皇家华人

The IoN is committed to building an equitable community where everyone can thrive. We want to use the Athena Swan Charter framework to drive our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion strategy.

What is Athena Swan?听

罢丑别听听offers a听framework around which institutions and departments can devise a strategic approach to promote cultural and systemic change听and tackle gender inequality in Higher Education. Member institutions who sign up to the charter commit to adopting ten guiding principles, and are expected to apply for an Athena SWAN award as recognition of their work towards gender parity. There is听听鈥� not just around gender equality, but equality and diversity in all its forms.

Our Athena Swan journey

Building an equitable and inclusive community is a long journey that requires strategy and commitment from all levels of an organisation. The IoN Athena SWAN Self-Assessment Committee was first established in 2012. The Institute received its first Bronze Award on 2013, followed by an upgrade to听Silver听in 2015. In December 2019, we submitted an application for the renewal of our Silver award, which was successfully granted in the summer of 2020. Find our听.

What does the Athena Swan accreditation process entails and how does it promote equality in our Institute?

An Athena Swan award represents a significant commitment to gender equity,听involving听a large amount of work in analysing data and developing and delivering action plans that respond to the priorities identified. Three levels of Athena SWAN Awards - Bronze, Silver or Gold - recognise how far an institution/department has come on听its journey towards gender equality. The prerequisites vary for each of the award听levels, but they all rely on a foundation of:

• assessment of gender equality in the institution/department, including quantitative (staff and student data) and qualitative (policies, practices, systems and arrangements) evidence and identifying both challenges and opportunities
• a five-year Action Plan that builds on this assessment, information on activities that are already in place and what has been learned from these
• the development of an organisational structure, including a self-assessment team, to carry proposed actions forward.

At a Silver Award level a department needs to be able show it听has taken action in response to previously identified challenges and demonstrate the impact of these actions. This data-driven methodology embeds a culture of听continuous self-assessment, robust data collection听and critical review of evidence that promotes transparency and holds departments accountable for change.

At the IoN we are aiming to use the Athena Swan methodology to understand the layers of disproportionated attrition听affecting some of our staff and students, and we will devise evidence-based actions to drive positive change.听

To learn more about the Athena SWAN Charter, the self-assessment听process, how to apply听for an award and the support available to departments at 皇家华人, please visit the听.听

Who are IoN Athena Swan听Leads and what is their role in our department?

The Athena SWAN Leads oversee the progress of our Gender Equity work against the Athena Swan Action plan and provide strategic leadership to advance our Equalities work.听

The Athena Swan Leads seat as Deputy Chairs in the IoN EDI Committee, providing support to IoN's Deputy Director for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. Learn more about our EDI Committee and our goals.听

IoN Athena Swan Lead

Dr. Gabriele Lignani

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鈥淚 am very honoured to take on the position of Athena Swan co-lead. I am thrilled to continue this important mission and I will work very hard to achieve the goals the Institute has set for next years, such as obtaining the Gold Athena Swan award鈥�.听

IoN Athena Swan Lead

Ms. Laura Allum

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鈥淚 am delighted to be joining the Institute of Neurology鈥檚 Athena SWAN team as Co-Lead and help drive the delivery of the Athena SWAN Action Plan. I鈥檓 passionate about creating inclusive work environments that celebrate diversity and look forward to working with colleagues to promote these values across the Institute.鈥�

Key progress made since the last award

Since our 2015 Athena SWAN Award we expanded the number of women participating in our Mentoring Scheme and have implemented Promotion Workshops. As a direct impact we saw听a听record increase in the number of applications to promotion:听from 25 in 2015 to 131 in 2019, of which 41% were from female colleagues. This was followed by听a听400% increase in successful female promotions听(10 in 2015 compared to 52 in 2019).

Currently,听55% of our Heads of Research Department are women听(compared to 22% in 2015) - a value that is more reflective of the gender ratio in our Institute (Academic/Research staff: 51.2% Female to 48.8% Male).

The number of听female academics promoted to Professor have been steadily increasing听over the past years. In 2020, we saw听100% record of success for听candidates for senior promotions听and welcomed听5听new female Professors听(representing 50% of the newly appointed Professors in this senior promotion听round).

As part of our commitment towards making career progression criteria transparent and fair, the Athena SWAN Committee developed a听new appraisal checklist听which includes听promotion as a mandatory discussion item during appraisals. This example of good practice was regarded as a beaconing initiative and has been adopted throughout the entire Faculty of Brain Sciences, thus impacting 2000 women and 2400 men across the Faculty.听

In an effort to tackle bullying and harassment, and to foster an inclusive and respectful work culture, we are ensuring our staff complete听UCL Taking the Lead听training (99% of Professors and 95% of all PIs)听and听UCL Where Do You Draw the Line听training (50% of all staff and PhD students).听

Main areas we need to improve

While much has been achieved in the past five听years, we recognise that more needs to be done in our Institute. Specifically:

• Increase the proportion of female staff in academic positions from 25% (2017/18) to 40% in 2023/4.
• Improve our understanding of intersectionality and develop specific actions to progress.
• Embedding career support initiatives for all staff groups, including Professional and Support staff听mentoring and our established Academic mentoring programmes.
• Improve awareness and procedures to address bullying and harassment.听
• Review IoN workload model and modify appraisal process to make sure workload allocation is discussed and evaluated.

What was our strategic focus for 2021?

The five-year Action Plan submitted in our听听will guide our work over the next years. However, the Athena SWAN Action Plan should be an organic document, able听to accommodate听to novel challenges and needs.

One of the areas of focus in 2021 was听understanding the impact COVID-19 and the national lockdown had in our community of researchers and our support staff, and devising actions to mitigate this impact where possible.听

Furthermore, the IoN is committed to broaden the remit of its听Equality, Diversity and Inclusive work. As such, one of the areas for focus in 2021 is in understanding the intersection between gender and ethnicity in students' experience and in career progression in the IoN.

What will we focus on in 2022?

In 2022, our main focus will be addressing Research Culture and Mental Health in the Institute of Neurology.

Read more about our 2022 strategic focus here.听

If you would like to have more detail or information about our Athena SWAN achievements and initiatives, please contact our IoN EDI听Project Manager听Dimitrios Zachos

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