Parental leave award scheme
The Division of Medicine is proud to support its students and staff who are parents or about to become parents.
Athena SWAN has an award scheme that supports staff and students through parental leave. This might cover funding for maternity leave research support and training courses, for example.
To date, it has disbursed over £160,000.
The award is open to all staff, including professional, technical, and administrative staff. Calls go out twice a year, in February and July.
Who can apply?
This scheme applies to all staff in the Division taking any kind of parental leave, including current PhD students, academic / research staff, professional / support / administrative staff, and technical staff.
PhD Students, Research Assistants and Post-Docs should discuss applications with their supervisor.
What can you apply for?
Requests up to £5,500 will be considered. Examples of the funding support that can be applied for include:
- Salary / consumables to allow a piece of research to be pursued / completed.
- Funding for a training course to maintain skills.
- Funding for costs to facilitate students / staff keeping in touch with work during their leave.
- Funding of costs to aid staff presenting their work at scientific conferences after or during parental leave. In this case, details of the conference and abstract of the work to be presented should be provided as part of the application.
Priority is given where there are no alternative sources of funding to support the proposal and where it will help the member of staff to complete / sustain their work or contribute to their career development.
We will also prioritize those who have not previously received one of these awards.
How to apply
Apply by sending a completed application form to m.plate@ucl.ac.uk.
For applications requesting salaries
In order to speed the review process, please consult with Ben Woolven (b.woolven@ucl.ac.uk) so that you can provide a salary, grade and spine point.
Enquiries
Please direct any informal queries about the scheme to m.plate@ucl.ac.uk.
How the award helps
My award was used for a salary to carry on work my project during my absence. This meant the project could move forward while I was on leave and allowed me not to fall behind. It also gave me opportunities to keep in touch with project meetings, lab visits, and a push to keep me up to date. The fact that I could keep engaging with science while on leave gave me the confidence to also travel abroad with my child to participate as a speaker in an international conference.
