Division of Infection and Immunity

The Division's Athena Swan Self Assessment Team are (links to emails):

Professor Mala Maini – Chair

Professor Arne Akbar

Dr Ari Fassati

Dr Richard Milne

Mrs Samantha Photiades

Dr Anna Schurich

Dr Milica Vukmanovic-Stejic

For SLMS:

Professor Jean McEwan, SLMS Academic Lead for Athena SWAN, and Professor of Clinical Education.

The Division's Athena Swan Self Assessment Team have been meeting regularly to discuss the application and how to determine and solve the extent of gender imbalance within the Division’s activities.  Below are documents that report on the plans and progress made so far.

Further details of the schedule of our application, notes of working group meetings, divisional data and our submission document will be added to the site as the process unfolds.

• ACTION PLAN: 2012-2015 (document: December 2012) PDF

Professor Judy Breuer

Judy Breuer ia a Professor Virology in the Division of Infection and Immunity.

Judy Breuer: IRIS Profile

Dr Siobhan Burns

Siobhan Burns is a Reader in the Division and an Honorary Consultant in Immunology at the Royal Free London and Great Ormond Street NHS Trusts. Her research group is focused on the function of the innate immune system in primary immunodeficiency syndromes. She is married with two sons in primary school and worked flexibly (approximately 80% FTE) for a number of years during her Clinician Scientist fellowship while her children were pre-school.

Siobhan Burns: IRIS Profile

Professor Mary Collins

Mary Collins is a Professor of Immunology and Director of the MRC Centre for Medical Molecular Virology. Her lab works on engineering viruses for gene delivery and vaccination. Mary is the UCL Gender Equality Champion. She is currently developing proposals to ensure that the academic promotion process at UCL is equitable. As Dean of the Life Science Faculty she has introduced a “core meetings in core hours” policy (9am-5pm). Mary has two teenage children and shares domestic and homework duties with her husband. Mary recently agreed a flexible working arrangement with her manager, allowing her to spend Fridays with her 93 year old mother.

Mary Collins: IRIS profile

Dr Clare Jolly

Clare Jolly is a Principal Investigator and an MRC Career Development Fellow in the Division of Infection and Immunity. Her group works on HIV-1 assembly and the molecular mechanisms regulating HIV-1 cell-to-cell spread.

Clare Jolly: IRIS Profile

Professor Mala Maini

Mala Maini is a Professor in the Division of Infection and Immunity and an Honorary Consultant Physician specialising in viral hepatitis. Her group works on the immunopathogenesis of hepatitis B virus infection. She had 2 daughters while completing her postdoctoral training and worked flexibly (theoretically 80% time) for the duration of her MRC Clinician Scientist fellowship.

Mala Maini: IRIS Profile

Dr Emma Morris

Emma Morris is a Reader in the Division of Infection and Immunity and an Honorary Consultant Haematologist specialising in Bone Marrow Transplantation, Cell and Gene Therapy. She is also Co-Director of Research and Development at the Royal Free London NHS Foundation Trust.

Her PhD was in stem cell biology at the University of Cambridge. Her research group at UCL is interested in genetically engineering immune cells to enhance their ability to kill malignant or infected cells. This works spans basic science and animal models to phase I/II clinical trials in cancer patients. She is married with 3 children under the age of 10 years and works full-time.

Emma Morris was one of 5 medical researchers who participated with their patients in the UCLH/Joint Research Office-commissioned photography project with photographer, Clare Park, to explore the experience of taking part in medical research and the symbiotic nature of researcher/doctor and subject/patient.  The exhibition, Gathering light, was shown at UCH in May 2012 and you can view some of the work on http://www.clarepark.tv/projects/nhs/frame.htm.

Emma Morris: IRIS Profile

Professor Lucy Walker

Lucy Walker is a Professor in the Division of Infection & Immunity and an MRC Senior Non-Clinical Research Fellow.  Her group works on immune-mediated diseases with a particular focus on Type 1 Diabetes.  She is married with two step children.
Lucy Walker: IRIS Profile (to be added)

Dr Milica Vukmanovic-Stejic

Milica Vukmanovic-Stejic  is a Senior Research Fellow in the Division of Infection and Immunity. She is funded by the MRC and her research focuses on cutaneous immune responses in humans in vivo and effects of ageing of the immune system. She had a son while completing her postdoctoral training and worked flexibly for the first 2 years after that.

Milica Vukmanovic-Stejic: IRIS Profile

Emeritus Professor Patricia Woo

Patricia Woo is Emeritus Professor of Paediatric Rheumatology and honorary consultant at Great Ormond Street and University College Hospital.  She set up the centre for paediatric and adolescent rheumatology comprising clinical service at these hospitals and research team at UCL in 1995. The centre is now the largest clinical and research centre in UK for the specialty. The latter was first recognised as a training specialty after negotiations with the RCP by Professor Woo. 

Patricia Woo: IRIS Profile

As an organisation UCL strives to support its staff and promote equality of opportunity within its workforce.  Current initiatives and aims to promote equality and diversity can be seen on the UCL Equalities & Diversity Website.

This June, the UCL Equalities and Diversity team have published new guidance to managers on supporting working parents and carers: download guidance.

Below are some specific policies and services to support staff:

- Childcare facilities/vouchers
- civil partnership
- corporate equality objectives
- disability equality scheme
- equal opportunities
- equal pay audit
- equality objectives
- flexible working to care for children (in work life balance)
- harassment/bullying
- leave for domestic and personal reasons
- maternity/paternity leave links
- maternity/paternity leave financial assistance
- non-discriminatory language
- paternity leave and parental leave
- personal relationships code of conduct
- recruitment - positive action statements
- research careers initiative
- rest rooms for new and expectant mothers
- sabbatical leave policy
- sexual orientation
- stress at work
- tax efficient child care facilities
- transgender issues - guidance notes and supportive practice
- work life balance

HARASSMENT ADVISORS AT UCL

UCL have a team of trained, volunteer harassment advisors available to listen to members of UCL staff who believe they are being harassed, to clarify the options available and to support and assist you through the process of resolving the matter. All cases will be treated in confidence. (Link to team)

Anti-harassment website - UCL Staff
UCLU Advice & Welfare Site - UCL Students

EMPLOYEES ASSISTANCE PROGRAMME

Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) is a free and confidential service from Workplace Options, an independent, provider of employee support services. Their staff are specialists in fields such as counselling, well-being, family matters, relationships, debt management, and workplace issues.

This support service is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and is accessible by phone, email, online and via instant messaging. The EAP can provide practical information, fact sheets and packs, resource information on support services in your local area and even short-term counselling to help get you back on track

Employees Assistance Programme (website)

STONEWALL

UCL is one of Stonewall Top 100 Employers 2012 - The Workplace Equality Index - equality for its lesbian, gay and bisexual employees.(http://www.stonewall.org.uk/at_work/stonewall_top_100_employers/default.asp)

As announced in the Divisional meeting, as part of our application process, we are committed to ensuring that all staff with a UCL contract in the Division have undergone a training session to enhance understanding of our unconscious biases that may affect our treatment of colleagues.  The training is compulsory for all members of the Division employed by UCL.

We are asking all staff with a UCL contract to register their attendance at one of the workshops being held this June (see details below).

If you are unable to attend any of the sessions, please email Karen Rumsey (email) so we can set up further session(s) over the summer as necessary.

Thank you for your cooperation with this, Professor Mala Maini (Chair, Athena Swan Self assessment Group)

 ….

DESCRIPTION OF SESSION

The three-hour long session will be facilitated by Dr Marie Stewart, MBE, (http://www.taylorstewart.com/people.html) and will take the form of highly interactive facilitated discussions.

Objectives of the session – by the end of the session participants should have a greater understanding of

·         The fact that unconscious processes can influence decision-making and undermine their intention to be “fair”

·         Some of the processes through which unconscious bias can occur

·         Potential effects of unconscious bias on the treatment of different groups of applicants and staff at UCL

·         Actions and techniques that they can use to manage these processes and minimise the effects of unconscious bias

…. TRAINING SESSIONS ….

Monday 3 June at the Royal Free Campus - not available

Wednesday 5 June at Bloomsbury Campus - not available

Friday 28 June at Bloomsbury Campus

Venue  - Seminar Room 1, Bentham B10, 4-8 Endsleigh Gardens

Morning session – 9.45 to 12.45 - REGISTER AT: http://diversitytraining5.eventbrite.com/#

Afternoon session – 1.30 to 4.30 - REGISTER AT: http://diversitytraining6.eventbrite.com/#

 …. 

UCL's department of Organisation and Staff Development (OSD) [link] has variety of professional development courses that are free to UCL employees (though places need to be booked).  Three of the courses specifically running this term address career development issues: Giving Presentations, Springboard Women's Development Programme, and Taking Control of Your Career.

..Giving Presentations

The ability to present confidently is crucial in all roles, and particularly in research. Working from the premise that 'the best presenters speak honestly and as themselves' this workshop explores practical ways for researchers to analyse and develop an individual presentation style.
Participants are asked to prepare a 4 minute presentation for this workshop.

Giving presentations: Link to OSD course page/booking form

..Springboard Women's Development Programme

All UCL Women Researchers are welcome to attend this 4-day programme (run as one-day workshops over 4 months).

The Programme enables women to take more control over their own lives by identifying the clear, practical and realistic steps that they want to take and developing the skills and confidence to take them.

The Programme has been tried and tested in the Higher Education Sector and beyond. It has been successfully used by over 180,000 women world-wide.

During the programme you will explore your future in a practical way and learn how to develop your potential. You will undertake realistic self-assessment and set challenging goals. Key areas covered include communication skills, assertiveness, self confidence, improving your work/life balance and developing positive skills and attitude.

Springboard: link to OSD course page/booking form

..Taking control of your career

This two-day programme has been designed especially for researchers; the components have been tested and provide a creative and robust approach to career planning.  Completion of an online questionnaire that will be emailed to you 2 weeks prior to the start of the programme, which should take approximately 20 minutes to complete.  The two days are held as two one-day workshops.

Taking Control: link to OSD course page/booking form

UCL Women: networking

UCL women website and news of networking events: http://www.ucl.ac.uk/slms/aco/features/ucl_women

UCL Women, a new networking group for academic staff in the sciences and engineering, launches on 16 January 2013. Open to staff at the post-doctoral level and above, the group will provide a regular, informal forum for getting to know other women at UCL. The aim is to provide access to information and advice that might otherwise be hard to come by.

The launch will take place in the 2nd Floor Seminar Room of the Rayne Building on University Street from 4-6pm.

The meeting will be chaired by Philippa Talmud (Professor of Cardiovascular Genetics). Vivienne Parry (Writer, Broadcaster, Vice-Chair of UCL Council) will compere a panel of speakers addressing the questions “How did I get here? What am I doing?”. The panel will include Sarah-Jayne Blakemore (Professor of Cognitive Neuroscience), Mary Collins (Dean of Life Sciences), Uta Frith (Emeritus Professor of Cognitive Development), Jean McEwan (Dean of Medical Sciences), Liora Malki-Epshtein (Lecturer, UCL Civil, Environmental & Geomatic Engineering) and Jennifer Rohn (Principal Research Associate, UCL Medicine).

This will be followed by cheese and wine and a chance to network. The launch will also provide the opportunity to gauge the time and place for regular meeting on the campus.

Women in UCL Science: your stories

As well as a series of social, supportive and networking events, Philippa plans to collate a series of stories of women working in science at UCL and at different career stages, who can serve as models to all of us.

Do consider approaching Philippa with your story and respond positively to her requests for narratives at p.talmud[at]ucl.ac.uk

We will supplement these with short video interviews and all material with be hosted on the SLMS  Academic Careers Office (ACO) microsite.

Updated: 27 June, 2013

British federation of women graduates: http://bfwg.org.uk/bfwg5/

Scholarships and grants to women graduates.

L'OREAL/UNESCO wOMEN IN SCIENCE: http://www.womeninscience.co.uk

Fellowships of up to 15k; next call: 1 Feb 2013;  grants to female postdoctoral researchers that can be spent on indirect research costs, such as childcare
L'Oreal/UNESCO E-booklet - Women in Science 2010 -
http://science.imirus.com/Mpowered/book/vscim10/i2/p1

WELLCOME TRUST Career re-entry fellowship scheme

(http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/Funding/Biomedical-science/Funding-schemes/Fellowships/Basic-biomedical-fellowships/WTD004380.htm) for scientists who have taken a career break of at least 2 years.

THE ROYAL SOCIETY:Dorothy Hodgkin Fellowship

(http://royalsociety.org/grants/schemes/dorothy-hodgkin/)
This scheme is for excellent scientists in the UK at an early stage of their research career who require a flexible working pattern due to personal circumstances such as parenting or caring responsibilities or health issues.  Female candidates are particularly invited to apply

Media coverage

Nature Special Supplement (7 March 2013)
Women in Science: The Gender Gap and how to close it
To celebrate International Women's Day on Friday, 8 March, Nature published a special on women in science. In this collection of articles written by women scientists, while a picture of embedded sexism emerges, a range of initiatives and implementations for change is described.

Link to nature.com/women.

Studies & Surveys

The Royal Society
Mothers in Science, 64 ways to have it all is a compilation of interviews with 64 women scientists who describe the challenges and joys of being career scientists and mothers in the timeline of their careers so far.
Download PDF

Unesco Institute for Statistics (UIS) report on women in higher education in 2010

(http://www.uis.unesco.org/Education/Pages/women-higher-education.aspx) 

This UIS report records an unprecedented rise in the number of women enrolled in higher education over the last 40 years.  In western europe in 1980s women's enrolments passed that of men's.  These changes reflect the change in attitudes towards women however the data, analysed by Chaio-Ling Chien, a UIS data analyst, shows that despite over representation as students, women are not on equal footing in the workplace and in decision-making/strategic positions.

The chemistry PhD: the impact on women’s retention
In 2012, Curt Rice, in The Guardian's Higher education network (link to article), reported results from a UK Resource Centre for Women in SET/Royal Society of Chemistry sponsored study by Jessica Lober Newsome called  The chemistry PhD: the impact on women’s retention (downloadable PDF) that only 12% of third year female PhD students want a career in academia. 

Creating dialogue in European scientific research (genSET)

genSET (http://www.genderinscience.org/) is an innovative EC-funded project aiming to improve the excellence of European science through inclusion of the gender dimension in research and science knowledge making.  It is a forum for sustainable dialogue between European science leaders, science stakeholder institutions, gender experts, and science strategy decision-makers, to help implement effective overall gender
strategies.

The EC phase of the project ended in March 2012, and genSET continues as a programme run by Portia Ltd.

The goal is to develop practical ways in which gender knowledge and gender mainstreaming expertise can be incorporated within European  science institutions in order to improve individual and collective capacity for action to increase women’s participation in science.

genSET focuses on five key areas where gender inequalities and biases disadvantages women’s participation in science:
1. science knowledge‐making; 2. research process; 3. recruitment and retention; 4. assessment of women’s work; and 5. science excellence value system

OTHER

International Women's Day - 8 March - http://www.internationalwomensday.com/

UCL held events to celebrate this (see also "Celebrations of women scientists").

University of Venus: http://uvenus.org/

(GenX women in HE from around the world)
The University of Venus is an award-winning, peer-reviewed blog bringing together GenX women in higher education from around the globe.

Suffrage Science

Suffrage Science digital launched on the centenary ofInternational Women’s Day, March 8th 2011. Featuring conversations between leading female researchers, including Professor Mary Collins, in neuroscience and psychology, embryology and genetics, structural biology; and the biology of cancer and HIV, the publication brings to light a collection of stories about the significant contributions that women have made to science over the past 100 years.

View the book online at the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre site.

Science Heirlooms

Leading women life scientists and communicators were awarded with science heirlooms as part of a scheme pioneered by the MRC to commemorate a century of women in life science on International Women's Day on 8th March 2012.

The limited-edition, hand-crafted pieces of jewellery – designed by Central Saint Martins College of Art and Design – will be passed on to new owners. 

Amanda Fisher (Director, MRC Clinical Sciences Centre) explained, “hopefully these heirlooms will encourage women to pursue leadership roles in life sciences. It will be interesting to see where they end up in five years time.”

See the heirlooms online at the MRC Clinical Sciences Centre site.

Read more about the event and passing on the heirlooms on UCL news.