Informatics' Equality and Diversity Blog

June 22, 2017

On film for International Women in Engineering Day

Informatics women in academia - the opening imageThe School is marking International Women in Engineering Day, Friday 23 June, by launching a series of short films and written case studies, featuring some of our staff and postgraduate students.

This follows our Girls in Tech series featuring students, published in March as part of our work to support women in Informatics, under the banner of our Athena SWAN Silver Award activities.

Individual films (around 2 minutes long) will be published on Facebook and Twitter. Links to the films and written case studies can also be found on our website at:

http://www.ed.ac.uk/informatics/about/work-with-us/equality-diversity/women-in-computing

May 9, 2017

Minerva Informatics Equality Award

Informatics Europe is still accepting nominations for the second Minerva Informatics Equality Award devoted to initiatives which seek to encourage and support the careers of women in Informatics research and education. The second of this annual award will be presented in October 2017 and is sponsored by Google. The Award carries a prize of EUR 5,000.

Deadlines

Full nominations: 1 June 2017
Notification of winner(s): 1 August 2017

About

The Informatics Europe Minerva Informatics Equality Award recognizes best practices in Departments or Faculties of European universities or research labs that have been demonstrated to have a positive impact for women. On a three-year cycle the award will focus each year on a different stage of the career pipeline:

  • Developing the careers of female faculty, including retention and promotion
  • Supporting the transition of female PhD and postdoctoral researchers into faculty positions
  • Encouraging female students to enroll in Computer Science/Informatics programmes and retaining them.

The 2017 Award is devoted to initiatives supporting the transition of female PhD and postdoctoral researchers into faculty positions.

The Award seeks to celebrate successful initiatives that have had a measurable impact on the careers of women within the institution. Such initiatives can serve as exemplars of best practices within the community, with the potential to be widely adopted by other institutions. Nominations will need to demonstrate the impact that has been achieved.

For 2017 examples of impact could include an improved career development and better agreements on career planning for female PhD students and postdocs as recorded in objective surveys of staff experience, and increasing numbers of female faculty.

The Award will be given to a Department or Faculty to be used for further work on supporting the transition of female PhD or post-docs to faculty positions. To be eligible, nominated institutions must be located in one of the member or candidate member countries of the Council of Europe, or Israel. Institutions associated with members of the Informatics Europe Board and of the Award panel are not eligible.

The Award panel will review and evaluate each proposal. It reserves the right to split the prize between at most two different proposals.
Moreover, noteworthy runners up may also be included as exemplars of best practice in future Informatics Europe publications.

 

Proposals

Proposals should be submitted only at:

https://easychair.org/conferences/?conf=miea2017

The proposal should include:

  • Contact information for the Head of the nominated Department or Faculty and the nominator (who can be the same)
  • A brief summary or abstract (100 words or less) which can be made public.
  • Description of the initiative (max 2 pages)
  • Evidence of its impact (max 2 pages);
  • An optional reference list (which may include URLs of supporting material);
  • Optionally, one or two letters of support. The letters of support may come, for example, from female staff members who have benefited from the scheme.

The Award will be presented at the 13th European Computer Science Summit, in Lisbon, 23-25 October 2017, where a representative of the winning institution(s) will be invited to give a talk on their achievements.

Award Panel

Christine Choppy, Professor of Informatics, University Paris 13(SPC), France (Chair); Serge Abiteboul, Senior Researcher, Inria, France (co-chair Comité Parité-Égalité); Tibor Bosse, Associate Professor of Informatics, VU University Amsterdam, Netherlands (Gender Equality Officer); Gyöngyi Bujdosó, Professor of Informatics, University Debrecen, Hungary; Monica Divitini, Professor in Cooperation Technologies, IDI-NTNU, Norway; Anna Ingólfsdóttir, Professor of Informatics, University Reykjavik,Iceland; Mema Roussopoulos, Associate Professor of Computer Science, University of Athens, Greece; Letizia Tanca, Professor of Computer Science and Engineering, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

Further inquiries: minerva-award@informatics-europe.org

April 11, 2017

Webinar training: Confronting sexual harassment

Webinar training entitled ‘No one Asks for It: Confronting Sexual Harassment’ is available 1-2pm, Thursday 20 April or Thursday 27 April 2017 to any member of staff, but particularly those who would have direct contact with students. Objectives:

• describe what sexual harassment looks like and why it’s important for staff at the University to understand this

• give ideas about how to challenge sexual harassment, whether you’re subject to it or witness it

• give information to those who have close relationships or contact with students about what they should do in the event of witnessing sexual harassment or assault, or in the event of a disclosure.

To book a place on 20 April, go to: https://www.events.ed.ac.uk/index.cfm?event=book&scheduleID=24500

To book a place on 27 April, go to: https://www.events.ed.ac.uk/index.cfm?event=book&scheduleID=24501

March 16, 2017

Transgender Visibility Day, 31 March 2017

Between 6-9pm on Friday 31 March 2017, in commemoration of Transgender Visibility Day, University of Edinburgh’s Staff Pride Network is hosting an event to look at cultural representations of transgender identity, with a focus on male transsexuality, as well as general issues affecting trans and non-binary identities.

The event will include a screening of 2011’s Tomboy, as well as a panel discussion afterwards.

Venue: Screening Room (G.04), 50 George Square.

Tickets via Eventbrite: https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/tomboy-film-screening-and-panel-discussion-tickets-32891070076

March 13, 2017

Leadership training for women

AMENDED POST

The following training opportunity is aimed at women up to senior lecturer level or professional services equivalent, who are interested in exploring leadership and management as an option for progression.

The School is willing to fund a place for a suitable candidate.

LFHE’s Leadership Matters 6

Module 1: Wednesday 14 – Thursday 15 June 2017 (non-residential)
Action Learning Set: Tuesday 27 June 2017
Module 2: Wednesday 5 – Thursday 6 July 2017 (residential)
Location: Edinburgh

<https://www.lfhe.ac.uk/en/programmes-events/index.cfm/leadership-matters-6>

If you are interested in attending, please email InfHR with a brief statement as to how you believe that you and the School/University will benefit from participation.

Please mark your email ‘Leadership training – June.’

You should have your line manager’s support for your participation.

February 13, 2017

Code First: Girls Northern Conference 2017

Are you female/non-binary, aged 18+ and interested in technology and entrepreneurship? Applications close this Wednesday 15 February for Code First: Girls Northern Conference 2017, to be held Friday 3 March 2017, 10am-5pm at the PwC Office, 144 Morrison Street, Edinburgh.

Aims of the event:

1) Inspire and empower young women /non-binary people to start a career in technology and entrepreneurship
2) Demystify the tech industry and provide an understanding of what it takes to succeed

Further details here: http://www.codefirstgirls.org.uk/cfg-northern-conference-2017.html

February 9, 2017

EPSRC survey of diversity and inclusion barriers in ICT research

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has commissioned Napier University to carry out a survey in the UK of staff and research postgraduates researching Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), to investigate barriers around diversity and inclusion.

The survey will be open until 28 February 2017.

Take part here: https://www.research.net/r/diversityICT

January 25, 2017

BCS gender equality discussion list

BCS Women in Computing has a new JISCMAIL address for those who wish to discuss gender equality, especially Athena SWAN, within Computer Science. The list is CYGNETS@JISCMAIL.AC.UK and the home page is http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/CYGNETS

The aim is to use the list to raise issues around diversity in Computing, to look for resources, to share problems (and hopefully solutions), and so on.

Subscribers can join the list by sending an email to listserv@jiscmail.ac.uk
Subject: Subscribe
Message: SUBSCRIBE CYGNETS Firstname Lastname

January 12, 2017

Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award and Lecture

Nominations are open for the Royal Society Rosalind Franklin Award, given each year to a woman for their outstanding work in any field of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM).

The recipient of the £30k award is expected to spend a proportion of the grant on implementing a project to raise the profile of women in STEM in their host institution and/or field of expertise in the UK.

Deadline for nominations: 6pm 30 January 2017.

Resources on our website

Last year, the School developed a new section of its website, called Work with us which includes current staff vacancies, Equality and Diversity information (not least details of our Athena SWAN Silver Award) and links to University work-related policies.

The Equality and Diversity section includes a useful list of resources around:

  • challenging preconceptions
  • women in science and technology
  • equality legislation
  • ‘protected characteristics’ – age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex (gender) and sexual orientation.

Why not have a browse?

Next Page »

Theme: Rubric.