Equality, Diversity and Inclusion - University of Birmingham

The IMI’s aim in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) is to become a role model for the University of Birmingham, by developing and sharing best practices across the University. We integrate EDI as ‘simply good practice’ across all our activities in education, research and public outreach.

The Institute of Microbiology and Infection (IMI) is committed to providing a welcoming, inclusive and safe community for all. We expect co-operation and support from all staff, students and visitors to help ensure a harassment-free environment where everyone is treated with courtesy, respect and dignity.

The EDI initiatives in the IMI have, so far, mostly focused on raising awareness, through themed seminars, participation in Birmingham Pride Parade, the IMI Summer School, the Grace Frankland Memorial Prize lecture and our bi-monthly newsletter. IMI’s EDI initiatives have been well-received by students and staff, and have been successfully promoted across the Institute.

To improve EDI within the IMI, the IMI Director Prof Willem van Schaik and Deputy Director Prof Jason Mercer set up an IMI Cross College EDI Committee, consisting of staff and students from across the three Colleges (College of Life and Environmental Sciences, College of Medical and Dental Sciences, College of Engineering and Physical Sciences), representing different career stages and backgrounds. The members of the Committee are listed below.

The University's Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Strategy for 2021 - 2024 [PDF, 4.0mb] sets out the vision and priorities for achieving an inclusive learning and working environment where discrimination is not tolerated and where all members of the University can reach their full potential. With this in mind we launched our IMI Code of Conduct [PDF, 95kb] which outlines how everybody in the Institute should interact with students and staff by providing a supportive and inclusive environment, free from bullying and harassment, with integrity in our research at its very heart.

The Code of Conduct covers both staff and students in the IMI and complements the University's Report and Support initiative. This is an online tool where staff, students and others can report bullying, harassment, discrimination and other issues. Reports can be made anonymously or with named details. Report and Support also provides information about internal and external support, policies and procedures.

The IMI EDI committee continue to recognise and tackle the difficulties in building a diverse research community. We encourage all of our IMI Prinicipal Investigators to attend the online ‘Introduction to Race Equality’, 'Neurodiversity in the Workplace' and 'From Bystander to Upstander' courses, which, among other things, will help them develop their skills (and gain confidence) to help build inclusion and belonging in their groups.

EDI Cross College Committee Members

Willem van Schaik
Alison Iboro Offong
Sara Jabbari
Amanda Rossiter
James McDonald
Cassie Bakshani
Laura Hollis

IMI Summer School

The IMI Summer School aims to give year 12 students an immersive experience of microbiology and infectious disease research at the Institute of Microbiology and Infection at the University of Birmingham. The summer school runs for one week and hosts 30 students for their ‘work experience’ week. Students are currently admitted from the University of Birmingham School, which is a modern, inclusive school and admits students from a variety of catchment areas in Birmingham.

What the students enjoyed about the summer school

Students loved our pipetting exercise, where they weighed quantities of water they had pipetted to see how accurate they could be, and using the vortex. They loved the chance to get into a university lab, wear university lab coats and work with modern equipment. They enjoyed the range of different activities that were delivered and individual students mentioned different favourite events, from lectures, to wet lab to dry lab experiences. Each student had come to the Summer School with their own set of interests and had a chance to explore these more, as well as discover some potential new ones, by learning about research going on at the university. One of the students enjoyed a lecture so much he asked to come back later in the summer and shadow one of our PIs to learn more about the field and figure out which courses he wants to take at university.

Grace Frankland Memorial Lecture

The Grace Frankland Lecture recognises an outstanding contribution to expanding the reach of microbiology to society.

With this lecture, we celebrate the memory of the pioneering microbiologist Grace Frankland (1858 – 1946), who worked at our University between 1894 and 1918. Grace Frankland was an advocate for equality in science and authored multiple studies on the link between bacteria and public health. She also published the book ‘Bacteria in Daily Life’ (1903), which is arguably one of the earliest examples of science outreach in the field of microbiology.

The award is intended to recognise an outstanding contribution to expanding the reach of microbiology to society. The awardee’s achievements may have been in supporting equality and diversity in science and/or communicating science to the wider public. This reflects Grace Frankland’s position as a talented female microbiologist (in an era before women were allowed to vote!), as someone who campaigned for recognition of women by the scientific community.

Previous speakers have included:

Professor Ada Yonath
Professor Lalita Ramakrishnan
Professor Sharon Peacock

IMI Pride

Each year the IMI march in the Birmingham Pride Parade, it highlights the contributions that LGBTQ+ people make to our Institute.

The Pride Parade acts as a march for equality and justice: this protest is relevant until every injustice to LGBTQ+ people around the world is brought to an end and universal equality is achieved. The march celebrates LGBTQ+ life and contributions that LGBTQ+ people make to Birmingham and the wide world beyond.

The IMI contingent march in the Pride Parade 2021, 2022 and 2023 in custom made IMI t-shirts.

EDI themed seminars

To promote EDI within the IMI, a number of themed seminars have been organised

Dr Matt Page and Oyinkansola Ojo-Aromokudu

'Bad Blood': The Legacy of Tuskegee

University Hospital Birmingham & London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine

The event gave a brief introduction to bioethics with reference to Black History Month, followed by a short film on the Tuskegee ‘experiment’. Oyinkansola and Matt were invited to engage with the audience and address questions including the relevance of Tuskegee for the UK in the 21st century and their personal/professional experience in the field of infectious diseases and minority ethnic groups.

Professor David Gillborn

University of Birmingham, School of Education

David gave a seminar on the drivers and impact of racism in educational attainment. David’s research focuses on race inequalities in education, especially the role of racism as a changing and complex characteristic of the system.

Onalenna Neo, Oumie Kuyateh and Ruth Maganga

University of Birmingham and University of Edinburgh

These three female African scientists gave a talk on their PhD journey, they spoke eloquently about the societal and cultural challenges they face (and continue to overcome). The feedback for this seminar was overwhelmingly positive, with one colleague stating it is the first time they had actually felt 'seen'.

Professor Rob De Bruin

University College London (UCL)

As Vice Dean of EDI at UCL, Rob's seminar focused on the successful implementation of EDI initiatives, as the Laboratory for Molecular Cell Biology (LMCB) is one of the few institutes to have attained Athena Swan Gold, we welcomed the opportunity to hear Rob’s practical advice about how to embed our own culture of change.

In Rob's talk he covered the Wheel of Power/Privilege, which can help us get a more intricate visualisation of the term “marginalization" the further you are from power, the more ignored and unimportant you feel. However, as you try to place yourself in the different categories, notice how your level of power/marginalization shifts between categories.

Dr Justin Varney

Director of Public Health, Birmingham City Council

Justin's talk on LGBTQ+ STEM day discussed inequalities in the workplace as well as Birmingham City Council's response to the COVID-19 pandemic. You can watch Justin's talk on the University of Birmingham's Facebook page.

Public Engagement in the IMI

CoCoMAD

Aswell as the IMI summer school, which is a crucial part of the IMI's public enagement actvities, we have also been involved with the CoCoMAD Festival.

The Cotteridge Community Music Arts and Dance (CoCoMAD) festival holds its annual Science Festival in the grounds of Cotteridge park, each year it helps inspire future scientists by showcasing research and science in a fun, family friendly setting.

This year we had a strong IMI contingent who descended on the Science Field, the team was tasked with running a stand, giving a talk about their science and getting involved with ‘science busking’, it was great day had by all!

University Inclusion Calendar