Trained scientist supporting research staff
I work at Swansea University supporting the professional and career development of research staff. My role - enhancing the attractiveness and effectiveness of research careers - arises from government concern for the UK to be more research-competitive. It links closely with Vitae, the national organisation which champions researchers, and is funded by the Research Councils.
My background is in applied science: my first degree was in agricultural and forest science, followed by a doctorate in plant pathology. I did two post-docs. One explored ways of reducing reliance on pesticides by combining them with mycoherbicides. The other focussed on commercial cloning of superior British oak. Both were in collaboration with industry, both cutting-edge at the time.
I then took a quantum leap into administration, motivated partly by frustration at successive fixed-term contracts and seeming lack of career path. In addition, I married early so felt I didn’t have the geographical flexibility that fitted with building a research career. On the plus side I am a natural organiser so it seemed something I would thrive at and enjoy.
I spent nine years in Engineering Science in Oxford University, co-ordinating academic and research matters. I then moved back to the biomedical sciences into a more senior role. Simultaneously I was secretariat to the committee of all the heads of science departments in Oxford. That was a really brilliant opportunity to observe policy-making, politics, and personalities at the leading edge.
My next move was to the physical sciences as Administrator in Materials. It included managing finance, personnel, grants, lab infra-structure, and a range of refurbishment and capital new build projects. It also involved responsibility for agreements with spin-out and commercial companies using our facilities and collaborating with our researchers. It was an extraordinarily varied job, and a vibrant place to work.
I came to Swansea four years ago, for family reasons. It’s wonderful though dramatically different. I support researchers who are mostly on fixed term contracts and provide training, for example on bidding for grant funding and one-to-one guidance. I also work closely with managers, as well as prompting organisational change to processes and systems.
I am passionate about supporting research across discipline boundaries, about leadership, and committed to supporting women in their research careers. I believe strongly in the importance of role models and mentoring, whether formal or informal. We have an excellent Women in Universities Mentoring Scheme (WUMS) here in Wales, which I would encourage anyone to participate in. Swansea University has just secured the Athena Swan bronze award for good practice in gender equality – a very interesting and helpful process to go through.
It’s fascinating to work as a trained scientist in administration. I believe in changing work cultures to enable women to thrive, and my job gives me plenty of scope for this. In particular I’m keen to hear how other people are succeeding in getting the culture shift we all need to achieve this!
Rosie Plummer isCareer Development Officer for Research Staff at Swansea University. She is Chair of the WUMS steering committee, and works closely with VITAE, the Leadership Foundation, and the UK Resource Centre for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology.
Comments
Ruth Wilson (UKRC moderator):
Welcome, Rosie. Its fascinating to read your story. It makes me realise partly how multi-skilled administration is (and how much responsibility it carries) but also how valuable it must be when people with scientific or other specialist technical knowledge move into admin and support. We are often concerned about the \'leakey pipe\', where women qualified in SET leave their profession and don\'t return. Your story reminds me that some are in fact making excellent use of their SET training, even though they are not doing the hands-on science, engineering etc themselves.
Ruth Wilson (UKRC moderator):
PS! Am really looking forward to meeting you on Wednesday in Cardiff, at the Connect event. Twitterers can follow this at #connectw
Rosie:
Hi Ruth, yes exactly so it\'s incredibly varied and can be very high pace too. There are so many roles brilliant ways SET qualified women can develop their careers. Apart from the obvious direct hands-on ones - and we do have some stunning women research scientists of course. Add to this the huge range of other, much less obvious ways we can capitalise on our science backgrounds. The route I\'ve taken is just one. Others include for example the many able women scientists working for the research councils and funding bodies, or scientists supporting development of policy. Opportunities for fulfilling careers abound, though there really isn\'t necessarily any set \'career path\' any more. Instead it\'s very often crazy paving...and you need to be opportunist and lay it yourself. And because of that it can be really flexible. Must dash now - WUMS meeting this afternoon. Good to hear from you!
Ruth Wilson (UKRC moderator):
You\'re right. And ALL these women are welcome to join (free) GetSET Women: http://www.getsetwomen.org/ for news, views, training and grant opportunities and more.
Karen Holford (Professor, Mechanical Eng:
Hi Rosie, Great to read your blog. Congratulations to all in Swansea for the Athena Swan Bronze - we too found the process really useful in terms of focusing on exactly what constitutes good practice in gender equality and in doing so, we have ensured that these principles are applied across all of our policies and procedures. Mentoring is vital all all stages -your WUMS scheme sounds great - does it cover women at all stages of their careers? The importance of networks cannot be stressed too highly - these can help to provide role models and are very useful for sharing information that can often be difficult to access. We have some interesting women\'s networks here, some based just in the engineering department but have recently held our first meeting for women staff in engineering, physics and computer science.
Rosie:
Hi Karen, I totally agree mentoring is incredibly valuable, and WUMS is a great scheme. It\'s primarily for women at mid and senior career stages where representation is stubbornly low, making it especially important to build connections between institutions. What was really striking with the pilot last year was participants at the highest levels who also wanted to have a mentor. Status is no bar - it seems we all need them! lncidentally I do hear that the women professors across Wales are being invited to link up too, which is bound to have some positive spin-offs. \'Joining the dots\' and linking between networks, either in person, or via e-means, either formally or informally. We should have a shared event sometime.
Tavi Murray (Professor, Swansea Universi:
Hi Rosie Interesting to hear everyone\'s views on role models and mentoring. There are remarkably few available here in Swansea, at least at the highest levels (we have no female members of the university\'s senior management team). As you know (since you are part of it!) we\'ve run a successful research coaching scheme within our School at Swansea (which is a mixture of Environmental, Biological and Social Science). I don\'t know the ratio of men : women volunteering to take up the scheme (I\'d guess about equal - so a higher proportion of women staff participating). But certainly in its first year we had many professors and senior staff participating both as coaches and coachees (often both!). We first badged the scheme as a coaching scheme in part because the university has it\'s own mentoring scheme for new staff. However - of course mentoring and coaching have different philosophies behind them. And it does strike me - since mentoring assumes the mentor has experiences at a level above the person being mentored - and there are so few role female models - is coaching a potentially a potent route out of the current cultural situation?
Rosie:
Hi Tavi, Good point! Coaching pairs are another good way to help each other along. Sometimes they emerge naturally as \'talking partners\' - we all have them, alternatively they could be a strategic arrangement with more defined roles and goals. That is not meant to be stiff or prescriptive, in fact it\'s essential such relationships have high levels of trust and empathy, though forward movement and aspiration are key components if they are to be effective. I was recently prompted to think about who my own female role models and was rather struck to realise how few there were. Past teachers at school certainly and Professsor Susan Iversen, who I worked with closely years ago and enormously valued. But for me men are important as role models too - Professors George Smith and Nick Rawlins for example - all of these were complete contrasts to each other. So where there are few women we also need to get a lift from men who conduct themselves and have values or attibutes we can learn from and aspire to. In the really good Public Life mentoring scheme run by UKrc4setwomen men are included as mentors too (because there are so few women on public boards and suchlike. My mentor, who was from a completely contrasting background to myself, was invaluable in the different ways of thinking and perspectives he brought. I\'d be really interested too to hear what women internationally think about mentoring and role models, and what their experiences have been. Are there any of you who have experiences abroad who would like to comment?
Julie Ashdown (Athena SWAN Charter):
Hi Rosie Good to read your blog and your positive comments about the Athena SWAN Charter. Congratulations again to you (and everyone else) on achieving a SWAN award. I think it\'s really important to have female role models at the top to inspire students and as an illustration of what can be achieved. But gender-friendly men are also important. As is often said, good practice benefits both men and women, but women in particular are adversely affected by bad practice. What Athena SWAN judges are looking for is evidence of a healthy organisational culture where everyone is valued and encouraged. I\'d like to see HEIs taking up what some of the more forward-thinking private sector organisations do in terms of upwards mentoring. This is where members of senior management, whether men or women, are mentored by younger and more junior members of staff. This helps to keep them in touch with views and experience at the grassroots and can make decision-making more inclusive.
Pam:
People at the Connect event in Wales are looking at this -- thank you Rosie for blogging.
Rosie:
Good to know Pam - thanks. Today we are running a workshop on collaborating for research - how to do it, and do it better etc. It continues to suprise me how little early-career researchers in particular DO \'get out and about\'. It\'s SUCH an important thing to do both to progress your career and to develop yourself.
Rosie:
Hi Julie, Interesting idea - sounds like a sort of \'reverse mentoring\'? If you have any links on this it would be great to have them. Prompts me to suggest it to some senior managers I know!
Ruth Wilson (UKRC moderator):
Hi Rosie, it was a real pleasure to meet you last night, in person, at the UKRC Connect networking event in Cardiff. And one of our astronomy bloggers too - Theresa Cooper www.ukrc4setwomen.org/html/projects-and-campaigns/astronomy-blog/?id=9 There was lots of discussion of blogging - but no one in the room was running a blog. I'd be interested to know, Rosie, if being our guest blogger leads to you checking out any other blogs, and if so, which ones impress you! We have a listing of some SET women who blog: www.ukrc4setwomen.org/html/raise-your-profile/women-in-set-blogs and there are a number of others I dip in and out of with pleasure. Life seems too busy to follow them regularly!
Rosie:
Hi Ruth, Think at the moment I\'m too engaged in learning about blogging from doing this one! Must add checking out some relevant other blogs to my \'to do\' list.
Jan:
Hi Rosie great to read about you and your work! If you have trouble finding local mentors, don\'t forget to look to MentorSET, run by WES (Women\'s Enigneering Society) for all women in STEM and supported by UKRC. Find the link on the front page of the WES website www.wes.org.uk. And if you are looking for other ways to change workplace cultures, encourage your friends, colleagues and networks (men and women) to take the safety clothing survey - on our front page also - an join in our campaign. We are using this to find out more about women\'s experiences and stories and also their likes and dislikes in footwear - we have some fantastic stories already! We shall be sharing the survey results, along with our 90 inspiring award winning role models at a major event on 15th December IET Savoy Place. We shall also be launcing an exciting and innovative campaign with partners WAMT, WiP and WISE. Registration will be live next week and Ayo will be sending round info - thanks Ayo!
Rosie:
Thanks for this suggestion - I\'ll try the survey. I can imagine some of my women friends who do field work in far-out places (mountains, ships, oil rigs etc) will have particular views to add and experience to relate.
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