Staff initiatives

The UNSW Science Boost Award is designed to provide women and/or culturally and racically marginalised academic staff currently at Level D with career support in advance of their application for promotion to Level E. This scheme supports Faculty of Science and University goals to increase staff gender equity, especially at senior levels.

Awardees will:

• receive access to fund to support activities that contribute to a case for promotion
• have access to a Teams site where they can network and seek peer support from other awardees
• have access to example promotion cases from successful applicants in previous years
• meet with both their Head of School and the Dean of the Faculty

The Momentum Award is designed to provide staff who are one or who are returning from sustained carers leave with support to help maintain career momentum. This scheme is open to all staff (academic, professional, and technical) who are employed full-time or part-time within the Faculty of Science whose careers have been or will be interrupted through sustained full-time carer status for at least four months in a continuous period. Carer status includes childcare, maternity leave/parental leave, disability care of another, and care of parent or spouse. Applicants can apply for funds before or during their leave or apply upon return from leave.

The Franklin Women Mentoring Program is a cross-organisational and structured 6-month program (running from May - November 2025) that combines informal mentoring sessions with formal workshops facilitated by experts in inclusive leadership. It aims to support mid-career women (mentees) to progress into leadership positions. It also provides current leaders (mentors of any gender) the opportunity to develop their mentorship approach and increase their skills in building diverse and inclusive teams.

The Faculty of Science subsidise the costs of participation in the Franklin Women Mentoring Program for mentor and mentee pairs across the faculty.