The Australian Academy of Science is inviting early- and mid-career researchers (EMCRs) in Australia to join Reboot STEMM, a half-day virtual think tank to help reboot the sector, where we will co-design a strategy to lead us to a more inclusive and diverse way of defining, recognising and rewarding “success”.
The pre-event process and the online event will be highly interactive and focused on generating conversations and ideas for rebooting the sector. This Australia-wide initiative is joining a global conversation about re-defining academic “success” and builds upon fantastic work that is happening around the world.
Reboot STEMM. Our future depends on it.
Join the conversation
Agenda setting - May 2021
Set the agenda for our online event. Participate in two online agenda setting exercises at a time that suits you (20 mins).
Live Online Interactive Event –22 June 2021
11.00am – 3.00pm AEST
9.00am – 1.00pm AWST
10.30am – 2.30pm ACST
Expressions of interest are now closed.
EMCRs from all around Australia have the opportunity to contribute and have their say at Reboot STEMM in the following two ways:
Agenda setting exercises: you can participate in the online agenda setting exercises which will allow you to help set the agenda for the online interactive event. This commitment will take 20 mins of your time.
Online interactive event: join us at the live event on Tuesday 22 June from 11am-3pm AEST. During the event our expert facilitators have designed a virtual conversation platform that will allow for a range of contribution styles. Whether you are someone who loves having your say, or you are someone who tends to sit back, listen, and let others do the talking (or somewhere in the middle!), our expert facilitators have designed an engagement framework that will help everyone to contribute. The online platform will remain open to allow you to add your afterthoughts in case there is anything you missed during the event.
Expressions of interest are being collected to help us ensure a diversity of voices and experiences are included in this conversation, however your demographics will not be linked to your contribution in this event. We want this to be a safe space.
Enabling participation is critical. Accessibility and caring support are available to facilitate your attendance. Please use the expression of interest form to let us know the type of support you require or get in touch at emcr@science.org.au
Outcomes
Reboot STEMM is a first step toward significant change in the way scientific careers are defined and measured. By engaging broadly across the Australian STEMM sector, this event will help catalyse new connections and support a national conversation that will shape a more inclusive sector by outlining practical steps for improvement in the way the Australian STEMM sector measures success.
Together, we will share our co-designed outcomes with key decision-makers to effect real sector-wide change.
Who are we
We are members of the Australian STEMM community who have faced challenges in our careers. We share a vision that we need to shift the way we reward and recognise academics to enable us all to have greater impact from the work we do. We assembled after being awarded a Theo Murphy Initiative (Australia) grant by the Australian Academy of Science to start a conversation with ECMRs to Reboot STEMM and have set out to create a process that can engage Australia-wide. Rather than hosting a face-to-face event under the amazing Shine Dome in Canberra, we are running a distributed conversation that we hope will enable a more diverse group of people to attend, more accurately reflecting the diversity of STEMM in Australia.
We have tapped into a global movement, connecting with DORA and the Recognition and Rewards programme in the Netherlands, leaders in shifting STEMM systems. We will bring these innovators into our think tank to learn from them and design a system for Australian academics that achieves real outcomes.
Our steering committee works in a range of fields and locations around Australia.
Aaron Davis
Aaron is leading the conversation facilitation team. Aaron is based in Adelaide and works at both The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health, and at the University of South Australia. He is passionate about collaborative processes, which some people find a bit odd, but is a great asset for this project.
Alice Tinning
Alice is program manager for Women in Science Parkville Precinct, a cofounder of Reboot STEMM. Through her role, Alice has met a diverse range of medical researchers and professional staff and has a nuanced understanding of their challenges to thrive in their STEMM careers. When she is not working Alice enjoys spending time with her children and seeing the world through their eyes – a far more inquisitive and optimistic worldview.
Dr Anita Goh
Anita is a clinician researcher at the National Ageing Research Institute and Melbourne Neuropsychiatry Centre, The University of Melbourne/Royal Melbourne Hospital. She is committed to research collaboration with policy makers, industry, and most importantly, those that stand to benefit most from her work- older people, and those living with dementia and mental health issues. Anita is passionate about diversity, representation and authentic leadership.
Dion Detterer
Dion is a doctoral candidate in computational biology at the University of New England. Through his research, he hopes to better understand the role of gene interactions in complex traits, including human disease. He has an extensive background in disability self-advocacy and has more recently worked in the development of (and advocacy for) self-management models in disability care. Dion likes to tell us he is recognised as being “difficult”, but the team thinks he is a changemaker.
Dr Emma Burrows
Emma is the project lead and a neuroscientist at The Florey Institute of Neuroscience and Mental Health. Having kept mice as a child, she is now working with mice to investigate autism — things have come a long way since building shoebox mazes as a 5 year old, but her curiosity remains.
Dr Rishma Vidyasagar
Rishma is a neuroimaging scientist at The Florey Institute of Neuroscience. Using advanced magnetic resonance imaging methods, Rishma is working to identify chemicals that may be sensitive to early changes in the brain linked to Alzheimer’s disease. Rishma is a dedicated advocate for diversity, devoting time and energy to public speaking and to organisational change through committee work. She inspires and is inspired by the next generation, her daughter.
Professor Sarah Russell
Sarah is a biologist at Swinburne University and Peter MacCallum Cancer Centre, working with physicists and data scientists to understand immune cell development and function, and with everybody she can find to improve equity and inclusion in research. Sarah’s ability to speak many technical languages and her ability to see solutions in the noise of data has enabled her to offer astute insights into this project.
We’re all very excited to be working with you, and are looking forward to rebooting STEMM with a collective vision for how we want our careers to be structured, and how we wish to be recognised and rewarded.
Event supporters
The Theo Murphy Initiative (Australia)
This event has been made possible through the support of the Theo Murphy Initiative (Australia). This initiative supports activities which provide tangible benefits to Australia’s early- and mid-career researcher (EMCR) community, with the overall goal of furthering scientific discovery. Activities are managed by the Australian Academy of Science and funds are made available by the generous support of the Royal Society through the Theo Murphy (Australia) Fund.
Women in Science Parkville Precinct
Women in Science Parkville Precinct (WiSPP) unites the workforce from five of Australia’s largest medical research institutes. WiSPP believes that diverse teams are best equipped to solve the big challenges in medical research and are a supporter of Reboot STEMM.