Equality and Diversity

The British Mass Spectrometry Society (BMSS) is committed to ensuring equality, diversity and inclusion for its members, employees, scientific partners and the Society’s service providers. 

We believe that a lack of diversity in the British Mass Spectrometry community would limit its potential to flourish. We believe that the British Mass Spectrometry community must proactively attract, develop and retain the most diverse range of talented scientists if it is to prosper.


The BMSS EDI JOURNEY

Photographs of gatherings of Mass Spectrometrists in the UK from the early 1970s reproduced in ‘A History of European Mass Spectrometry’ (Editor: K.R. Jennings, IM Publications, p236-237, 2012) depict an array of white men in black suits. One may, on the balance of probability, infer that the majority of those ‘men in suits’ were drawn from a relatively limited socio-economic cohort as at that time only Ca 10% of the total population were admitted as undergraduates to universities in the UK.

In the intervening fifty years the composition of the British Mass Spectrometry community has evolved to be more representative of British society as a whole. The BMSS is committed to inclusivity in the Society’s activities and initiatives from all of our members and will proactively encourage wider participation in the Society. The BMSS is not complacent in its stance on EDI; we fully recognise that many groups are likely to be under-represented and recognise that under-representation may be localised at specific career stages within our community (e.g. at senior management levels).

There is still much for us to achieve! We believe that we are progressing on an ethically sustainable EDI journey. We have, to a first approximation, achieved gender (binary M/F) parity for oral presentations presented at the Society's Annual Meetings (2017-2019). In addition we have implemented formal representation, within the Society’s structure, of the LGBT+ community. We recognise that we need to actively put in place policies and initiatives that will encourage wider participation and inclusivity in a diverse and fair manner. The BMSS aims to promote fair representation from all groups, and for everyone engaged with BMSS and its activities to feel respected and able to give their best. To expedite this, we have formed the BMSS EDI subcommittee.


RECENT INITIATIVES

BMSS Carers Support Fund

We have identified caring responsibilities as a key barrier to peer retention and career progression in mass spectrometry. Consequently, the Society has instigated the BMSS Carers Support Fund to facilitate attendance at scientific events, including but not limited to BMSS meetings, by our members with caring commitments. 

For further details or to apply for a Carers Support Grant please click the link in the left-hand margin.

LGBT+ Pride in British Mass Spectrometry

The BMSS LGBT+ Group strives to create an enabling space for like-minded scientists to network and advance their visibility within the British Mass Spectrometry community.  Many recent national and international conferences have had informal meet-ups for LGBT+ delegates. That dynamic sparked our initial & informal meet-up at the BMSS Annual Meeting in Cambridge 2018 (BMSS39), followed in Manchester 2019 (BMSS40) with the 1st meet-up, which is now an integral part of the BMSS annual conference programme.

NEXT MEETING is currently in planning for the BMSS/BSPR Super Meeting 2024.


EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY INVITED LECTURESHIP

This is an annual invited lectureship established to recognise an individual, or a group of individuals, which have gone above and beyond the normal expectation at work or in wider society to, promote a more diverse and inclusive mass spectrometry community, and/or championed diversity through leadership and new policies.

To Nominate a member please click on the link in the left-hand margin.


INCLUSIVE EVENTS

The EDI sub-committee has produced a set of guidelines to help event organisers to promote inclusivity at our events. These new resources are available to all event organisers and have been distributed via the SIG coordinator.


GROUPS OF INTEREST

  • Black British Professionals in STEM (BBSTEM) -- See More
  • Females in Spectrometry group (FeMS) - See More
  • South Asians in Mass Spectrometry (SAMS) LinkedIn Group - See More
  • Women In Science and Engineering (WISE) - See More
  • BMSS LGBT+ - See More
  • BMSS Member Benefits - See More

CONTACT US

If you have ideas for events that you feel the EDI subcommittee could help organise or promote or would like to join the EDI subcommittee and get involved with our activities,  please get in touch with: