Resources

NEW 2018 veski inspiring women STEM sidebyside program was launched on 22nd March 2018.

Click the link below for more details

STEM sidebyside

Promoting gender equity in Science

During the course of Prof Tilley’s Laureate Fellowship (2015 – 2020), she will engage in different strategies to support the promotion and advancement of women in science.  Some of the issues she will be targeting include:

Developing and promoting templates for gender policy for scientific conferences

Female Speakers in Quantitative Biomedical Science

Mentoring and development programs

Career interruption policies and opportunities

Recognition of women’s contribution to science

Women in Science and Gender Bias in Academe

Developing and promoting templates for gender policy for scientific conferences

Many scientific conference speakers and panels are currently male dominated, even in disciplines where the balance between male and female researchers is approaching equality. Over the next few months, we hope to develop gender equity policy principles that will be made available as templates for conference organisers.  As an example, see this article on how gender balance was achieved in three years at the Lorne Conference on Protein Structure and Function.

Female speakers in Quantitative Biomedical Sciences

Prof Tilley is developing a list of high profile Australian and international female researchers in quantitative biomedical science.  The current list is available to download here.

If you would like to nominate a high profile female researcher in quantitative biomedical science to join this list, please contact gslf-tilleyadmin@unimelb.edu.au .  To be included on the list, researchers should have an excellent research track record in quantitative biomedical research, be an experienced conference speaker and have an engaging presentation style.  Researchers will be contacted to gain permission prior to inclusion on the list.  The list will be reviewed and updated periodically.

For ideas on how to increase the number of women speakers at conferences, see this article in Nature.  The following web sites may also provide information on female speakers from around the world:

Mentoring and development programs

The University of Melbourne offers:

Career interruption policies and opportunities

The University offers generous parental leave provisions and a return to work bonus following maternity leave.  Further information is available here. The University also offers the Melbourne Research Fellowship (Career Interruption) to help researchers re-establish their career after carer, parental or other prolonged periods of absence.

The ARC and NHMRC both offer early career researcher fellowships and the NHMRC also offers career development fellowships. Both funding bodies have policies that take into account career interruptions when applying for these grants.

Recognition of women’s contribution to science

Women are highly underrepresented as recipients of the higher level awards for many scientific societies and often this is due to a dearth of female applicants.  By contrast, there is no shortage of applications for the L’Oreal prize, which specifically targets women in science.

The Australian Academy of Science offers two Australian-based prizes for women in sciences:

In 2016, Profess Tilley established a new prize for women in science, the Georgina Sweet Award for Women in Quantitative Biomedical Science. This award, valued at $25,000 is open to mid-career female researchers in quantitative biomedical science.

Careers in Quantitative Biomedical Science

Article in Science Magazine discusses careers in Quantitative Biomedical Science

Women in Science and Gender Bias in Academe

There are many Australian and international web resources that provide information for women in science.

Some international academic papers on gender bias in academe are also provided.

Women in Science resources

Other Grants & Awards

Gender Bias in Academe resources