EDI About

Women and minorities have historically faced and are still affected by disproportionate obstacles within the STEM fields. To address this, our committee is undertaking initiatives to improve the research culture within QBI to eliminate unconscious bias, create a family-friendly, flexible and supportive work environment, provide access to leadership mentoring and to drive change to allow everyone within our institute to thrive.

Our goal is to promote equity and diversity at QBI. Some of the ways we will do this are:

Reduce the effects of unconscious bias and promote an inclusive culture by

• Having diverse representation on recruitment panels
• Assessing job candidates relative to opportunity
• Ensuring a diverse speaking roster at QBI seminars
• Making unconscious bias training and other relevant training programs available to all staff and students
• Encouraging gender and diversity balance in programs for all conferences, seminars, workshops, panel sessions and other events hosted by, or associated with, QBI
• Ensuring inclusive language and images are used in all QBI media and communication
• Maintaining the physical accessibility of all QBI locations and digital accessibility of all web content, in accordance with UQ's Disability Action Plan

Create a family friendly working environment with

• Flexible working hours
• Parent’s room (view a list of parenting rooms and baby change facilities on campus)
• Flexible carer's leave
• Family friendly meeting times
• Accessible parental leave and returning to work resources

Develop clear leadership pathways by

• Providing mentorship and guidance in the timing and preparation of promotion and fellowship applications
• Encouraging diverse staff and students to apply for external and internal awards
• Providing information on internal and external leadership courses

Increase accessibility of support mechanisms by

• Providing an informative website with links to relevant internal and external resources and communities
• Providing clear mechanisms for reporting and resolving grievances at QBI, including training more discrimination and harassment contact officers

Contributing to reconciliation by

• Encouraging all staff and students to participate in relevant training and events to increase cultural knowledge and capabilities
• Increasing Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander participation and success through culturally inclusive environments and practices, in accordance with UQ's Reconciliation Action Plan

Monitoring QBI's progress towards equity, diversity and inclusion by

• Regular review meetings
• Establishing a mechanism for the QBI community to provide feedback on ED&I matters