Science Council CEO Belinda Phipps presents Professor Janet Beer with the Employee Champion plaque
The Science Council visited the University yesterday to award its Employer Champion plaque to Vice-Chancellor Professor Janet Beer and to present its first four professionally registered technicians with their certificates.
Employer Champion status recognises the University’s commitment to championing the values of professional registration and supporting eligible technical and scientific staff through the registration process, as well as recognising staff who become registered.
The University’s award has been spearheaded by the Institute of Translational Medicine who have been actively supporting their staff through professional registration with the Science Council.
Speaking at the lunchtime event the Science Council’s CEO, Belinda Phipps highlighted the importance of recognising and valuing the work of technical staff and said she was “delighted” that the University is one of the early adopters of the Employee Champion programme.
Professor Janet Beer said: “Just as our technicians are dedicated to furthering the mission of the University, so we should recognise their important contributions and support their development. The Science Council Employer Champion status gives us the opportunity to do exactly this and I am very proud that we are celebrating the award of this status here today.”
The event also saw talks by Sarah Northey, who was one of four staff to receive their registration certificates at the event, and Dr James Howard, Director of the University’s new Leadership, Organisational, Staff & Academic Development Academy, who is leading on work to enhance support for technicians across the institution.
The award builds on the University’s recent signing of the Technician Commitment – a sector-wide initiative led by the Science Council, supported by the Gatsby Foundation, to address key challenges facing technical staff working in research.
Registered technicians Mohammad Choudry, Sarah Northey, Ana Jimenez-Valverde and Gregor Govan (collecting the certificate on behalf of another member of staff)