{"id":153,"date":"2026-08-31T09:39:18","date_gmt":"2026-08-31T08:39:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/health-athena-swan\/?p=153"},"modified":"2026-08-31T09:39:18","modified_gmt":"2026-08-31T08:39:18","slug":"hello-again-equity-diversity-inclusion-and-people","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/health-athena-swan\/2026\/08\/31\/hello-again-equity-diversity-inclusion-and-people\/","title":{"rendered":"Hello again: Equity, Diversity, Inclusion \u2014 and people"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hello again!<\/strong><\/p>\n

It has been a while. A\u00a0very<\/em>\u00a0long while, in fact.<\/p>\n

This blog has been quietly resting through a global pandemic, changing priorities and the many competing demands of university life. But we think it is time to bring it back.<\/p>\n

We would like to keep this space alive to share what we are doing around\u00a0Equity, Diversity & Inclusion (ED&I)<\/strong>\u00a0in the Department for Health, and to connect with colleagues across the University of Bath and beyond.<\/p>\n

A new chapter<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019m\u00a0Elena Seminati, and I am now leading the ED&I work in the Department. I am very fortunate to be taking on this role as part of a\u00a0great team. I follow a number of ED&I leads who have already done a huge amount to support our staff and students, and I am very grateful for the work they have put in place.<\/p>\n

My priority now is, above all,\u00a0people: getting to know the people in our Department, listening to their experiences and understanding what helps, (or sometimes prevents) people from feeling included and able to thrive.<\/p>\n

You may also notice that our\u00a0\u2018E\u2019 <\/strong>now stands for Equity<\/strong>, rather than Equality<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

This is an intentional change in our faculty. Equality can mean treating everyone in the same way; equity recognises that people have different circumstances, experiences and barriers, and that fairness may sometimes require different forms of support.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

From Silver to action<\/strong><\/p>\n

Our\u00a0Athena SWAN Silver<\/strong>\u00a0recognition is something to celebrate. But Silver is not the finish line, but it is a commitment to keep improving.<\/p>\n

We already gather feedback through annual surveys and focused discussion groups, and we have active ED&I working groups. We are also working on practical changes, including improvements to the\u00a0SDPR process, a new\u00a0induction framework, and a fairer and more transparent approach to\u00a0workload allocation. We want people to understand how work is allocated and, wherever possible, to support a healthy work \/life balance.<\/p>\n

We are also working with the Faculty on training, events, and initiatives, including the recent\u00a0neurodiversity training\u00a0and activities linked to awareness days and celebrations.<\/p>\n

One of our next priorities is\u00a0inclusivity in research practice and research protocols<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

As a department for Health, much of our research is ultimately about people. Who we include, whose experiences and perspectives are represented, and whether our research reflects the diversity of the populations we serve therefore matter greatly. Inclusive representation is not only essential for producing research that is relevant, robust, and equitable; it is also an important ethical responsibility, requiring us to consider whose voices are included, who may be under-represented, and whether our research processes and ethical documentation adequately recognise and respect the diversity of the people who participate in our research.<\/p>\n

We want to think more carefully about the inclusion of minority and under-represented groups, gender characteristics and different backgrounds in our research.<\/p>\n

Inclusive research is not simply an ED&I issue. It is part of doing good health research. And this is an area where we would particularly like to learn from others.<\/p>\n

How are other universities approaching inclusive research protocols? What works well? What have you learned along the way?<\/p>\n

We would love to hear from colleagues at the University of Bath and from other higher education institutions, and to share our own learning too.<\/p>\n

So, after a rather long break:<\/p>\n

hello again.<\/strong><\/p>\n

We hope you will join the conversation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hello again! It has been a while. A\u00a0very\u00a0long while, in fact. This blog has been quietly resting through a global pandemic, changing priorities and the many competing demands of university life. But we think it is time to bring it...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2074,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-153","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-blogpost"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/health-athena-swan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/health-athena-swan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/health-athena-swan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/health-athena-swan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2074"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/health-athena-swan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=153"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/health-athena-swan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/153\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/health-athena-swan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=153"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/health-athena-swan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=153"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/health-athena-swan\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=153"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}