Athena SWAN update from IHW's AS Champion Dr Breda Cullen

Published: 1 May 2018

What's been happening to promote equality and diversity in IHW this month? In her first column since taking up the role of AS Champion, Dr Breda Cullen provides a quick overview.

What’s been happening to promote equality and diversity in IHW this month? Our new AS Champion Dr Breda Cullen provides a quick overview.

Photo of Breda CullenWelcome to the first Athena SWAN update of 2021. We know this is a busy time for everyone amid very challenging circumstances. We continue to work on our various initiatives and look forward to sharing updates with you over the coming months.

Remote work and study will be continuing for a prolonged period, and the launch of our new guidance for staff and postgraduate students has come at an opportune time. Do take a few moments to read these and feel free to contact us with suggestions of other tips and resources you have found helpful. If you are line managing staff or supervising students, please check in with them and encourage them to use the guidance.

As we heard at the January Town Hall meeting, work continues apace on the Clarice Pears Building. We are seeking your views on how the building, and the way we work in it, can promote a positive and inclusive workplace culture. If you’d like to contribute, you can join either of two groups chaired by Kate O’Donnell:

  1. Workstream 5 Operationalisation and Culture Change
    Meetings approximately monthly or two-monthly for the rest of the year (at least)
  2. Focus group to discuss working arrangements in the Clarice Pears Building
    1-4 meetings
    Staff from all grades and job families are welcome to take part.

Email ihwadmin@glasgow.ac.uk stating your preferred group.

Thank you to everyone who completed the IHW Staff Environment Survey recently (formerly known as the IHW Staff Culture Survey). We are looking forward to sharing the results and planned actions with you very soon. We will also be launching the Workload Survey in the near future. This shorter survey is really important in helping to guide our Athena SWAN work across IHW. It is the only way we have of monitoring and interpreting workload and workload domains (research, teaching, management, outreach/knowledge exchange, esteem) by gender and other important characteristics. The survey will only take around 5 minutes. Please do look out for this - we need everyone to participate to maximise the usefulness of the results.

We have recently welcomed new members to our self-assessment team (SAT) committee, which includes all of the Athena SWAN working group Chairs and other key members of the IHW community. We are especially pleased to introduce our Ethnicity Champion, Vittal Katikireddi, and our Disability Champion, Elise Whitley. With their help we aim to make IHW an even better place to work and study for all our members.

Dr Breda Cullen
Athena SWAN Champion
Institute of Health and Wellbeing


First published: 1 May 2018