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Equality, Diversity and Inclusion

Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI)

EDI in the School

In this section we celebrate the great work done by the School of Mathematics and Statistics regarding Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.

Athena Swan Bronze Award

In August 2023 the School was awarded an Athena Swan Bronze award. This was the culmination of a lot of hard work by the School’s Self Assessment Team who carried out a thorough evaluation of various aspects of the School and created an Action Plan to promote and support EDI. The School is currently implementing that Action Plan.

Although the Athena SWAN charter primarily  addresses  problems faced by women, all actions put in place to improve equality, diversity and inclusion will benefit all members of the School. The key is to create an environment in which everyone can enjoy equal opportunities and a fulfilling, fair and inclusive working environment.

Role models in Mathematical Sciences

Powerful role models can play an important function in the future development of under-represented groups in the Mathematical Sciences. Not only can they positively reinforce the interests and appease the worries of prospective students, but they can also serve as points of contact and support for current students, as well as early career researchers and academics. Our School has an abundance of role models in the Mathematical Sciences, distinguished both for their research output, as well as their positions of leadership in academic roles in the School, and in UCD more broadly. In particular, as of April 2024, 13 out of 69 members of academic, research and teaching staff are female. The School is also supported by 8 professional staff, 7 of whom are female. Three female members of the School have completed the Aurora Leadership programme, while one has acted as an Aurora mentor.

Of course, the need for role models goes beyond the mathematical sciences and our School. For this reason, and motivated by the importance of role models in pSTEM, Dr. Aoibhinn Ni Shuilleabhain (School of Mathematics and Statistics, UCD) and Dr. Catherine Mooney (School of Computer Science, UCD) initiated the project 'Role Models in pSTEM: You can be what you can see' – a short video describing the project in more detail can be found (opens in a new window)here. The resources that have been developed include 10 outstanding short videos of female role models. For more information and to watch the videos, please follow this link.

Inclusive environment and important initiatives in the School

The School is promoting an environment where everyone feels welcome and valued, with the aim of establishing a sense of belonging among all members of the School. This section showcases this inclusive environment by highlighting a couple of School social events that took place in 2024, as well as initiatives that the School has pioneered.

  • Our School is supporting the bi-monthly Rotating Postdoc Coffee morning series organised by the College of Science as part of the Culturally Responsive Mentoring initiative. The morning provides a fantastic chance for postdocs in the School to connect, socialise and network with other postdocs throughout the college.

Postdoc coffee morning

  • To celebrate the International Day of Women in Mathematics the UCD School of Mathematics and Statistics displayed posters with testimonials from female students, staff and alumni on the ground floor of Science East (O’Brien Centre for Science) on Thursday May 9th from 12:30-2:30pm and hosted a lunch reception  from 1-2pm, which was open to people of all genders and career stages. This event will highlight the achievements of our female students and staff, as well as provide an opportunity to get together and network. 
  • For the first time, our School ran its own local "EDI Induction Event for New Staff" (appointed for academic year 2023-2024) to highlight EDI policy, objectives and supports for both staff and students and to outline the key action points of the School's recently awarded Athena Swan Bronze Award. This event took place in-person on January 16th 2024 from 3-4pm and included a presentation from Prof. P. Mellon, Chair of our School's EDI Committee. Six members of staff were present.
  • An alumni careers event took place in UCD on Thursday 25th April, in the UCD Science Centre Hub. This was an opportunity for the current undergrads of our School to meet and talk with some of our recent alumni about their time in UCD, and what they are doing now.

Alumni Careers Event

The event started with each of the alumni giving a brief introduction about themselves, saying what they are doing now, and how they got there. After the introductions, the alumni chatted with small groups of students, allowing them to ask questions. The event ended with the alumni summarising the main topics they talked about, and everyone retired to a drinks reception.

EDI-related Training and Funding opportunities 

Available training for Staff

The courses below are aimed at supporting staff belonging to different groups of protected characteristics and at different stages of their careers

  • Aurora Leadership Development Programme: Aurora is an innovative leadership development training programme targeted at women in the academic and professional administrative grades, up to associate professor level or administrative equivalent. It aims to encourage women in these roles to think of themselves as leaders; to develop leadership skills and to help institutions like UCD optimise the leadership potential of women. Furthermore information can be found here.
  • Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education e-Learning programme: The EDI in higher education eLearning programme is an interactive tailored online resource that aims to provide UCD employees with an awareness of key equality and diversity topics in a University context, and complements future EDI awareness raising programmes, events and initiatives. This   enables employees to consider and reflect on the part they play in building an inclusive culture in UCD. More details can be found here.
  • Unconscious Bias resources: UCD has collated a series of resources on Unconscious Bias Awareness Training, showing how unconscious bias can impact on decision-making and actions.  This material was collected during a national conference held in UCD in Spring 2019 to explore the impact and effectiveness of Unconscious Bias Awareness Raising on the elimination of discrimination. Outputs from the conference informed a holistic approach to address conscious and unconscious biases, including embedding an Unconscious Bias pilot session delivered to senior leaders in UCD.
  • Inclusive Recruitment Training Bundle for Hiring Managers: EDI and Resourcing prepared a bespoke training and eLearning “bundle” aimed at hiring managers and members of interview panels. More information can be found here.
  • Performance for Growth: ​​Performance for Growth (P4G) is the UCD framework that provides the opportunity for all employees to have at least one annual conversation with their line manager or other nominated reviewers. The 2023-24 P4G cycle is now open, with conversations to conclude before 30 June 2024. Further details, as well as training material for both Reviewers and Reviewees, can be found here.
  • People & Organisation Development aim to provide information to help new staff & faculty become familiar with the University and their new role. More information can be found here.
  • Training and mentoring services available for Postdocs at UCD can be found here.

A full catalogue for Training and Development courses can be found here.

EDI-related grants available for staff

  • New academic staff are allocated a School start-up budget. For more information, please talk to the Head of School, Prof. Nial Friel.
  • The (opens in a new window)UCD Seed Funding Scheme provides practical ‘seed’ support for projects and ideas that are challenging and ambitious, as well as those that lead to new knowledge and capabilities. One of the four programmes under the 2024 Seed Funding Scheme is dedicated to Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
  • The (opens in a new window)European Women in Maths (EWM) is an association of female mathematicians. The Association is involved in policy and strategic work in promoting the role of women in mathematics and offers direct support to its members. EWM awards a few grants each year for women mathematicians that are EWM members and are at an early stage of their career or work in a developing country. The grants are meant to (co-)fund travel and/or accommodation for participating and giving a talk at a significant conference in their field.
  • The (opens in a new window)Association for Women in Mathematics is a US-based learned society for women and girls in the mathematical sciences. The Society’s mission is to promote equal opportunity and the equal treatment of women and girls in the mathematical sciences. The Society supports women mathematicians in the USA and worldwide with travel grants and achievement prizes to promote a more equitable society. They also support certain workshops aimed at women.
  • The (opens in a new window)L’Oréal-UNESCO UK and Ireland For Women in Science Rising Talent Programme offers awards to promote, enhance and encourage the contribution of women pursuing their research careers in the UK or Ireland. The awards have been designed to provide flexible and practical financial support for winners.

EDI- related scholarships for students

  • (opens in a new window)Intel Women in Technology Scholarship. Through this scholarship, Intel hopes to increase awareness and encourage a new generation of high-achieving women to take up the challenge of a career in science and technology. They follow a focused approach targeting female students committed to disciplines with proven relevance to their business, including Mathematical Sciences.
  • Huawei 'Tech4Her' Scholarship program: UCD Access & Lifelong Learning, with generous funding from Huawei Technologies, offers this dedicated scholarship for a female access student currently studying on a taught full-time graduate programme within the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering or Maths. More information can be found here. 
  • Scholarships for students with disabilities: These scholarships are funded through the Fund for Students with Disabilities (FSD). Eligible students on an approved course can receive assistance from post-leaving certificate to doctoral level during any year of study. For more information, see (opens in a new window)here.

Seeking support: for staff and students

UCD Dignity & Respect Service

The UCD Dignity & Respect Service provides support and advice to students or staff who disclose issues of bullying, harassment or sexual misconduct, and those who are reported for such issues. The service employs full-time trained Advisers who can respond and help with these reports, including the submission of formal complaints. The Advisers should be the first point of contact for staff or students wishing to make a formal complaint, and can be contacted directly by emailing respect@ucd.ie or by phoning 01 7167716.

They also run a drop-in service during which time students, staff and UCD community members can call in for informal conversations, support and advice. The times of these drop-in sessions are available on the service’s website: https://www.ucd.ie/dignityandrespect/supports/dignityrespectsupportservice/ 

Within the School

The School of Mathematics and Statistics aims to be an inclusive environment, in which members of the school community feel accepted and supported. Where staff or students feel that they have been subject to discrimination, bullying, harassment, or simply do not feel comfortable in the school environment, they should make their concerns known to senior members of staff, who shall address these concerns locally where appropriate, or assist them in accessing the UCD Dignity & Support Service.

For students, incidents of discrimination, bullying or harassment can be reported to senior staff including their Programme Director or Head of School. For staff, reports may be made to their line manager, Head of Subject or Head of School. In all cases, reports of serious misconduct should also be reported immediately to the Dignity and Respect Support Service. 

For more information on the values and culture promoted by the School and to access the School’s Code of Conduct, please see here.

Other External Supports

Where an issue cannot be solved internally, or it is inappropriate to do so, a range of University wide supports are available to staff and students of the School.

UCD emergency contact number 01 716 7999

Student support: https://www.ucd.ie/studentcentre/services/

Staff support: https://www.ucd.ie/engage/employeerelations/employeeassistanceservice/

Confidential reporting for staff and students: (opens in a new window)dignityandrespect@ucd.ie

Anonymous reporting and support: (opens in a new window)https://reportandsupport.ucd.ie/

Equality Diversity and inclusion reports: https://www.ucd.ie/equality/

UCD Policies and Guideline

Employee Resources

UCD has a range of family friendly policies to support those with caring responsibilities:

UCD also has a number policies and guidelines providing support for employees during their career:

Further details on these supports can be found on UCD HR website https://www.ucd.ie/hr/.

Recruitment

UCD is an equal opportunity employer. All applicants will receive consideration for the position without regard to gender, civil status, family status, sexual orientation, religion, age, age, disability, race or membership to the Traveller community. 

UCD’s Recruitment and Selection Policy aims to ensure that recruitment and selection procedures are fair, rigorous, and transparent. More details can be found on the UCD HR website at UCD Human Resources.

The UCD Equality & Diversity website also provides tips for inclusive recruitment. These guides and resources were developed to help hiring managers consider the role of equality, diversity and inclusion in the recruitment process and how they can best attract diverse talent. More details can be found on the UCD EDI website at https://www.ucd.ie/equality/support/inclusiverecruitment.

Workplace Activities 

Guidelines for embedding Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in all UCD activities, in particular for events, conferences, communications, websites and promotional materials are available on the UCD EDI website at: Equality, Diversity and Inclusion | Embedding EDI: Guidelines for Visibility.

UCD School of Mathematics and Statistics

Room S3.04, Science Centre South, University College Dublin, Belfield, Dublin 4, Ireland.