The Open University is among one of the first universities and research organisations to sign up to a new national charter aimed at improving support for women working in research.<\/p>\n
The Women in Research Charter, launched by the UK Government\u2019s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, sets out a series of commitments designed to remove barriers that can prevent women from progressing and thriving in research careers.<\/p>\n
The Charter focuses on improved family leave, flexible working, fairer assessment, greater transparency, and stronger action to tackle bullying, harassment and misconduct in research environments.<\/p>\n
More than 50 universities and research organisations have signed up as early signatories, with the OU among the first to back the Charter.<\/p>\n
The Charter includes a commitment to strengthen family leave for doctoral researchers. Signatories will be expected to at least match the support currently provided by UK Research and Innovation to the PhD students it funds, including 52 weeks of maternity leave, with a full stipend for the first 26 weeks, and a minimum of two weeks\u2019 paid leave for partners.<\/p>\n
It also commits organisations to enabling research funding schemes to be delivered more flexibly, including through part-time working, adjusted timelines, and accessible application and assessment processes. This is intended to ensure that researchers are not disadvantaged because of caring responsibilities, career breaks or flexible working patterns.<\/p>\n
Professor All\u00e1n Laville, Pro-Vice-Chancellor, Equity, Diversity and Inclusion at The Open University, said:<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cThe Open University is proud to be among the first signatories to the Women in Research Charter. Its focus on fairer progression, flexible working, stronger support for parents and carers, and greater transparency speaks directly to our own commitment to creating an inclusive research culture where everyone can thrive.<\/p>\n \u201cAt the OU, we know that research excellence depends on drawing on the widest possible range of talent and experience. By signing this Charter, we are reaffirming our commitment to removing barriers, supporting women researchers at every stage of their careers, and working with government, funders and the wider sector to drive lasting change.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n The Charter has been developed in response to continuing disparities in research careers. While girls make up 48% of STEM GCSE students and women account for 53% of science undergraduates, women hold just 31% of professorships and men are nearly three times more likely to have careers in research and development.<\/p>\n As part of the Charter, organisations will also be expected to take action to ensure fair assessment of researchers, recognising that publication volume or an uninterrupted career history can disadvantage those who have taken career breaks or worked part-time.<\/p>\n Signatories will also publish annual data covering areas such as grant success rates, recruitment, promotion and staffing, broken down by sex. The aim is to improve transparency and help organisations identify where further action is needed.<\/p>\n The OU\u2019s decision to sign the Charter reflects its wider commitment to equity, diversity and inclusion across research, teaching and organisational culture, and to supporting researchers from all backgrounds to contribute to research excellence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Open University is among one of the first universities and research organisations to sign up to a new national charter aimed at improving support for women working in research. The Women in Research Charter, launched by the UK Government\u2019s Department for Science, Innovation and Technology, sets out a series of commitments designed to remove […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":24861,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,22],"tags":[1525,1640,1643],"class_list":["post-28518","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-around-ou","category-university-news","tag-news-home","tag-ou-home","tag-ou-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28518","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28518"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28518\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28519,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28518\/revisions\/28519"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24861"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28518"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28518"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.open.ac.uk\/blogs\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28518"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}