FW July Newsletter

Click here to see a web copy of this email

I am writing today’s newsletter on a bit of a high after just delivering the Franklin Women Wikipedia Edit-a-thons this month (the first time in two locations!) to get more women and gender diverse people in our sector on Wikipedia as they are currently under-represented. Not only were the Edit-a-thons SO. MUCH. FUN., they were also very impactful adding more than 30 new pages and over 40K words of notability to Wikipedia. I even wrote my first Wikipedia page for one of our peers!

It was a month of firsts for FW, as we also delivered our inaugural virtual Members Connect meetups (complementing the in person Members Connect events we launched earlier in the year). We wanted to create an intimate and relaxed forum to bring together our members, no matter where they are. The next virtual meet-up in October is for students and early career professionals so if that’s you please come along 😊

Before I leave you to read all of the stories we have included in this month newsletter, I want to highlight a survey we have included below in What Happened This Month. You may have already seen that the Australian Government Department of Health and Aged Care is conducting a national audit of the health and medical research workforce. This survey is to capture data on who makes up our sector and in what ways they do so. As you know Franklin Women is all about recognising and appreciating that the roles and people contributing to a thriving health and medical research ecosystem are so diverse. Our community represents this diversity so if you have a moment to complete the survey you will be helping to inform policies that are considering the needs and contributions of everyone.

Happy reading,

We announced our 2024 FW Partner Organisations – an alliance of 20 organisations in the health and medical research ecosystem who have come together to invest in our social enterprise and its mission

Franklin Women went on the road delivering two Wikipedia Edit-a-thons, you can see some of the media coverage here and here, raising awareness on why these events are needed

The Department of Health and Aged Care is conducting a national audit of the Health and Medical Research Workforce, if you have at some point worked in the health and medical research space you’re invited to complete this survey

The NHMRC and Department of Health and Aged Care released their joint Statement on Sex, Gender, Variations of Sex Characteristics and Sexual Orientation in Health and Medical Research

Universities Australia opened the Shaping Australia Awards for 2024, recognising the contributions and impact of Australia’s universities and people

Nominations also opened for the AAMRI Rising Star Award, celebrating the leading early to mid-career researchers working across our sector

AAMRI released their analysis of 2023 NHMRC grant outcomes for the medical research sector, including an analysis by gender finding that women continue to have lower funded rates compared to men for some grant schemes

Applications for the Lowitja Institute’s Major Research Grants are open, supporting innovative and responsive community research led by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander community controlled organisations

Applications for the 2025-26 Superstars of STEM program also opened

Meet Salma Fahridin

Head of Clinical Data Management at the Clinical Trials Centre, University of Sydney and a part-time PhD student.

Here she talks about methodological research, constantly gaining new knowledge and finding her people through Franklin Women’s virtual Member Connect earlier this month.

At FW we believe that leadership is an important skill no matter if you are early, mid or senior in your career.

Here Prof Heiko Spallek, Head of School and Dean of the Sydney Dental School (and 3-time mentor in our FW Mentoring Program!) shares his lessons on leadership and new book he has published on the topic:

I have a strong personal connection with Franklin Women, accompanying my third mentee on her academic path now. It actually was the Franklin Women community that encouraged me to share my leadership insights more broadly. Thus, I launched the Leadership Travel Guide Newsletter, a free weekly email newsletter where I share little nuggets of wisdom (or so I believe) of what makes you better at managing people and becoming a good leader. 160 issues later, the Leadership Travel Guide has attracted close to a thousand subscribers...

It is no secret that Franklin Women loves networking! So, we are thrilled to be partnering with Cicada HealthTech Hub to deliver a fun (and free!) event at their Westmead campus on the art of networking.

Here Lilly Bojarski, General Manager of the Cicada Innovation Health Tech Hub, tells us more about the Hub and why an event like this is so important now more than ever:

Our team at the Cicada HealthTech Hub have been working with the Franklin Women team to present a co-hosted event not to be missed in the 2024 calendar. Wednesday August 28th we will be co-hosting the gala at our Innovation Quarter Building on Hawkesbury Road in Westmead. The vibe will definitely be social with ample time for connecting with fellow audience members and networking - in fact that’s the theme of the night!..

Indigenous teaching of science! To mark NAIDOC week, which was observed earlier this month, we are sharing some of our favourite resources celebrating the wisdom of Indigenous science:

Deadly Science who provide resources that connect schools to the First Scientists of Australia

Catch up on this talk from Prof Maree Toombs on Unlocking the power of Indigenous co-design and intervention: Transforming outcomes through authentic collaboration

The Indigenous Science Experience @ Redfern Community Day on 17 August is a celebration of Indigenous and Western science and highlights the relevance of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) to our everyday lives