ANSTO has agreed to participate in an Australian trial of a review of research infrastructure access proposals in which applicants to the Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering supported by the National Deuteration Facility remain anonymous to aid the removal of structural barriers to the career progression of women in STEM.
The trial, which is being coordinated by the Office of the Australian Government Women in STEM Ambassador, Prof. Lisa Harvey-Smith, seeks to establish whether unconscious bias in the Australian research sector is adversely affecting the success rate of women in science.
While ANSTO’s preliminary analysis shows that women are not disadvantaged by ANSTO’s review process as success rates are slightly higher than male colleagues, the Australian review overall will provide valuable data in relation to the role of unconscious bias in access allocation processes.
The Australian Centre for Neutron Scattering, with the support of the National Deuteration Facility for joint proposals, is participating in the review. Neutron beam and linked neutron-deuteration submissions will be subject to the Anonymised Review process. Requests to the National Deuteration Facility for deuteration only will not be subject to anonymised review.
ANSTO will be providing support to users for the changes brought about by participation in the Anonymised Review trial and the transition to the ANSTO Research Portal. Please refer to the ACNS & NDF ARP user guide.
