Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) are vital principles to ensure everyone can have a fulfilling career in immunology. In a recent workshop, BSI members explored the experiences of senior immunologists to push towards progress in this area. Here, the organisers discuss the importance of channelling the knowledge of late-career immunologists to benefit individuals, organisations and those earlier in their careers.
The values embodied within EDI are important for everything we do in life and define how we treat each other. Within the workplace, it is well-established that organisations that promote the values of EDI attract and retain good staff, do not spend time dealing with unnecessary legal issues of bullying, harassment and discrimination, and as a result are more productive and successful.
The BSI has a strong record of taking positive action to address gender inequalities and supporting early career researchers (ECRs), striving for gender balance at scientific events, assigning ECRs as co-chairs in the parallel sessions at BSI Congress and creating two ECR positions on the Board of Trustees. Nevertheless, there remains a ‘leaky pipeline’ for career development for many groups including ethnic minorities and women. Despite positive action being taken to close the gender pay gap, progress has not only been slow but has stalled in recent years. We are aware that we don’t discuss the issues around age particularly well, especially how expectations and demands on individuals change as careers progress.
Aiming high
In this EDI workshop, funded through the BSI EDI activity grant scheme, we aimed to discuss how to harness the inherited knowledge of late-career immunologists for the collective benefit of themselves, their colleagues and their organisations with two speakers who have direct experience of changing landscapes throughout their careers.
The workshop was held on the afternoon of 13 April 2022 at The Easter Bush Campus of The University of Edinburgh. The programme was designed to stimulate discussion towards the aims below and included presentations by two invited speakers followed by a panel Q&A with the delegates and a networking session.
Workshop aims
- Better support lifelong careers in immunology for the benefit of individuals and organisations
- Identify barriers and opportunities to achieving this outcome
- Discuss the evolving challenges and expectations on individuals as careers develop
- Propose solutions for ‘closing the circle’
A total of 45 delegates registered for the meeting, comprising a mixture of in-person and online attendees. The two invited speakers have had long research careers in immunology and are long-standing members of the BSI. Each described their personal journey and gave their perspective on the opportunities and challenges they have faced throughout their careers.
Research reflections
The first speaker was Ann Ager (Cardiff University), the current Chair of BSI Forum, a Trustee of BSI and the BSI representative on IUIS Council. Ann began by highlighting that a PhD in immunology is not only a foundation for a career in academic research, it also prepares individuals for careers in biotech/industry, publishing, policy-making, journalism and consulting. She then described the evolution of her own career path, from a PhD in vascular biology at the Babraham Institute in Cambridge followed by a Fellowship on tumour angiogenesis in the USA, a PDRA in HEV blood vessels and T cell homing in Manchester leading to a Group Leader position at Mill Hill and then a Professorship in Cardiff where her previous expertise in cell migration, vascular biology and tumour immunology coalesced.
Ann talked about the current research culture, the time spent writing papers and grants and the pressures of these metrics. She also highlighted the importance of ‘team science’ in an era of multidisciplinary technologies and how the various inter-dependencies and expectations that come with that can be difficult to manage. Ann also talked about the many activities that scientists engage in but are often not recognised or rewarded such as mentoring and contributing to the career progression of others, including EDI activities. Ann concluded her presentation with a list of resources provided by the BSI to support career development and described the key role that Forum plays in representing BSI membership across all sectors of immunology.
A poignant perspective
The second speaker was Liz Glass (The Roslin Institute at The University of Edinburgh). Liz has recently retired and opened her presentation with a reflection that really hit home. The year she went to The University of Edinburgh as an undergraduate student was the first year that women were allowed into the Student Union Bar. If we ever need reminding why positive actions on EDI are required, there we have it.
Liz’s degree was in biochemistry and she started her PhD at Edinburgh University after working as a Research Assistant in the late 1970s. Immunology was still a young science and The Metchnikoff Club (now BSI Edinburgh Immunology Group) and Scottish Immunology Group (the first BSI Regional Group) were fundamental to Liz’s transition to immunology as a research career, with a focus on associations between MHC and disease. She then took up a post at the AFRC (now BBSRC) Animal Breeding Research Organization (which then became The Roslin Institute), and although this was a ‘permanent’ position the ever-changing funding landscape meant that this was never a guarantee.
Liz discussed how she has invested time in promoting women in STEM throughout her career including Athena Swan applications, prompted by situations and behaviours that she has directly experienced.
Proactively seeking promotion
Both speakers described their experiences of motherhood while maintaining a career in research. In particular, Liz discussed the challenges she faced while working 80% time and how that became a direct barrier to promotion. Throughout their talks they both reflected on some of the key messages for a successful research career. A common theme was the importance of pushing to make things happen and not sitting back waiting for opportunities to be presented. They also both talked about the role of mentoring in their careers which extended into the Q&A Panel Discussion.
How can we plug the gaps?
For the panel discussion the two speakers were joined by the event organisers (Jayne Hope, Gary Entrican and Omar Alfituri, all from The Roslin Institute, The University of Edinburgh) with Sean Wattegedera (Moredun Research Institute, Edinburgh) acting as a facilitator. The discussions focused on the aims of the workshop. Schemes that support and reward late-career immunologists for mentoring colleagues who are earlier in their careers were welcomed at all levels. This could include helping earlier career immunologists prepare grant applications to enhance success rates by senior colleagues who have experience of funding panels and are at a stage where they will not be leading on new applications themselves. Such transfer of knowledge would help ‘close the circle’ but is dependent on organisations recognising and valuing such input for collective organisational benefit.
Schemes that support and reward late-career immunologists for mentoring colleagues who are earlier in their careers were welcomed.
A gap was identified for mid-career researchers who don’t have access to the opportunities for ECRs (e.g. Travel Award criteria) and are not yet in a full leadership role where they control budgets. Networking and joining committees were seen to be a great way of increasing visibility and learning from others. A final question from the delegates: how do we know when we are successful with our EDI activities? The panel agreed there was no simple answer, but perhaps it will be when we don’t need to be thinking any more about having to take corrective actions.
Key messages from the discussions
- Take time to enjoy your research, inspire your colleagues and have a vision
- Your skill set is unique, be bold and use it to take risks
- Let the data speak, don’t be constrained by dogmas
- Don’t wait to be asked, put yourself forward for committees and promotions
- Committee activities are a great way of establishing networks and influencing change
- Be aware that research strategies can switch quickly with a change of leadership, which could be an opportunity or a threat depending on ‘fit’
- Focus on dealing with the issues that are within your control to change
We are very grateful to the BSI for supporting this workshop through their new EDI activity grant scheme. To our knowledge, this is the first that attempts to link up junior and senior immunologists. We are collecting feedback from delegates and will share that with the BSI to help with future events.
The event was recorded and is available to view online here.
Professor Jayne Hope, Dr Omar Alfituri, Dr Sean Wattegedera & Professor Gary Entrican