Spread the word about our successes: The Department of Biomedicine launches a diversity award for employees who make an extraordinary contribution to the department's diversity. Dean Lars Bo Nielsen hopes that the initiative will inspire more local initiatives that create flexibility, openness and tolerance.

2019.11.22 | Nanna Jespersgård

The faculty has a well-documented problem with too few female professors, where issues relating to children and maternity leave are very likely a contributory factor, says Assistant Professor Mette Richner, who had the idea of the new prize. Photo: Nádia P. Goncalves

A splendidly constructive approach to solving problems, says Department Head Thomas G. Jensen, who wants to make the award ceremony an annual event. Photo: Lars Kruse, AU

Where is the employee who can show appreciation for a female colleague who is pregnant (again) and about to go on maternity leave in the middle of a research project? Who is particularly good at accommodating the male colleague who leaves an important meeting to pick up his sick child? And who is continuously making a special effort to ensure that being at work is enjoyable and fun?

These questions are now being asked by the Department of Biomedicine with a new diversity award, the 2019 Biomedicine Diversity Award, which will be presented for the first time at a special department day on 10 December – and all of Biomedicine’s employees are invited.

The person behind the award is 36-year-old Assistant Professor Mette Richner, who has just finished negotiating the award and its conditions with Department Head Thomas G. Jensen, including the setting up of an evaluation committee with Mette Richner as coordinator.

The proof of the pudding is in the eating

”The award is an annual recognition of an employee – man, women, rank-and-file or manager – who makes a special effort to guarantee that our ideals when it comes to diversity are manifested in a routine workday and reality. As the saying goes: the proof of the pudding is in the eating,” says Mette Richner, herself an active researcher with two small children.

It was precisely the challenges of combining progress in her research with having children that gave Mette Richner the idea for an award:

"I work in a research group where there’s scope for flexibility, for example with odd working hours when things are hectic at home. My group leader has therefore helped to minimise the bad conscience that pops up, almost as an automatic reflex, when the children are ill or a babysitter cancels. Leadership like this deserves some kind of official recognition, because it's not a matter of course, even now in 2019," says Mette Richner.

She points out that Health as a modern workplace must also embrace that its (male and female) employees’ children are a fact of life and not just something that ‘must be tolerated'.

 "The faculty has a well-documented problem with too few female professors, where issues relating to children and maternity leave are very likely a contributory factor. We can also envisage a male researcher deciding not to take a long paternity leave because he’s afraid of signalling that he’s unambitious about his research career," says Mette Richner on the necessity of the new award.

The award addresses everything: gender, age, nationality

She emphasises that the diversity award can address all aspects of diversity from gender to age and nationality. Nominating a colleague who has taken the initiative to dine together or start a Friday bar also falls within its framework.

According to its charter, the Biomedicine Diversity Award can be given to an employee who:

• Allocates responsibility across gender and age
• Allows flexible working hours for parents and has a positive mindset about parental leave for both genders
• Supports initiatives to ensure the well-being of students and colleagues
• Recruits using generally inclusive job advertisements and calls – for example at poster days where people might forget to use inclusive language when fishing for new students.
• Has the courage to express inclusive attitudes in public.

All employees at the Department of Biomedicine can nominate colleagues on all levels from animal technician to secretary, research colleague or manager. Department Head Thomas G. Jensen looks forward to seeing the coming recommendations.

"This is a bottom-up initiative of the kind that you’re really pleased to see as department head, because it focuses on what works and what we need more of. It's a splendidly constructive approach to solving problems, and the only thing I’m slightly annoyed about is that it wasn’t my idea," says Thomas G. Jensen, who wants to make the award ceremony an annual event.

Dean Lars Bo Nielsen is also full of praise:

"Let's learn from what works, and let's do things locally, as I believe that’s where we find most value. For the same reason, I’d be delighted to see Mette Richner’s idea, or other similar ideas that create flexibility, openness and tolerance, spread across the other departments," he says.