Wrapping up a year of progress within FBS

Throughout the past academic year, staff across the Faculty of Brain Sciences have delivered numerous initiatives to address inequality and exclusionary cultures. Broadening and strengthening EDI across the Faculty is a result of passion and commitment at all levels, with a continuous aim for steady and sustainable progression of EDI work.  

The initiatives and work illustrated below provide a brief insight into the work being carried out across the Faculty over the 2021/22 academic year: 

Pioneering EDI Research: 

An EDI Research Centre and Hub is being established to bring researchers within the Faculty into one network, provide them with common resources and other facilitations and to encourage research into EDI related topics. The center will officially launch in September 2022. 

Supporting parents and carers: 

The Carers Fund was created to financially support staff with parental and caring responsibilities to attend meetings, conferences, workshops, and events outside normal working patterns. The fund which was established during the 2020/21 academic year has expanded the eligibility criteria by including academics, research assistants, teaching fellows, professional services, and technical staff and PhD and Professional Doctoral students within the Faculty of Brain Sciences. The fund aims to continue its efforts in tackling barriers to progression faced by those with caring responsibilities in the next academic year. 

Developing Intercultural Competence and Practice: 

To address issues of intercultural communication and engagement and those seeking to improve their communication skills – particularly with their international students – Anouchka Sterling (Faculty Religion and Belief Equity Lead) created and developed a series of workshops exploring issues of intercultural communication and inclusion, with Stephen James, a cross-cultural communications consultant. The workshops considered two primary needs: psychosocial safety, and intercultural competence and practice, then participants ended the session by making pledges to apply new skills to their roles and general working experience.  

Listening to our staff and students: 

‘The Experiences of Disabled and Neurodivergent Staff and Students at The Faculty of Brain Sciences’ Focus Group Report: Manjula Patrick (Faculty Disability Equity Lead) and Nick Anim conducted a research project through a series of online focus group sessions that aimed to examine how disabilities, visible and invisible, shape working and social experiences at the university, for both staff and students. The full report is available online. 

Ethnic Minority Experiences in Brain Sciences: Roopal Desai, Lasana Harris (Faculty Race Equity Lead 19/20-20/21), and Linda Ali Brown (Faculty Race Equity Lead 21/22) led a project that conducted focus groups with ethnic minority staff to better understand their experiences working in the Faculty. The report revealed common themes that affect ethnic minorities within the Faculty and provided recommendations on how to tackle these concerning issues. The full report is available online.  

Addressing the ethnic minority awarding gap: 

The Faculty has undertaken a number of projects to address the awarding gap between white and ethnic minority students. This included piloting ‘Teachly’, a digital teaching support system that aims to improve inclusivity in lectures and seminars by providing lecturers with feedback and advice on how to improve their interactions with students (project led by Vitor Zimmerer). ‘Decolonising the curriculum’ workshops will be held later in July, so teaching staff can go into the new academic year with a refreshed understanding of the main ideas of decolonisation and the latest debates in decolonising science.  If you like to attend ‘Decolonising the curriculum’ workshop, please email fbs.edi@ucl.ac.uk.

Effective leadership and governance of EDI: 

Directors of EDI and Inclusion Leads in each of our departments have been ensuring local engagement and progression of EDI initiatives. Highlights include the IoN publishing the first departmental EDI report, DoP leadership committing to a number of EDI pledges, and EDI hangouts in PaLS sparking conversations on how to improve our workplace culture. At Faculty-level, Equity Leads have championed their area of focus (disability, gender, LGBTQ+, race, religion and belief) working towards a comprehensive action plan to support intersectional EDI work.  EDI Professional Services based within departments across the Faculty are fundamental to driving forward the EDI work on the ground; Seema Duggal in DoP, Avili Feese in IoO, Ana De Sousa e Faro in IoN, and Beverley Isibor in IoPD, EI and PaLS. 

Innovative career development support for PS&T staff: 

The Faculty staff survey 2021 showed that Professional Services and Technical staff feel that they have insufficient career development opportunities. To address this, the Faculty have put a concerted effort into listening to and supporting PS&T staff. The FBS PS&T mentoring scheme successfully matched over 20 mentors and mentees with comprehensive training to ensure these mentoring relationships lead to tangible career development. The Faculty held its inaugural Professional Services and Technical Staff Away Day in June 2022, sparking numerous conversations about the various options for career development, and promoting the initiatives, networks and opportunities available. The momentum built throughout the day will carry through to the next academic year as we will build upon this year’s progress to develop further initiatives for these often overlooked staff groups. 

Athena SWAN success: 

The Institute of Prion Diseases successfully achieved a Bronze Athena SWAN Award, and the Division of Psychiatry have submitted their Silver application, joining PaLS, IoO and QSIoN in working towards their Silver action plan. Ear Institute has been working towards their Silver application and are expected to submit later this summer.  

Thank you to everyone for contributing towards culture change within the Faculty. We’re looking forward to continuing this work in the next academic year, with renewed vigour after the summer break. 

Many thanks, 

Anna Cox (Vice Dean, EDI) 

Ciara Wright (EDI Manager) 

Beverley Isibor (EDI Coordinator)