Exciton Science is committed to creating an inclusive and respectful workplace, where people from all backgrounds and gender can thrive and reach their full potential. The Centre’s consultative Equity, Diversity and Inclusion Committee (EDIC) and Executive Board has developed supporting mechanisms to ensure the Centre achieves and promotes the mental and physical wellbeing of all members. In 2021 the Centre reached out to new audiences and networks to promote and foster a more diverse community.
Exciton Science was proud to again sponsor the the ECWW2021 event held virtually (via Zoom) at the Australian National University on 20-22nd September. From all reports it was a productive retreat and workshop enabling young early career researchers access to expert advice from academic mentors in Australia and overseas. The workshop was launched by Prof Chennupati Jagadish, Distinguished Professor and Australian Laureate Fellow at the Australian National University.
60 attendees at the workshop included 12 mentors, 4 committee members, 38 registered ECRs and 6 alumni award recipients. The 38 ECRs were from 15 Australian universities and research institutes, including the G8 universities, and University of Technology Sydney, RMIT, University of Newcastle, Deakin University, James Cook University, Macquarie University and University of South Australia. ECR women from institutes such as the John Curtin School of Medical Research and CO2 Australia were also in attendance at the workshop.
12 mentors across various fields from academia, professional and publishing contributed to this workshop. 8 senior mentors including 1 ARC Laureate Fellows, 1 NHMRC Senior Research Fellow& ARC Future Fellow, 2 ARC Future Fellows, 1 ARC Centre of Excellence Node Leader, 1 ARC DECRA & Westpac Research Fellow, and 1 Nature Publishing Group Editor shared their valuable experience and delivered excellent guidance in scientific paper and grant proposal writing to the early career women. In addition, 4 young mentors contributed to the program, including a Research Development Manager with 10+ years’ experience, a Lecturer and TEDx speaker, a Heart Foundation Future Leader Fellow and an NHMRC Early Career Fellow.
The ECWW2021 was organized by ANU, University of Technology Sydney and University of Sydney and greatly supported by the ARC Centre of Excellence for Transformative Meta-Optical Systems (TMOS), ARC Centre of Excellence in Exciton Science, and ARC Centre of Excellence for Enabling Eco-Efficient Beneficiation of Minerals. The ECWW2021 was also supported by organizations of IEEE Electron Devices Society, Microscopy Australia, Australian Institute of Physics, Materials Australia, and MDPI Journal Crystals.
The Centre has begun working with our co-Centres of Excellence to hold a Networking & Career Development event for people from marginalised or underrepresented groups in STEM. Discussions and preliminary meetings have begun in 2021 with Lara Gillan from the Centre Equity Diversity and Inclusion committee representing Exciton Science to begin establishing the event and network. Francesco Campaioli and Samantha Zamman will join the working groups in 2022 to run the event.
The focus of the network will be on academia, industry, and policy. With talks highlighting the barriers and studies into how to make change.
The event will be designed to be a kick-starter for a national network that would exist beyond this first event.
In 2021 a worrying trend in the make-up of Exciton Science personnel become apparent.
Thanks to the training, experience and opportunities provided to them during the first years of the Centre’s lifespan, talented women among our cohort of postdoctoral researchers began to depart for exciting roles elsewhere in the research industry, or in other sectors, including renewable energy, consulting and government.
We were the victims of our own success, offering a launching pad for personnel growth and career advancement, but leaving representation of women within the Centre disappointingly low.
To create empowering and safe workplaces for women in the Centre and our node universities, we need more women in our labs and research groups.
The Centre has always been committed to driving progress towards gender equality and ensuring diverse and balanced representation at every level of our organisation.
We realised we needed to take bold, decisive action and overhaul our recruitment policies to address the under representation of women in the Centre, and STEM more broadly.
Taking a leadership role in conjunction with relevant faculties and human resources departments, we set out to fund at least two new postdoctoral positions that were open to women only.
The response to this call for applications was phenomenal. Due to the high standard of applicants, we managed to appoint five new women to postdoctoral positions across the Centre.
Our chief investigators at the University of Sydney also held a women-only recruitment round, appointing two additional women to their research groups.
Following open recruitment rounds, our research teams at the University of Melbourne appointed a further three women to postdoctoral roles.
Exciton Science is excited to see ten new highly qualified members join the Centre, where they are already, or soon will be, contributing to our research excellence and demonstrating that women do not just belong in STEM, they are its future.
In September 2021, Exciton Science teamed up with the Centre’s mental health and behaviour change partner, En Masse, to deliver a special mental health awareness webinar to mark R U OK? Day.
R U OK? Day reminds us of the importance to check-in with each other and provides an opportunity to refresh our skills, and help ourselves and each other to cope better, wherever we are on the mental health continuum.
It has become an important landmark in the Australian calendar, and helps to normalise discussions about mental health challenges and reduce stigma, increasing the confidence of people with mental health issues to seek treatment.
The theme of Exciton Science’s event was understanding mental health and the role that conversations and positive approaches can play in this.
The Centre hosted an interactive panel conversation via Zoom that focused on a combination of lived experience-based discussions, together with practical, research and evidence-based tools for engaging in supportive conversations about mental health.
The program included an interactive discussion aimed at raising awareness about the continuum of mental health.
The continuum accurately depicts that people with mental health conditions can still thrive in their lives and that interventions, from prevention and mental health awareness promotion, and early intervention (including conversations) can make a huge positive difference to our capacity to recover from mental health setbacks.
The GLOBE model for engaging in low risk, supportive conversations about mental health was also discussed.
Exciton Science is grateful for the assistance of En Masse’s Mark Dean in facilitating this important event.
Our panel comprised:
This event was well attended by Centre members and our associates from other ARC Centres of Excellence, as well as members of faculties and schools from our node universities.