Why I'm an Athena SWAN panelist and you should be too.

Why I'm an Athena SWAN panelist and you should be too.

Today I completed my third tour of duty as an Athena SWAN panelist. I left my wife and children early in the morning, missed the school run and headed off to London. The colours of the sunrise over Bristol were amazing to notice as I did my final review of the applications.

During the previous week, I had spent some time each day reading one of the six applications I had to review. I had completed all the forms but one last check was worthwhile.

Reading other Athena SWAN applications is a very informative process. It's interesting to find out how other institutions are run, to look at the variation in practice and culture and to compare these to my own institution. Typically I feel inspired by applications. It seems to me that most applicants are trying to change the culture.

The panels themselves are inspiring too. The include representatives from diverse geographical and practical backgrounds. They include both academics and HR staff with commitment to Athena SWAN representing the common theme. Different people, with their varied experience, offer different views. These have biases of course but I find the variation in opinions very interesting and worthwhile.

Some of the things I liked:

Transparency in management and promotion procedures.

Not dependent on a single person even if it is the Director but rather procedure driven allowing opportunity for all.

Linking narrative to action plan based on observations.

Ask mentees about their experience.

Gender breakdown as much as possible:

Flexible working is an interesting discussion point. Most academics work flexibly. This includes regular working from home, being away at meetings without telling anybody and leaving early at a moments notice. This flexibility is one of the key attractions in the job. The arrangements are usually informal and often not recorded. The reason for this is that we are judged on our results - student numbers, grant income and papers.

Another positive feature of this is that these flexible working patterns are usually obvious to co-workers and so there is a 'culture of flexible working'.

There are many challenges with this too. Firstly, informal flexible working arrangements can be very dependent on line managers. With no formality to the process, flexible working can also be discouraged and sometimes informally denied. Without some records it's difficult to monitor this.

Laboratory based staff can find it difficult to work flexibly because of a lone working policy or access to laboratories at alternative hours.

Staff can feel they should be on their computer or available at all times.

Bridging funding should be an "open competition".

Patronage vs talent spotting. Patronage is one of the ways staff can be developed both men and women. Having a powerful patron usually helps push ones career forward. However, it doesn't translate to equality of opportunity.

Ideally promotions or talent recognition schemes should be open and transparent. Objective criteria should be produced before competitions are launched. All staff should be eligible. Gender breakdown of applications and awards should be analysed.

The policy should contribute to success.

Workload models - should include everything - teaching, research, citizenship.

Recognition for diverse rolls.


I'm an Athena SWAN panellist because I believe in equality of opportunity and this seems like a good way to contribute to the process.

I'm an Athena SWAN panellist because it helps me learn more about the kind of change that is being implemented across the UK.

I've stayed an Athena SWAN panellist because I meet interesting and inspiring people.

Medical students make up their minds early...

Talk about careers early. Have a presentation every year.


As well as the panellists, we have a moderator and a note taker, both representatives of the ECU. There can be observers - people learning about the Athena SWAN process. The proceedings are confidential.

As a minimum, six people read the application. If each spends an hour reading and then the we discuss the application for another 45 minutes. That corresponds to about ten and a half hours of analysis of your application.




Nice Athena SWAN figures....

Not so nice Athena SWAN figures...



Paul Brennan

Transplanting greens

My nemesis is transplanting. I sow the plants, I thin the plants. They grow well and then I don't transplant in time! They become root bound, with overlong leaves, and suffer in their modules or small pots! However, over the weekend, I did manage to transplant some lettuces, some pak choi, some endive.

The greenhouse is yielding some nice thinnings of greens, some nice plum tomatoes and some chillis.

Temperatures 26th Sep 2010, 17:22

Greenhouse temps:
Current Out 15.1        Current In 17.5
Max Out 22.5             Max In 26.4
Min Out 3.2                Min In 4.2

Winter planting

I think that the best thing about a greenhouse is that I can try growing winter salads.

Planted on Friday 3rd Sep 2010, with Roisin as a little helper :-)

• Corn Salad Louviers (5 small pots)
• Endive Pancalieri (6 modules)
• Endive Cornet de Bordeaux (6 modules)
• Lettuce Winter Density (4 small pots)
• Clatonia Winter Purslane (15 modules)
• Pak Choi Red (15 modules)

Last week, 30 August, I cut open a bag of multipurpose compost and sowed three broad rows:

• Spinach Campania
• Lettuce Little Gem
• Rocket

Also, I sowed four pots of broad leaf parsley and Lettuce Butterhead Winter Wonder in modules. These have already germinated and are coming up well.

Basil in the Autopot...

So I have a plan:

• Tomatoes in the NFT, in the house, and in grow bags in the greenhouse.
• Pepper plants in the Solargrow in the greenhouse.
• Basil in the Autopot in the greenhouse.

Yesterday, May 13th, I set up the Basil in the Autopot. The instructions recommend combining soil and perlite so replanted the basil again today, increasing the amount of perlite.

Tomatoes look happy in the greenhouse but I think the peppers are finding the evenings a little cold. Some of them are looking a bit sad first thing in the morning. They perk up during the day so hopefully they will be OK.

Yesterday, I ordered a thermometer so that will help tell me more about what is happening in the greenhouse.

All good - all exciting. :-)

Greenhouse is up!

It took a while but the greenhouse is up. It looks great and a picture will follow soon. I took a bit of time off work last Monday and with the help of the guy from Quality Buildings, we got the whole thing finished. Chris Pepper helped the previous weekend and finally it has plants growing in it and it looks great. All very exciting!

Eat your thinnings...

I have read recently about micro leaves and seen a little film on them. It seems to me (and my wife) that it's just eating the thinnings which we've been doing for ages. This picture shows a salad of 'micro-leaves', herbs and weeds (hairy bittercress) that I had for lunch today along side a lovely savory tart made my wife. This salad had at least ten different components and was very tasty!