Diversity at the Donders Institute Today I will talk about some work in progress where we are interested in hippocampal ensembles in a mouse model of intellectual disability using in vivo calcium imaging

Why is diversity important? We need all the talent out there to move the field of neuroscience ahead We want different qualities to be represented within the Donders Institute Ehmt1+- extensively studied in the group of Nael Nadif Kasri. Shows a lot of behavioural deficts similar to what we see in patients. One particular example important for this story today is impaired spatial object recognition. For example, Hippocampal dependent spatial memory task

Gender distribution at the Donders Institute 2011 2013 NH2

Gender distribution at the Donders Institute 2016 NH2

Gender distribution at the Donders Institute 2011 2016 V M prom 60,53% 39,47% 100,00% owp 47,10% 52,90% ud 36,04% 63,96% uhd 14,55% 85,45% hgl 8,03% 91,97% V M prom 66,84% 33,16% 100,00% owp 57,47% 42,53% ud 31,61% 68,39% uhd 24,40% 75,60% hgl 15,38% 84,62%

Donders institute There are more female PhD students, so they will reach higher positions soon………………Probably not. Action is needed

Donders Gender and Diversity committee We believe that organizational diversity is closely linked to our ability to carry out our scientific and societal mission. We foster an environment that enables a diverse set of scientists and staff to contribute their full potential to help achieve excellence. To accomplish these goals, we: Foster an environment where the best and brightest people want to work. Ensure that no employee’s growth, achievement, or advancement is hindered because of race, ethnicity, gender, age, disability, religion, sexual orientation, family status, or personal characteristics. Create and sustain a healthy research community. Promote core values of equal protection, equal opportunity and equal access, and inclusion in all our actions and initiatives.

What has been achieved so far? Developed guidelines for gender neutral DI advertisements Introduce quota of at least two women or 1/3 in selection committees as of post doc level Introduce quota of 25% or at least two female candidates for job interviews Quota of 25% for filling senior positions (scale 12 and up). Has been reached by 1/1/2018 this quota has been reached

What doe we want to achieve further? To have a woman in the Donders Board of directors To increase awareness about Diversity To have a mentoring programme for PhD students and Postdocs To have 25% women at all positions from scale 12 on in 2018 To mention gender policies in job advertisements To make use of the childcare help that is already present at RU non-Donders faculties http://www.ru.nl/donders/about/diversity-equality/

Movies to watch TEDxTalk: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UbvPmxkVOU4 Recruitment Bias: http://neuronline.sfn.org/Articles/Diversity/2016/Recruitment-Bias-in-Research-Institutes

Thank you for your attention ?