Research Support Services

(RSS) and Human Resources (HR) (see full membership below).

The Athena Steering Group is chaired by Professor Tim Jones, Pro-Vice Chancellor for

Knowledge Transfer, Business Engagement and Research (Science and Engineering). The

Athena Steering Group provides University-level strategy for Athena, taking oversight of

University-wide activities to ensure that Warwick does not disadvantage women, or indeed

anyone, within its talent pool, and considers new initiatives, issues of concern and monitors

the career progression of women across all STEMM disciplines and increasingly in other

faculties also.

The key aim of the Athena Steering Group is to review and develop strategies for the

implementation of appropriate activities within the Athena agenda and to encourage the

career development of women in all Faculties within the University of Warwick. The

Steering Group addresses issues that either cannot be managed at departmental level or

where there is institutional wide impact.

The Group Membership is:

Professor Tim Jones, Pro-Vice Chancellor for Knowledge Transfer, Business Engagement and Research (Science and Engineering) – ChairProfessor Pam Thomas – Chair of the Board of Faculty of Science

3

Professor Peter Winstanley – Chair of the Board of Faculty of Medicine

Professor Maureen Freely – Chair of the Board of Faculty of Arts

Professor Christopher Hughes – Chair of the Board of Faculty of Arts

Professor Alison Rodger – Chair of the Athena Network Group

Ms Geraldine Mills – HR Engagement Director

Dr Leona Morton, Research Development Manager, Science & Engineering

Mrs Leonie Walls – Human Resources Manager, Administration

Mrs Sandra Beaufoy – Human Resources Adviser, Equality and Diversity

The primary aim of the group is to support and encourage STEMM departments and Arts

and Social Science departments within the University to progress their Athena and GEM

Awards respectively and to advance to the next level of award. This is on the basis that this

process creates a better working environment for all.

The Terms of Reference of the group remain unchanged.

2.2 Athena Network Group

The Athena Network Group is an informal group with representation from all the STEMM

departments as well as staff from HR, RSS, Learning and Development Centre (LDC) and

Student Careers and Skills (SCS). More recently, staff from WBS have attended meetings in

order that they familiarise themselves with the principles of Athena and share best practice,

which can then translate into their GEM work. The group continues to be co-chaired by

Alison Rodger (Chemistry/MOAC) and Sandra Beaufoy (HR Adviser – Equality and Diversity).

The group meets monthly and up-dates departmental representatives on current initiatives,

progress on Athena work, and encourages and supports departments with their Athena

agenda. Minutes of meetings of the Network Group are posted on the Athena web page:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/equalops/athena/network_group/meetings/

For the time being, staff from the Arts and Social Sciences Faculties attend the Athena

Network Meetings to share best practice already being implemented in STEMM

4

departments. A decision will need to be taken in 2014/15, if GEM submissions warrant a

separate Network Group or if the Athena Network Group expands in size.

Communication of Athena successes and up and coming events related to Athena Work are

also posted on the Athena web pages:

http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/services/equalops/athena/.

Members of staff from Warwick have also attended a number of national meetings where

Athena matters are part of the agenda discussions, as well as giving presentations on

Warwick’s Athena work. In particular, staff from WMS are frequently asked to attend

workshops/meetings to present on the challenges they faced whilst putting together their

bronze and silver submissions, and Alison Rodger and Sandra Beaufoy have given

presentations on Warwick’s journey to achieve Silver Athena status.

3. Gender Equality Charter Mark (GEM)

In 2013/14, the Equality Challenge Unit, who administer the Athena Charter Mark, piloted a

new Gender Equality Charter Mark (GEM) which focuses on addressing gender inequalities

and imbalance in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences, in particular the under-

representation of women in senior roles. The Charter Mark utilises the experience and

methodology of the Athena SWAN Charter, which will continue to operate as it currently

stands, with a view to bringing the two Charters together in the future. GEM will develop

principles and processes that will cover:

All arts, humanities and social sciences disciplines

Under-representation of men at certain levels and in some disciplines

Professional and support staff (institutional submissions only)

Transgender equality (institutional submissions only)

Like Athena, GEM will have institutional and departmental awards at three levels, Bronze,

Silver and Gold. Institutions that already hold Athena Institutional awards will not have to

submit for a GEM institutional award.

5

3.1 Gender Equality Charter Mark Trial – Warwick Business

School (WBS)

A pilot of GEM took place between September 2013 and April 2014. WBS took part in the

pilot of the scheme and subsequently submitted for a Bronze award in April 2014. At the

time of writing this report, WBS have been informed that their submission has been

successful and their formal award will be presented to them later this year.

31 GEM awards were applied for with a 71% overall success rate (22 awards). This

compares with 72% for the November 2013 Athena SWAN award round. Five Universities

and seventeen individual departments have been recognised in the pilot. All have achieved

bronze level awards. Moving forward the GEM process will be developed in light of

feedback from trial participants, but there will be much synergy between the two Charter

marks.

It is expected that the formal launch of GEM will be in November 2014, and other Warwick

departments in the Arts and Social Science Faculties are being encouraged to participate in

the GEM process and submit for an award in the first or second tranche of submissions.

Several ‘Windows on Warwick’ sessions have been organised in an attempt to disseminate

information on GEM to departments, and Sandra Beaufoy and Claire Martin have already

attended faculty and departmental meetings to discuss GEM.

3.2 Experience of WBS in submitting for a GEM award

The Dean of WBS was asked to comment on how he found the submission process of the Gender Equality Charter Mark. His comments are as follows:

‘WBS’s participation in the pilot Gender Equality Charter Mark (GEM), has given the School an opportunity to consider the processes in operation to ensure we offer equality of opportunity for all staff. Although data capture and analysis was one of the most significant challenges to our submission, once we obtained the relevant data it revealed several trends of which we were not aware. The data demonstrated that WBS has several areas of excellent practice, as well as highlighting some areas where we believe improvements can be made. Taking part in the trial has also allowed us to help shape the future of GEM. Our feedback on the process has been provided to the Equality Challenge Unit (ECU), who are now updating

6

the requirements for GEM to reflect some of our comments, such as the tight timescale, lack of cohesion with the Athena SWAN submissions and a lack of detail due to tight word count.

WBS’s GEM submission is the culmination of a lot of hard work from a large cross-section of staff and the profile and message of GEM seems to be permeating throughout the School. Specific actions from WBS’s 3-year Action Plan are being championed by particular staff members going forward who are thus helping to spread the ideas and philosophy of GEM. Obtaining a GEM bronze award is a proud achievement for WBS and demonstrates our commitment to equality for all staff’.

Professor Mark Taylor, Dean of WBS

4. Summary of Warwick Athena Swan Submissions

Significant progress continues to be made by STEMM departments on their Athena work. In

September 2013, the University successfully achieved institutional Silver Athena status,

making it only the fourth institution to hold this prestigious award. The Department of

Physics renewed their Athena Silver award, along with their Institute of Physics JUNO

Champion status. WMG, Mathematics and Statistics all successfully achieved Athena Bronze

status, and Computer Science have just been informed (September 2014) that they have

been awarded Bronze status, which they submitted for in the April 2014 submission round.

Warwick is now one of the few universities where all STEMM departments have Athena

awards, which is an excellent indicator of the commitment to this agenda.

7

The table below depicts each of the ten Warwick STEMM departments and details progress

that each have made, as well as the Athena contact for each department. All awards are

renewable after a three year period, and it is hoped that within that time period, each

department will have sufficiently moved their action plans forward to be ready to submit for

the next level of award.

In future reports, similar tables will be produced for both the Faculties of Arts and Social

Sciences.

Table 1: Status of STEMM departments with Athena SWAN awards

Department Coordinator Level AwardedProposed

Submission DateNext Level of Award

to be applied

forPhysics Sue Burrows Silver (2014) Renewed Silver in

2014Gold

Chemistry Alison Rodger Silver (2013) Renewed Silver in 2013

Gold

WMS Annie Young Silver (2013) April or Nov 2015 Gold Psychology Liz Blagrove Bronze (2012) April 2015 SilverEngineering Joanne Collingwood Bronze (2013) April 2015 SilverLife Sciences Orkun Soyer Bronze (2013) Nov 2014 SilverWMG Jane Coleman Bronze (2013) tbd SilverMathematics Nav Patel Bronze (2013) tbd SilverStatistics Wilfrid Kendal Bronze (2013) tbd SilverComp Science Alexandra Cristea Pending tbd Silver

Representatives from the University, WMG, Mathematics and Statistics attended the Athena

Awards Presentation Ceremony which was held at Imperial College, London in November

2013 and can be seen in the following pictures collecting their awards.

8

Professor Tim Jones and Sandra Beaufoy receiving the Institutional Silver Athena Award. The award is being presented by Professor Dame Julia Higgins.

Professor Alison Rodger and Leonie Walls receiving a Bronze Athena award on behalf of the Mathematics Department.

9

Jane Coleman and Claire White receiving a Bronze Athena Award on behalf of WMG

Dr Jo Kennedy receiving a Bronze Athena Award on behalf of the Department of Statistics.

10

Group photograph of Warwick staff with their Athena awards.

Sue Burrows collecting the Physics Department Silver Athena renewal award at a presentation ceremony at the University of Durham on 10 July 2014. The award was presented by Professor Dame Julia Higgins

11

5. Research Confirms Positive Impact of the Athena SWAN Charter

An independent evaluation into the impact and effectiveness of the Athena SWAN Charter has confirmed that the awards scheme advanced gender equality and changes the working culture and attitude within participating departments and universities (Evaluating the Effectiveness and impact of the Athena SWAN Charter, ECU, 2013).

The Equality Challenge Unit commissioned Loughborough University to investigate the impact of Athena in higher education institutions in the UK, including:

The effectiveness of the Charter in advancing women’s careers in STEMM.

The sustainability of the changes that higher education institutions are making as a result of their participation in Athena SWAN.

The impact of the Athena SWAN Charter in changing the culture and attitudes across the participating higher education institutions to address inequality and unequal representation.

The suitability of Athena SWAN processes for use in complex and busy institutional environments.

The report also underlines that it is not only female academics that benefit from involvement in the Charter. Men also benefited from initiatives such as flexible working and improved transparency of policies/processes. Furthermore, administrative and technical staff in Silver award departments felt they also had more support for their career development and progression. The summary of the report and ECU’s response may be found at:

http://www.ecu.ac.uk/publications/evaluating-athena-swan

The report evidenced that universities and departments that hold Athena SWAN awards are more advanced in addressing unequal representation than those that do not. A number of recommendations were made to ECU that will help them to continue to refine and improve their processes so that Athena SWAN remains an effective tool for HEIs and a valuable benchmark for excellence in gender equality. David Ruebain, Chief Executive of the Equality Challenge Unit, said:

“We are, of course, delighted with the findings of this independent evaluation. At a time when universities and departments have to target resources where they will make the biggest difference, I hope it will be reassuring to know there is independent evidence of the sustainable impact working towards an Athena SWAN award can have.

12

However, we are not going to rest on our successes; we are going to continue to build on them. We welcome the recommendations for further development and improvement of the process that will ensure the Charter remains effective and fit for purpose”.

The full report entitled ‘Advancing women’s careers in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine: evaluating the effectiveness and impact of the Athena SWAN Charter is available to download: http://www.ecu.ac.uk/publications/evaluating-athena-swan.

6. Good Practice Initiatives Implemented As Part Of Athena SWAN process

As a continuation of the good work identified through the University Silver Athena award, a significant number of innovative and good practice initiatives continue to be identified and put in place. It is essential that these initiatives are effective and meeting their objective, so where possible the progress and impact on each initiative is measured, and this is reported on the Silver Action Plan Progress Table (see Appendix 1). Some initiatives worth highlighting are discussed below.

6.1 ESRC Funded Project

In addition to progress made against the Athena Silver Action Plan, Professor Alison Rodger was successful in securing ESRC funding to employ a postdoctoral research fellow, Dr Charikleia Tzanakou, to undertake research into Academia and Gender. This research highlighted that despite the growth of female participation in higher education and doctoral education, women are still under-represented in professorial and more permanent academic posts in most (all bar one) disciplines. While the Athena SWAN charter has put gender equality at the spotlight for Science departments, data in a number of social sciences subjects seem to be equally discouraging to women looking at a career in academia. The ESRC provided funding to investigate closely gender student and staff data across departments and institutions. The research outcomes of this project were presented at a two day workshop Academia and Gender: Inducing cultural change to plug the ‘leaky pipeline’ held at the Royal Society in London on 5th/6th June 2014. The key aim of the event was to examine existing gender equality practices from an institutional and disciplinary perspective and identify worthwhile initiatives that will induce cultural change.

6.2 GENDER-NET

As an Athena Silver Institution, ECU asked Warwick to take part in a survey that feeds into a European Commission FP7 funded project, GENDER-NET. The aim of the project is to create a European Network exploring and developing transnational activity to promote the

13

gendering of research content and promote gender equality in research careers. The project is led by the Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS) in France and there are 12 partners from Europe, the USA and Canada. Learning from the Athena SWAN methodology, ECU’s role in the project is to lead on an area of work investigating the use of award schemes (such as Athena and similar awards managed by other partners) to promote gender equality and structural change, and to consider how a transnational award programme might be designed. The project commenced in October 2013 and will run for 3 years. More information on the project can be found at: http://www.gender-net.eu/ .

6.2 ‘Your Life’ – The Call to Action Campaign

‘Your life’ – Call to Action is a three year national campaign to ensure the UK has the maths and science skills it needs to succeed in a competitive global economy. The campaign will endeavour to do this by inspiring young people to study maths and physics as a gateway to exciting and wide-ranging careers; and by helping employers recruit and retain talent, particularly women. ‘Your Life’ is addressing this by securing a commitment from employers, educators, professional associations and civil society to take action in the following ways:

Recruitment: Actively encouraging applications from underrepresented groups; encouraging staff to undertake outreach; ensuring that work experience and apprenticeship opportunities are open to a diverse range of students.

Retention: Developing more inclusive workplace cultures, such as flexible working for all and supporting those who have taken a career break; and ensuring development opportunities are open to all groups.

Progression: Being open and transparent about progression routes and developing mentoring and training for staff from underrepresented groups.

To achieve the campaign objectives requires a clear strategic focus and unprecedented levels of collaboration. Many organisations are already very active in delivering their own initiatives, but it is considered that by working together, young people can be inspired to see the value and opportunity of studying maths and science. Over 180 organisations across business, education, civil society and government have already responded to the campaign’s Call to Action and pledged their support. Warwick University is one of these organisations and Warwick’s pledge can be seen below:

Warwick University commits to:

Extending Outreach across all STEM subjects into diverse local schools from primary to secondary education with particular emphasis on creating a picture of STEM being for everyone.

14

Extending the recruitment of female applicants in STEM subjects, and particularly at Postgraduate Taught Level.

Generate and promote targeted case studies to enthuse female students to apply for Warwick STEM courses.

Work with our industrial partner companies to create specific opportunities and pathways for part-time and female students and graduates.

In partnership with the Engineering Development Trust, offer Inspire courses for Year 11 girls to encourage them to think about a career in engineering, science or technology.

Warwick University will:

Engage with young people

Warwick University is highly committed to the development of the next generation of engineers and has taken a leading role in initiating the creation and development of the WMG Academy for Young Engineers. This University Technical College is due to open in September 2014 for pupils aged from 14 to 19 years. It will provide education specialising in engineering with digital technology for more than 600 students, with a ring-fenced intake of female students.

Warwick will continue to involve itself in public exhibitions to raise awareness of STEM subjects and to showcase female role models, such as the ‘Gadget Show’ Live exhibition and “Warwick on Wheels” which is an interactive science exhibition funded by the EPSRC and developed by researchers at Warwick, with the aim to inspire school children about engineering and sustainability, with a focus on “low carbon” research.

Will work with six schools over the next five years to deliver long-term sustained Chemistry outreach interventions. ‘Chemistry for All’ will build strong focused relationships with each of the schools, with the long-term aim to inspire young people from WP backgrounds to study Chemistry at a higher education level.

Will host Engineering Scholarships for females, which have been funded by a donor pledge to fund 2 scholarships per year for three years. The purpose of the scholarships is actively to attract females on engineering courses, from those who have been recruited through Warwick’s widening participation programmes. In addition to financial support, the students will be given enhanced careers, professional and cultural opportunities and personal support to broaden their experiences in readiness for future employment.

15

Will increase the emphasis on female participation when promoting activities, work experience, research placements, workshops, events, public lectures, summer schools and scholarships, in order to demonstrate appropriate role models.

Will engage young people from a local College for students with learning difficulties and disabilities. The project is to provide training in engineering design and 3D printing to enable students with learning difficulties and disabilities to apply their knowledge to the development of tools and accessories to meet their needs and to share their designs with the wider community.

Warwick will contribute to a national campaign by:

Continuing to encourage STEM departments to participate in national projects, such as the Big Bang Fair, Headstart (aimed at 16/17 year olds), Dragonfly, Arkwright Scholarship initiative and the Royal Institution Master classes.

Identifying challenges in STEM careers for women and developing actions to address them at the appropriate level (individual, department, University, nationally), and to share best practice identified.

Encouraging (particularly women) staff to participate in judging at local and national level the various STEM subject school competitions, for example, the national science and engineering competition and the Young Engineers organisation.

Celebrating national landmark days of women in Technology and Engineering such as National Women in Engineering Day, Ada Lovelace Day and International Womens’ Day.

Warwick holds a Silver institutional Athena SWAN award, and its STEM departments hold awards, ranging from Bronze to Silver. Warwick also holds an HR Excellence in Research award, and is currently working with other disciplines to submit for the Gender Equality Charter Mark.

Increasing women in technology and engineering in the organisation:

Warwick commits:

To host annual events to raise profiles of female staff in STEM, to ensure engagement and to provide role models to inspire and motivate other female researchers and academics, for example, celebrate International Women’s Day.

To nominate outstanding women for honorary degrees.

16

To lead investigations on how to support females at different stages of their careers.

To continue to support the Women’s Network Group, where discussions can take place on relevant initiatives with a view to improving work life balance and promotion prospects.

To continue the annual fund that has been established to assist with payment for extra childcare costs incurred when individuals attend conferences/workshops/ training, which is a fundamental part of academic life.

To encourage more female participation in developing commercial impact of research.

7. What is planned next?

Warwick is delighted to be one of only three institutions that have been successful in achieving Athena status for all of its STEMM departments. Work is already being undertaken to ensure that STEMM departments proactively achieve the objectives that they committed to on their departmental action plans. Updates on these are discussed at the monthly Athena Network meetings and progress monitored. Encouragement and support will be given to inspire departments to progress to the next level of Athena awards within the 2015 submission deadlines.

Support is now also being offered to the Faculties of Arts and Social Studies to assist them to approach the Gender Equality Charter Mark and to share best practice that has been identified in STEMM departments. It is hoped that a number of Warwick departments will be in a position to submit for an award in the first submission round in 2015. ‘Windows on Warwick’ sessions have already been held, along with presentations to both the Faculties on GEM, as well as individual departmental presentations.

In line with the new University strategy, Warwick will remain true to the principles of Equality and Diversity and Dignity at Work and Study, to ensure that staff and students are properly recognised for their contributions to the University’s success, regardless of any protected characteristics. Warwick also intends to continue to engage with national projects and research to address the underrepresentation of females in STEMM subjects, and indeed, to ensure that all staff benefit from improved initiatives and processes.

Sandra BeaufoyHR Adviser, Equality and DiversityOctober 2014

17

APPENDIX 1: Progress on the ATHENA SWAN Silver Action Plan

This Action Plan is intended to guide the work of the SWAN Self Assessment Group over the period 2013 to 2016

19

Key Areas for Assessment

Actions Accountability Timescales Progress and Actions Taken since Silver Award

UNDERGRADUATE STUDENTS1. Under-

representation of women(Ultimate Goal: Increase in under-graduate female population in physical and mathematical sciences)

(i) Outreach events aimed at female students embedded into departmental activities.

HOD, Admissions Teams in STEMM departments

2013-2016 All STEMM departments have outreach activities listed on their Action Plans and are proactive in creating innovative and engaging schemes to attract females into STEMM disciplines. Some departments have a dedicated member of staff with responsibilities for outreach

(ii) Women given a high profile on all STEMM publicity material and websites.

Warwick has a professional publicity office that advises staff on all aspects of publicity. This facility is available to ALL staff regardless of gender. Warwick has also developed a national “Communication and Impact for Female Early Career Researchers” course.All publicity material does reflect the diversity of the campus environment and images contain people with and without protected characteristics, and most STEMM publicity features females.

POSTGRADUATES STUDENTS and POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHERS (where actions are common to both categories)2. Retention of

women in Academia following postgraduate study and postdoctoral research(Ultimate Goal: Recruitment and retention of female staff in STEMM)

To change attitudes on viability of academic careers for women by further increased use of Postgraduate Certificate in Transferable Skills in Science (PGCTSS) to provide quantitative positive support for female students and researchers.

SET Departments, E&D Committee, HR, DRO

2013-2016 The Postgraduate Certificate in Transferable Skills in Science for PDRAs has been designed to be a career development tool that can be used to seek help required from mentor(s) while at the same time making it clear what skills a postdoctoral researcher will need to make the step to an independent career.An evaluation of the scheme will take place to determine if it would be appropriate to instigate a similar postgraduate certificate for researchers in other academic faculties.Enhanced career development self-help resources have been developed on the LDC website and additional funding has been made available for one to one career advice/support. This will help to raise awareness between researchers and PIs that time is required for researchers to develop transferable skills.An Advanced Workshop day for ECR’s was held on 1 February 2013 on Career Planning and Progression. Guest speaker Dr Kate Sang (Acting

20

Chair, Feminist and Women’s Studies Association UK) who spoke about gender and academic careers. The Workshop also held sessions on women in science at Warwick, work-life balance and planning career breaks. 48 people attended the workshop and feedback was good.

Support departmental initiatives for students and events such as WIS (which are events organised by PDRAs)

Women in Science forum regularly host events where career progression/pathways are discussed (events have been held on 26.09.2013 and 24.09.2014). Speakers for September 2014 included: Claire Haworth, Psychology (Behavioural Genetics) Judith Klein, WMS (Warwick Systems Biology Centre) Carolyn Parkinson, WMG (International International for Product and

Service Innovation) Elizabeth Stanway, Physics (Astronomy and Astrophysics)This event also included breakout sessions on: Imposter Syndrome Athena SWAN Career Development Work/Life BalanceVarious departmental events are supported, such as Physics hosting an event for International Womens’ Day.

POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCHERS3. Lack of under-

standing on how to pursue an academic career

(i) Embed development tool for all PDRA’s to improve their prospect of pursing an academic career

Encourage PDRAs to take the accredited Postgraduate Certificate in Transferable Skills in Science for PDRAs. Encourage PDRAs to use LDC

Academic Lead (AR)

On-going

The Postgraduate Certificate in Transferable Skills in Science for PDRAs has been designed to be a career development tool that can be used to seek help required from mentor(s) while at the same time making it clear what skills a postdoctoral researcher will need to make the step to an independent career.To ensure research active staff have sufficient training and development to enhance their careers either at Warwick or elsewhere, a range of courses have been organised: Academic Careers and Employability Programme offering 1-1 support

for PDRAs.21

(ii) To enable PDRAs to track their learning & development

resources. Invite PDRAs to new annual “Demystifying Promotion Process”. Have breakout groups for PDRAs.

Presenting your research to different audiences Being an enterprising researcher Technology for researchers Coaching and Mentoring including 1-1 coaching, three way coaching

and coaching through reflective writing An introduction to Entrepreneurship in collaboration with Warwick

Science Park Impact, Engagement and Dissemination.

Due to the success of the first ‘Demystifying the Promotion Process at Warwick’ event in April 2013 (41 attendees), another event was held on 13 March 2014 (47 attendees). The speakers at these events included Pro-Vice Chancellors, Chairs of Faculties and members of the University Promotion Committee. HR are monitoring the attendees at these events to see if they apply and are successful for promotion the following year. Of the attendees at the 2013 event, 8 members of staff applied for promotion, and 7 were successful. Feedback from the event has been excellent, with staff valuing the opportunity to speak with senior management on what issues to consider when working towards the promotion criteria.The Demystifying Promotion Session has now become an annual event with the next scheduled for 12 March 2015 and attendance will be open to all academic and research staff.

Introduction of an online space designed to support PDRAs. The Portfolio offers both a portal to a wide range of opportunities and resources, as well as a personal portfolio enabling researchers to build a record

LDC 2013-2016 Piirus is a brand new online research tool developed at Warwick. Piirus helps researchers to find the right expertise at the right time, at the start of the research process and finding help and collaborators. This portfolio has evolved from ‘Research Match’, where PDRAs were able to upload their CVs, research interests, skills and development. Piirus was launched in October 2013 to Warwick researchers. In December 2013, Monash researchers became able to join Piirus. The official launch of Piirus in Monash takes place on 1st April 2014.

22

of their training, experiences and achievements throughout their research degree.

Piirus will be opened up internationally over the coming months in a number of phases: By March 2014, Piirus will be opened up to SLE and University of

Leicester. Other Universities will follow in April 2014. We expect considerable growth and in May 2014, all members of

Piirus were provided with 10 invitations to issue out to their colleagues worldwide and this will begin the global roll-out and another significant growth in membership.

Piirus will always remain free to researchers but it is likely that other value-add-services will sit alongside the matching service for researchers.

(iii) Support initiatives such as the ‘Irene Joliot-Curie Conference’ for female chemists waiting to move into independent academic careers.

Ensure Irene Joliot-Curie conference takes place annually.

Royal Society of Chemistry Warwick and Imperial Chemistry Depts.

On-going The University of Warwick and Imperial College jointly hosted the first of these 1 day conference series in 2012 at Warwick. The conference is to support postdoctoral chemists, especially women, as they plan for the next step in their careers. The 2014 Irene Joliot-Curie conference takes place on 16-17 September 2014, at the Royal Society of Edinburgh, Edinburgh – see below:

Now in its third year, the Joliot-Curie Conference is an annual event dedicated to addressing barriers to career progression in the chemical sciences.

With an exciting programme of workshops, one-to-one consultations, and keynote speeches from world-renowned experts, the Joliot-Curie Conference seeks to:

Raise the aspirations of young chemists Address barriers to career progression

Increase the confidence of delegates when presenting,

23

networking and raising their public profile

Promote diversity and an inclusive working culture

Audience: Early-career researchers, postdoctoral researchers and final-year PhD students who aspire to establish an independent career in chemistry are welcome to attend the conference.

4. Retention of female PDRA after maternity/adoption leave

Support of female PDRAs before during & following maternity/adoption leave

(i) To ensure that the University continues to liaise with the Returning Parents Network Group (RPNG) to ensure that support is being utilised and fit for purpose.

HR, RPNG The University continues to work with and support the Returning Parents Network Group to seek feedback from returning parents. The maternity checklists have now been developed and are being implemented. Due to the success of the Returning Network Group, the remit of the group has been expanded and the Group re-named to Working Parents Network. The group have regular meetings which gives working parents the opportunity to meet with other working parents at the University, whether they have a new baby or older child.The Group’s web pages has been improved to be more informative and an e-form set up for members to keep in touch, this is closed forum so those who wish to discuss topics have to request access rights. This is to ensure privacy and to encourage discussions that some may find difficult in an open forum. Staff on maternity leave can still have access to the forum. Recently advertised on Insite and new posters produced and disseminated.

This data collection is still in its infancy and will be reported on in further progress reports.

(ii) Collect & review data of career progression of female academic and research staff returning from maternity leave.

(iii) Offer such PDRAs visiting fellowships at end of contract

5. Improve PDRA Linked with the RSF, a post- Research 2013-2016 Postdoctoral newcomers are invited to Research Staff Forum lunches so

24

experience

Provision of a Postdoctoral Newcomers Meeting to improve beginning of PDRA experience

doctoral newcomers meeting will continue to meet on a regular basis, so that new PDRAs have an opportunity to meet with key people from across the University, so they can understand readily what support is available to them in their role.

Committee, RSF, SIGs

they can meet their representatives and other key people (i.e. LDC and Library contacts) and find out what the Research Staff Forum does for researchers. The forum continued to meet three or four times per academic year (19 November 2013; 25 February 2014; 21 May 2014; 8 October 2014)

LDC also delivers monthly electronic newsletters to research active staff (staff on research, academic and teaching terms and conditions) – see (8(ii) below.

A new improved website has been created to provide both signposting and to provide useful information on L&D opportunities for researchers. A key feature being developed further is the Resources Bank, a searchable repository of information to support ongoing reference and researcher development. It includes presentations and videos of key workshop talks for example ones on careers development, academic writing and statistics. The website has had 10,740 hits from August 2013 to July 2014. The Resource Bank has had 3,812 hits for the same period, greatly increasing the access to resources from the LDC’s programme of events.

6. Communication and Impact

Provision of relevant & useful training and development courses. Raise confidence of ECRs & provision of networking opportunities

To continue with the annual series of Communication & Impact courses for female scientists. (Nationally & 1-2 courses at Warwick)

Academic Lead (AR) / LDC

On-going Since the Bronze submission, LDC has worked tirelessly with STEMM departments to ascertain appropriate training and development sessions for academic and research staff. There has been a vast improvement in the quality and number of courses now available to staff, which include communication, assertiveness, written and spoken skills. A Communication and Impact for female early career researchers event was held 30 July – 1st August 2014 at Cumberland Lodge, Great Windsor Park and BBC Broadcasting House. The course covered topics such as:Key issues and problems faced by women in science Posture, body language and appearance: common mistakes, how to

spot them and how to fix them; How to grab your audience’s attention, be credible and be incredible;

25

The relationship between science, the public and the media; What journalism is and how it applies to your science

In 2014, 23 young scientists attended from Warwick and across the UK spanning all science disciplines. It was well received and enjoyed – though was acknowledged to be challenging.

Research Active Staff NetworksFunding support opportunities for research active staff networks to support research/academic staff to set up or maintain an existing research active staff network. Last year the Research Active Staff Network Funding had 15 applications and allocated the full £13,000 of which £10,700 was spent.

Key focus: AS – Athena Swan (with female lead or participant focus) = 11 I-D/Collab – Inter-disciplinary for collaborative aim = 11 Output – The network activity produced a tangible output = 5 Collegiate – the network supported collegiality in the

department/faculty = 6 PE – the network included a public engagement focus or activity = 2 PhD – the network encouraged engagement with PhD students to

support researcher development = 3

1. Researching Human Fatigue in the Workplace (continued funding) : AS, I-D/Collab, Output

This interdisciplinary network aimed at collaboration through increasing knowledge about work going on in the field. This was achieved through 8 events and a symposium attended by 30 people. The network has also worked on designing a pilot study (involving Psychology, WMG and WBS),

26

including data collection, with a view to completing a funding application. 2. Public Engagement Staff Network – I-D/Collab, PE Funding for ‘mini summits’ to support discussion and collaboration on public engagement initiatives. Two successful events held, with 60 and 120 attendees (approx. half were RAS)

3. Education Research Network (continued funding?): AS, I-D/Collab Informal network but also aim to increase research capacity in the Centre and explore inter-disciplinary collaborations. Fizzled out but a survey run in 2014 highlighted a focus/need to develop collaborative research interests in the future.

4. WMG Researcher Forum (continued funding): AS, collegiate and collab, PhD Funding has helped grow the network and new initiatives to encourage collaboration. Up to 15 events held with 20 attending on average, including Athena Swan and mentoring sessions, plus researcher breakfasts.

5. Women in Science Day: AS, I-D/collab, PhD Event went well, 60 attendees and planning future events.

6. Health Economics Journal Club: AS, I-D/collab, output Good attendance across disciplines, including statisticians at later events. Discussions have begun generating collaborative research proposals and increased links with Warwick Evidence, Economics and CTU.

7. Social Science and Discourse Analysis Research Network: AS, I-D/collab, PhD, output A two day conference across the Social Sciences – 62 attendees, 29 from outside Warwick and 19 RAS. 2 PhD students presented and a website

27

was set up including video’s of all the talks. Calls for network to continue – effective sharing of research agendas.

8. Microtubules Network event: I-D/collab, output Networking opportunity across relevant departments to encourage increased collaboration. 65 attendees, 84% from Warwick, across disciplines. Good opportunity for senior researchers and ECR’s to discuss opportunities. Involvement in this event led to 2 researchers becoming scientific organisers of the first British Microtubule meeting in 2015 in Edinburgh, with discussions to alternate the national event between Edinburgh and Warwick.

9. WMS Early Career Researchers Network (continued funding): AS, collegiate The network is expanding its activities, with 3 women organisers providing a succession of leadership. Attendance at events is approx. 20-25, with a profile amongst senior academics.

10. Physics Research Network (continued funding): AS, collegiate Series of lunch-time seminars, lower than expected attendance (5-20) and only 3 events held but gave researchers a platform and has a 50:50 gender split.

11. CLL Research Staff Network: AS, collegiate To encourage integration and research relationships following departmental changes and explore collaborative funding ideas. Monthly meetings went well – able to contribute to the Centre’s future research strategy, which was reviewed in this period. Plan to integrate more with SWELL.

12. Public Engagement Practitioner Network: AS, I-D/collab, PE Four meetings to showcase the activities of individuals and discuss public

28

engagement opportunities. Involved 27 individuals from 4 departments, with 4 active organisers. Have participated in Warwick and external events, including Warwick’s stand at the Big Bang Fair.

13. Horizon 2020 Workshop: I-D/collab Participatory event to help develop projects still at a very early stage. Only 13 attended. Ideas for proposals discussed but no firm output. However, see value in repeating/using the format of the event for encouraging early-stage project discussions from other bodies.

14. Medical Statistics Book & Journal Club (continued funding): AS, collegiate This year added discussions on nominated topics to book/journal discussions – both help increase understanding of statistical methods. 2 organisers and regular 13 attendees. Survey conducted – hope to continue.

15. Microbiology & Infectious Disease Network: I-D/collab, output, collegiate Aim was to explore collaborative and funding opportunities in one event. 15 staff presented (attendance numbers unknown). Developed links with Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine (LSTM) and ideas for joint ventures and ongoing networking. A joint research manuscript has been submitted for publication.

These networks have been useful to Research active staff from both a career development perspective as well as building the capacity and networks of the research active staff.

The scheme for this 2014/15 will be launched at the next Research Staff Forum (RSF) on 8 October 2014.

29

Researcher Programme

Researcher provision has been offered via lunchtime sessions, half day, full day workshops/sessions plus bespoke workshops/sessions for departments or faculties.The L&D research active staff provision going forward will focus on five thematic areas:

Leadership Career Development Research Skills – including Academic & Bid Writing / Statistics Support Enterprise & Entrepreneurship Equality and Diversity

Of the five thematic areas the main focus in 2014 was on Career Development, Research Skills and Equality and Diversity. Some examples of provision included:

Technologies and Research – 4 February 2014 (A collaboration with the Teaching & Learning Unit)Unconscious Bias sessionsInternational Women’s Day, Physics – 11 March 2014 – 17 attendeesEquality & Diversity Network – Unconscious Bias presentation – 28 April 2014 – 25 staff attendeesWBS Senior Team for GEM Action Plan – 2 June 2014 – 25 attendeesResearch Active Staff session – 11 June 2014 – 6 delegatesDignity Contacts Training Sessions - 4 and 15 July 2014 – 16 attendeesWindows on Warwick Sessions - Unconscious Bias – 15th April 2014 – 20 attendeesGender Equality Charter Mark – 8 July 2014 – 31 attendees.

Other training consisted of :

Statistics pilot lunchtime seminar programme

Academic Writing Programme, which included 4 workshops (22 January 30

2014 – Writing Journal Articles – 11 delegates); (29 January 2014 – Writing Collaboratively Comments – 11 delegates); 14th May 2014 – Training Yourself to be a Prolific Writer – 17 delegates); (4 June 2014 – Academic Writing: Dissemination for Impact – 7 delegates).

The Programme also included Academic Writing Away Days, which are run over 2 days and offer research active staff the opportunity to focus exclusively on their writing skills (20 & 21 March 2014 – 19 delegates and 26 &27 June 2014 – 17 delegates).

Career Development Support

1 to 1 Support – careers consultants provided 1-1 support for 19 research active staff to assist with CV advice, career planning, preparing for interviews or mock interviews. Also a number of Workshops (pilot)

Career Development: Interview Success – 28 November 2013 – 13 delegatesCareer Development: Shortlisting – 3 December 2013 – 5 delegatesCareer Development: Evidencing Your Skills – 30 January 2014 – 10 delegatesCareer Development: Writing a Short CV – 1 May 2014 – 10 delegatesCareer Development: Practice Interviews – 8 May 2014 – 5 delegatesCareer Development: Preparing CV’s for Non-Research/non Academic jobs – 5 June 2014 – 5 delegates

From 2014/15 a collaboration with Student Careers and Skills will open some of these courses to final year PhD research students.

A Research Team leaders Programme is also planned to run during 2014/15.

EARLY CAREER RESEARCHERS

7. Mentoring and (i) Support STEMM women LDC / STEMM 2013-2016 Mentoring is open to all research staff to assist in their training and

31

Coaching

Improve uptake of mentoring & coaching support to facilitate career progression of females in STEMM. Create a culture where it is “expected” that ECRs both mentor and are mentored.

to:

Follow up on requests for mentoring

Raise confidence levels To prepare for

promotion Provision of one-to-one

mentoring Development of job

portfolios Access to procedural

information

Heads of Depts. career development. LDC offers a variety of coaching and mentoring, such as:1:1 sessions on career development; 1:1 statistics; 1:1 research support; career development skills workshops to include:Career Development – Evidencing your skills (30.01.2014)Technologies for Research (04.02.2014)Academic Writing: Dissemination for Impact (12.02.2014); Academic Writing Programme Away Days (20-22.03.2014 and 26-27.07.2014;Training Yourself to be a prolific writer (14.04.2014)

Since August 2013:21 Mentor/Mentee partnerships joined up19 of the Mentors were female (3 in research roles)18 of the Mentees were female (4 in research related roles)Evidence is currently (Oct 14) being gathered to give broad evaluation data/comments around the scheme without asking individuals to break confidences. The criteria for this is identified below:

1. When (month) did your first coaching session take place?2. How many times did you meet your coachee/mentee?3. How effective was the ‘match’ between you?4. Comments (in general terms) on what the most useful aspects of

your meetings were?5. How many people are still meeting with their mentors.

3 workshops (16 places on each) on Coaching and Mentoring training are scheduled for 2014/15 calendar year. It is also being considered whether to offer specific mentee sessions. WMG are also piloting a Lateral mentoring scheme with 5 people currently involved.

32

NEWWarwick Academic Shadowing Programme (pilot)

This pilot scheme was launched in July 2014 with the aim of providing more junior academics (both men and women) with the opportunity to be shadowed by a more senior academic.There have been 6 matches overall with a breakdown of male to female ratios as below:Junior male – 2Junior female – 4Senior male – 3Senior female - 3

(ii) Develop experience of Early Career Researchers on financial decision making (2 ECR’s are on the decision panel judging applications for conference child care support fund)

Where possible, financial implications are included in training exercises, such as grant writing proposals.2 ECR’s continue to serve on the decision panel for judging applications for conference care support.

33

8. Creating Networking Opportunities

(i) Biannual Women in Science Symposium

To ensure a ‘grass-roots’ committee is appointed each year to organize these Symposia and to monitor attendance and ensure discussions are engaging with the student/post-doctoral research community.

Provide admin, finance and academic support as required.

Student/Post-doctoral community

E&D Adviser to monitor & flag need for action to AS Steering if required

2013-2016 The fourth Biannual Women in Science Symposium is scheduled for 24th September 2014. Warwick Women in Science (WIS) exists to provide support, information and opportunity to promote all aspects of Women in Science.

Many of women have a passion for science and the desire to pursue a career in the scientific world, however as women, they face some unique obstacles and challenges.

The symposium will be a combination of inspirational lectures from a number of successful women working in a scientific field and there will also be breakout sessions on a number of topics.

WIS aims to offer direct, practical help to the daily lives of women in science – be that providing support with career progression, providing networks to develop wider opportunities for collaboration or simply creating an increased sense of community.

(ii) Support post-doc forums in departments

To continue to help with funding for departmental events. Ensure local person in department’s sets dates.

LDC/RSS The research staff forum continues to meet on a regular basis.LDC delivers monthly electronic newsletters to research active staff (staff on research, academic and teaching terms and conditions). The purpose of the Newsletter is to: To raise awareness of Learning and Development opportunities (both

at Warwick and nationally) To promote the Learning and Development offerings/workshops and

encourage take-up by research active staff. Publicise funding available for Learning and Development activity (i.e.

Awards / Funding for Research Active Staff Networks/other external or internal funding.

Share ideas and practice. Also focussing on some of the activities at Warwick e.g. Impact, Public Engagement etc.

34

(iii) Termly Welcome Lunches for PDRAs

Ensuring funding is available RSF/RSS A Pro-Vice Chancellor attends these lunches, which continued to be funding through the Learning and Development Centre.

MID-CAREER ACADEMICS & RESEARCHERS

9. Annual events to raise profiles of female staff in STEMM

To ensure engagement with female staff and to provide role models to inspire and motivate other female researchers and academics

(i) To celebrate annually an event to recognise International Women’s Day that engages with female staff and provides role models.

HR, Academic Community, Registrar’s Office

2013-2016 Physics held an event to recognise International Women’s Day. The event was open to all female staff – 17 attendees.There are plans to have a joint institutional event for the next International Women’s Day.

Warwick female staff successes are recognised on the Athena web pages and are up-dated regularly, we also now have a student successes page. These will also receive a mention in the new Equality and Diversity Newsletter. The Athena Network and Steering Groups are updated with these successes as they occur and information is disseminated across departments. Major successes are communicated on InSite.

The Chair of the Faculty of Science requests on an annual basis nominations for female scientists for honorary degrees.

(ii) Organise high profile celebration of AS and women’s successes in the University.

(iii) Nominate outstanding women for honorary degrees.

35

10. Enhancing opportunities for mid-career females

Recruitment, retention and progression of mid-career females

Launch of Womens Network Group with termly meetings for mid-career staff to discuss relevant initiatives with a view to improve work life balance and promotion prospects.

Chair of the Faculty of Science

2014 The Senior Womens Network group continues to meet on a termly basis and at the last event (10 March 2014), Siobhan Benita, The Director of Policy and Strategy in the Economics Department was invited to give a lecture on ‘A Woman in Whitehall – The Good, The Bad and The Ugly’. This event was well attended by both academic and senior administrators.The Chair of the Faculty of Science attended a Russell Group Diversity Forum to give a presentation on her personal career path in Science. The next meeting of the Senior Womens Network is scheduled for 27th November 2014.

A statement has been added to promotion documentation sent to departments (and on the web) that makes it clear that staff with special circumstances who wish to submit for promotion have the opportunity to disclose this circumstance (e.g. part time staff to mitigate differences in their rate of progression of quantity of publications). These circumstances can then be taken into account by the Vice Chancellors Promotion Group.

Promotion and appointment requirements take account of leave.

11. Monitor the gradual drop of women in STEMM against age profile

Progression and retention of female academics

Carry out further investigations on how to support women in mid-career as the net drop is gradual at each career stage and could be mainly due to the age profile of women in STEMM academia.

HR Data Systems 2013-2016 Work in its infancy and will be reported on at a later date

12. Conference attendance is essential for academics but can be difficult if staff

(i) An annual fund has been established to assist with payments for extra childcare costs incurred when individuals

Chair: Science & Medicine Faculties / AS Network

2013-2016 The University recognises the difficulty of attending conferences for parents and has therefore established a small fund to assist with payments of extra childcare arrangements for individuals attending conferences/workshops etc. Take up of conference care fund has increased year on year and feedback from staff utilising the fund has

36

have childcare responsibilities

More parents attending conferences (which are essential to their academic & research careers)

attending conferences/ workshops (£100 per claim)

been excellent. Typical feedback: Without the money, I would have had to make a choice whether I would attend the workshop leaving my daughter behind or whether not to attend the workshop so I can be with her. Given that she is just 15 months old, leaving her behind was not an option, hence without the money, I would not have been able to go.

(ii) From 2013 the fund is part of the Science & Medicine Faculty budgets, but may be rolled out to other Faculties.

Chairs of FacultiesApplications from non-STEMM departments are being received for the conference care fund, and to date have been funded whilst budget allows. With University Arts and Social Sciences departments being interested in working towards the Gender Equality Charter Mark, the Chairs of both of those Faculties will be approached to see if their Faculties would be willing to contribute to the budget so that more staff could benefit from the fund.

13. Occasional Childcare

Occasional childcare available to parents wishing to attend workshops/ conferences linked with their work.

Monitor effectiveness of new initiative: Nursery now takes a child on a one-off basis if a parent needs cover to attend a conference and the child does not usually use the facilities.

University Nursery, AS Network

On-going During 2013/2014 there were 3 members of staff who used this ad-hoc facility. There was one other request that the nursery were unable to honour due to no availability.

14. Turning research outputs into a commercial proposition

More female participation in developing commercial impact of research

Warwick has been awarded £2.2 million from The Impact Acceleration Account awarded by EPSRC. The money will go towards a number of initiatives to boost the University’s impact on the wider economy. Ensure women feel it is appropriate to apply.

RSS 2013-2016 Warwick Ventures offers advice and services to the University’s innovators, offering support throughout the process of generating impact and a commercial return from their research, whilst maintaining their academic focus.RSS advised that the IAA supported the “Science Communication and Impact for Female Postdoctoral Researchers”, this event took place over the summer. Of the 24 female participants 8 were from Warwick. The training course was organised by Alison and delivered by media experts including the BBC.

37

15. Clarity on Promotion and Career Progression

All staff clear about what is required in the next step in their careers and how to achieve it.

(i) Gain information through focus groups about ignorance on this issue. Ensure all new staff, but especially associate professors, feel they know how to progress to the next steps through Warwick’s promotion process. To find out what support is offered/taken-up in departments, what barriers they face, how these can be overcome or lessened.

HR, LDC Annually Heads of Departments are aware of the importance of communicating promotion criteria to all staff and to provide the appropriate guidance to staff, through line managers and Departmental Promotion Groups.Some departments, as part of their Athena work, are hosting their own promotion events, but due to the success of the first ‘Demystifying the Promotion Process at Warwick’ event in April 2013 (41 attendees), another event was held on 13 March 2014 (47 attendees). The speakers at these events included Pro-Vice Chancellors, Chairs of Faculties and members of the University Promotion Committee. HR are monitoring the attendees at these events to see if they apply and are successful for promotion the following year. Of the attendees at the 2013 event, 8 members of staff applied for promotion, and 7 were successful. Feedback from the event has been excellent, with staff valuing the opportunity to speak with senior management on what issues to consider when working towards the promotion criteria.The Demystifying Promotion Session has now become an annual event with the next one scheduled for 12 March 2015.

(ii)Ensure recently updated information on web remains useful.

(iii) Annual Event ‘Demystifying the Promotion Process’ established to provide academic led information about what is needed for promotion at each career stage.

E&D Adviser, AS Network

HR, Academic Staff Committee, VC’s advisory group

Web pages are being kept up-dated and the 2015 Promotion event is already being advertised. Feedback from the events are taken into account as to what information would be useful for display on the web page (or links to appropriate information).

See previous comments on the Demystifying Promotion Events’.

38

(iv) A Women’s Leadership Programme to be established if there is demand. Further consultation to be undertaken by LDC to see if there is demand for a Women’s Leadership Programme. Determine best format balance between meeting, mentoring and shadowing

LDC Warwick has an extremely good Leadership programme in place, which receives good feedback. Uptake of the programme is monitored annually by LDC, and this will continue to be monitored by attendance and success. LDC will continuously review if there is a need/desire to run a female only leadership course.In 2013/14 two members of staff (one academic and one professional members of staff) attended the Aurora Female Leadership Programme. Their views on this course have been evaluated by LDC and the programme advertised again across the University for 2014/15 year.Two members of Warwick Staff (S Sparks and V Goodship) were invited as Guest Speakers at a Leadership and Management Research Excellence Programme on 15 January 2014 to speak on Coaching and Mentoring. Both have been invited back in January 2015 to repeat their talks.In Jan – March 2013, the University provided a Research Team Leaders Programme to equip research team leaders with the key skills in leading and managing their teams to meet departmental and project requirements.

ALL STAFF16. Managing

maternity leave

To ensure employees feel welcomed back into the workplace at a time when their levels of confidence may be low.

Endeavour to arrange for a member of the RPNG to accompany new returning parents to their first meeting.Ensure RPNG keeps running and its format is dynamic. Ensure all departments are using the two maternity

HR, Departments On-going The Returning Parents Network has now been re-named as the Working Parents Network. This is due to its success and demand by staff to continue to participate in the group, even though they are no longer new returns from maternity/paternity/adoption leave. The group meets each term and has a number of internal and external speakers.There have been some hic-cups with the maternity checklists, as sometimes they were sent to the department and not passed on to the appropriate line manager. A new system has been created in that both checklists (employee and line manager) are now sent to the individual

39

checklists which have been produced to assist with arrangements before, during and returning from maternity leave.

going on maternity leave for them to hand them to the line manager. This system will be reviewed in 2014/15 to ensure it is working. The web pages for the Working Parents Network have been redesigned and a new poster has been created and promoted across campus.

The WMS/Life Sciences campus has a dedicated Nursing Mother’s Room, which is a clean, private place where nursing employees, visitors and students can relax to express milk. The milk can be stored in a fridge provided solely for that purpose. The room is private and dedicated only to lactation and first aid purposes.A dedicated Breast Feeding room will been opened in summer 2015 in Social Sciences, discussions are currently underway to establish if this room should be available to all staff on campus and not just those from Social Sciences.Discussions are also ongoing for the University to provide more nursing mothers rooms, as well as more baby changing facilities across campus.

17. Car parking spaces for parents working at the Medical School & Life Science campus to enable them to visit children at the Nursery

Parking reserved for parents visiting babies

Review the one year pilot project (started March 2013) to allow for dedicated parking spaces at WMS/Life Sciences campus for parents (in particular nursing mothers) of children in the University nursery as parking is extremely limited at WMS/ Life Sciences campus.

WMS, Security Services

2013-2016 Car Parking spaces on WMS/Life Sciences campus continues to be very stretched and therefore the pilot of a priority parking scheme was implemented in March 2013. One year on the scheme was considered successful and now operates as follows:The Athena car parking priority scheme is designed to facilitate quick access to nursery/home for nursing mothers. It can also be used by pregnant mothers in the late stages of their pregnancy. Currently there is one bay allocated to this priority scheme. The scheme is monitored by a registration and assessed on the needs of the applicants, who will be considered against the following criteria:Priority Group I – expectant mothers in their late stages of pregnancy who are experiencing mobility problems.Priority Group II – nursing mothers returning to work after a period of maternity leavePriority Group III – nursing mothers

40

18. Lack of general understanding of flexible working options

The Flexible Working Policy was updated in May 2012 to give greater clarity to the fact that parents of children under 17 or disabled children under 18 or carers have a legal right to apply for flexible working and gives clear guidance and links to the government website.

HR, All Departments

On-going At a recent Women in Science event, HR did a presentation on family friendly policies, including, maternity/adoption, paternity, parental leave, flexible working and career breaks. It is intended to include this presentation at future events, so that staff become more informed of HR policies.

19. Parents of School-age children looking for support during the school holidays.

School holiday child-care provision.

A project team has been established to investigate potential options for school holiday childcare provision at the University. Consultation is already underway with stakeholders. Plans for a pilot Holiday Scheme to take place in July-August 2013.

Registrar’s Office 2013-2016 The Pilot Easter Scheme in 2014 for primary aged children built on our experiences from the summer 2013 pilot scheme. 76 children used the Easter Scheme in the course of a 2 week period.

The scheme was held between the 14th and 25th April, excluding the 18th and 21st for the Easter break.

An average of 31.6 children attended over the 8 days, with the quietest day having just 20 children booked in and the busiest having 47.

The scheme was based in the Cryfield Centre for the whole 8 days. The scheme had exclusive use of the building for all but the last day.

The scheme opened at 8am and closed at 6pm, with the core day being 9 – 5 and a ‘wrap-around’ service available at additional cost for an early drop-off (8.00-9.00) and late pickup (5.00-6.00)

A special rate was offered to parents booking four consecutive days in one week, 27 families took advantage of this and 4 of these booked all 8 days.

For the first time we opened booking to families external to the university community, i.e. friends of children whose parents are either staff or students. Approximately 8 children were external bookings.

41

The activities enjoyed by the children included; tennis lessons, computer skills, forest school, craft and cookery sessions and chemistry demonstrations – all provided by internal services. Dance sessions and circus skills, provided by bought in suppliers and trips to the MAD Museum in Stratford-Upon-Avon and St Johns Museum in Warwick.

The scheme was led by Debra Castle, the Nursery Manager, with a scheme manager organising the day to day running and management of session, and supported by a deputy, who is one of the nursery staff seconded into the role, this person also led the forest school sessions. A team of 5 under graduates were employed as scheme leaders to assist the scheme management.

The Summer Scheme took place from 21st July 2014 to 29th August 2014During this 6 week period 1049 children attended.On average there were 36.1 children who attended over the 30 days, the quietest day having 20 children whilst the busiest had 54.There were 9 parents who booked 15 days or more with 1 parent booking every day expect 3.The first 4 weeks of the scheme were held at Cryfield whilst the last two weeks were held at the Reinvention CentreThe activities included Tennis, Circus Skills, and Nature day at Forest school, Computer graphics, Sculpture day, Drum workshops, Dance, Drama and Verse and French.

20. RecruitmentTo attract more females to apply for research and academic positions

Exploration of possible changes to recruitment advertising in order to attract more applications to academic positions from females. Adverts to include

Deputy Director of HR, Academic Department Administrators

2013-2016 Some departments have already started to use statements such as ‘applications welcome from females, as they are underrepresented in this area’.The Athena SWAN logo (Silver Award) can also be used on adverts and jobs.ac.uk have the template to do this.

42

More applications from and appointments of females

statements such as job share, part-time considered to encourage females with caring responsibilities to continue their academic careers.

ATHENA SWAN ISSUES21. “AS Issues” kept

live at Warwick

Evolving programme of activity

AS Steering group to monitor whether departmental and University activities are evolving at grass roots level.

Athena Steering and Network Groups

2013-2016 Athena work is high profile at Warwick, with many committees discussing relevant issues relating to gender work. Collaboration between Faculties on gender initiatives are assisting non-STEMM departments to understand the requirements of the new ECU Gender Equality Charter Mark.

The Athena web pages are kept up to date and celebrate successes.DATA22. Improved data

collectionDepartments able to access their own data easily and the ability to create appropriate tables and graphs for Athena SWAN and other submissions.

Since 2009 we now collected required data. Next step is to make it easily available.

To design, implement and pilot a ‘Dashboard’ for University staff and student data, which will enable individual departments to create and produce bespoke departmental reports.

HR Systems team, Strategic Planning & Analytics Office, All STEMM departments

2013-2016 Date collection is still proving problematic, in as much as the HR systems are currently not fit for purpose. A new HR system requirement is currently under development and it is anticipated that this will progress rapidly in 2015. Meetings have been held with the Systems specialists as to the type of data requirements of Athena and general data collection on all protected characteristics.Student data is available, but there is an expressed wish that more data on all protected characteristics should become more readily available.

GOVERNANCE23. Analysis and

monitoring of policy & procedures

PULSE and the AS process have highlighted a number of issues, some resulting in the development or

HR 2013-2016 Departmental Athena groups have predominantly taken responsibility for analysing departmental PULSE outcomes, which may form actions on their submission action plans. These actions will be monitored and measured appropriately.

43

To ensure that PULSE staff survey is fit for purpose and informing the University of issues to be tackled & those things that it is doing well.

enhancement of university-wide initiatives.Results of the 2013 PULSE survey will be analysed and any relevant AS issues identified & included on the next AP within Warwick’s next institutional submission.

The next PULSE survey is anticipated to be in Spring 2015.

24. Fellowship Programmes for ECR’s

Explore opportunities for research and scholarship to support and nurture early career researchers.

Explore opportunities for research and scholarship to support and nurture ECR’s. To closely monitor all activities including gender balance of applications to and awards made through IAS programmes and works to ensure consistency with AS principles.

Institute of Advanced Study Director and team

2013-2016 Work still being discussed

25. Joint Research Project on Gender issues

To benchmark and share best practice.

To collaborate with staff at Monash University on gender related projects identified after sharing staff and student data. Addressing “universal” trends within that data, by comparing and sharing best practice in policies and processes.

HR Adviser E&D 2013-2016 The University has recently replicated the Shadowing Programme piloted at Monash University. Warwick has also contributed to the GENDER-NET project, by sharing some of the initiatives that were instrumental in Warwick achieving the Athena Silver Institutional award.Members of Warwick staff regularly attend regional and national Athena meetings, as well as Russell Group Equality forums, where gender data is discussed on a regular basis. Warwick hosted the last Russell Group Equality Forum meeting in June 2014, where a number of senior female speakers attended to give presentations.

In September/October 2014, a visitor from Heidelberg University came to work shadow the HR Adviser, Equality and Diversity, on an Erasmus

44

Mobility Programme. The objective of the visit was to understand the differences in equality and diversity practices between the two institutions, but in particular, to understand and learn from some of the gender work that is being undertaken by Warwick.

26. The Leaky Pipeline

To properly understand data in AS submissions.

EPSRC and ESRC have been consulted about establishing a research project to identify what is underlying the fairly obvious leaky pipeline data sets in STEMM and academia in general. A one-day international cross-discipline workshop to be run over summer 2013 to determine the next stage.

ESRC/Warwick academics/HR plus postdoctoral researcher employed on projects

2013-2016 As a result of the initial meetings with EPSRC/ESRC, Professor Alison Rodger was successful in securing ESRC funding to employ a postdoctoral research fellow to undertake some research into Academia and Gender. This research highlighted that despite the growth of female participation in higher education and doctoral education, women are still under-represented in professorial and more permanent academic posts in most disciplines. While the Athena SWAN charter has put gender equality at the spotlight for Science departments, data in a number of social sciences subjects seem to be equally discouraging to women looking at a career in academia. The ESRC provided funding to investigate closely gender student and staff data across departments and institutions. The research outcomes of this project were presented at a two day workshop Academia and Gender: Inducing cultural change to plug the ‘leaky pipeline’ held at the Royal Society in London on 5th/6th June 2014. The key aim of the event was to examine existing gender equality practices from an institutional and disciplinary perspective and identify worthwhile initiatives that will induce cultural change.

The initial findings of this research have been presented at a number of workshops/meetings.

27. REF2014 Submission

To monitor gender balance of staff submitted for the REF

To carry out an Equality Analysis on the University REF2014 submission, in line with Warwick’s REF Code of Practice and the Equality Impact Assessment.

HR, Strategic Planning & Analytics Office

2013-2014 An equality impact assessment (EIA) was completed prior to the submission of the University of Warwick’s REF Code of Practice (CoP) to HEFCE for approval. The impact assessment outlined a number of actions that the University would undertake to ensure that the procedure for selecting staff for inclusion in the REF submission was fair, transparent and that the selection process did not discriminate against individuals

45

with protected characteristics.In determining the impact of the CoP on equality and specifically those individuals with protected characteristics, the EIA considered both statistical data on the REF submission and qualitative data based on consultation with staff and key decision makers within the REF process. The assessment also reflected back on the commitments within the CoP to evaluate the general effectiveness of the processes contained within the Code.

The Equality Analysis was submitted as part of the REF submission.

A number of issues identified through consultation, feedback and the statistics have been highlighted for further consideration, both from a wider equality aspect, as well as for the next Research Exercise. Suggestions have been made both by members of academic staff through their own experiences of the REF and staff involved in the administration of the process. These areas have been incorporated into an Action Plan. Many of the actions detailed are existing actions from work already being investigated or conducted as part of our overall institutional response to our annual workforce profile and monitoring and our Athena SWAN objectives. These include increasing the number of females, BME and Disabled staff who are eligible for REF and supporting researchers to reach their potential while meeting the quality criteria for future research exercises.

LEADERSHIP28. National Impact of

Warwick’s Athena SWAN activity

To be seen as a national

Keep track of external AS activities generated by Warwick staff and monitor the subsequent impact.

Athena SWAN Network

2013-2016 The HR Adviser – Equality and Diversity has given a number of presentations on Athena and the Gender Equality Charter Mark both internally and externally. For example at a Regional Athena Network meeting held at Aston University in September 2014, a presentation was given on ‘Warwick’s Journey to Silver Status’ to all other regional

46

and international leader in supporting staff, particularly women in academia.

universities.

Warwick Medical School’s Welfare Strategy Group has a representative on the Medical and Dental School’s Advisory Group who meet 3 times per year and strives to advise the Equality Challenge Unit and the Medical School’s Council on gender equality good practice and challenges.

Continuing programme of innovative actions led by Warwick on the national scene.

Professor Alison Rodger was a key note speaker at the Joliot-Curie conference held in Edinburgh in September 22014. Alison also: Acts as an advisor for the Royal Society Diversity project; Chaired the Royal Society of Chemistry’s Athena SWAN day in June

2014; Gave a talk at the University College, Dublin in June 2014; Organised an ESRC grant workshop with international invitees 5/6

June 2014.Alison and a Postdoctoral Researcher, Charikleia Tzanakou have both had a number of meetings with EPSRC to discuss gender issues.

The national Medical and Dental School’s Advisory Group also runs ‘going for Silver’ and about to start, ‘going for Gold’ workshops across the UK, based upon WMS workshop in 2011. Professor Annie Young also acts as an advisor for AS applications from UK Medical Schools, on average, 3 per year and brings the national perspective to the WMS Welfare Strategy Group.

All Warwick STEMM departments have a programme of ‘widening participation’ events and actions, targeting schools and the public – to highlight the variety of opportunities for women in STEMM disciplines.

47