Mission statement
We champion Diversity and Inclusion across this School.
The School works with university-wide Diversity & Inclusion objectives. We are committed to creating an inclusive environment across our Sections that is fair to all, in line with the King’s Strategic Vision 2029
Diverse, but united.
This School celebrates the diversity of our employees and students. We work to encourage inclusivity, to make our School a better place. We do this by monitoring diversity, inclusion and wellbeing in the School, raising issues and lobbying to make changes for the future.
What are we doing? Collaborating across our Different sites and Sections, we aim to have representatives from different backgrounds, to represent all parts of our School. Some of our projects include:
- Development Symposia: We hold Aspiring Leadership Symposia, aimed at ECRs and PhD students. A recent symposium featured ex-students from our School who now work in pharma/biotechs or publishing.
- Identifying microaggressions: The term microaggressions was coined by Chester Pierce in the 1970s. The definition has become broader since and is generally thought of as ‘spoken, behaviour or environmental slights, whether intentional or unintentional, that communicate hostile, derogatory, or negative attitudes toward stigmatized or culturally marginalized groups’.
We surveyed this School to understand how microaggressions affect those in our School. We then developed a short animation on classic microaggressions. (See below). Microaggressions are also common in laboratories, more subtle but sustained and often linked to the laboratory hierarchy. To address this, we progressed to publish a second video on laboratory microagressions, (see the second video below).
If you feel you have or are experiencing behavior associated with bullying, harassment or microaggressions please contact
- a DDI representative
- To report a case click here: https://reportandsupport.kcl.ac.uk/
- There is also active bystander training available.
1. Classic microaggressions
2. Laboratory microaggressions
- Raising awareness: We aim raise awareness and make progress. Immediate projects include this website, analysing PowerBi data on identifying diversity gaps within the School and the academic environments.
Projects

Microaggressions campaign
Microaggressions occur every day to students and staff. These insults and snubs may often be unintentional. They can act to exclude and marginalise individuals. We have identified common microaggressions and have produced two animation tools to tackle this subject. The first video animation: Classic microaggressions. The first is designed for general university use. Using results collected in a School DDI survey, launched soon after the murder of George Floyd, we have developed a short video on classic microaggressions. This encapsulates examples of the four most common types of microaggressions that occur. The second video animation: Laboratory microaggressions. The second is aimed at working in the research laboratory as we have been carrying out a project, to determine how microaggressions affect those in our School, and also more widely in the Faculty. We have evidence that microaggressions occur within the laboratory research environment. We researched and realised that there were practically no animated training materials for laboratory microaggressions. This video has been recently released. We established a number of common microaggressions that occur in the laboratory environment. For this video we further developed it to show first a negative approach that a colleague or supervisor may make and secondly a more positive approach to this scenario. The examples were as follows: Equipment – sharing whilst respecting others; Experiments that go wrong – how to approach discussions whilst being supportive; Understanding concepts – ensuring a positive approach to explaining, and At meetings – encouraging inclusion. It is noted that laboratory microaggressions especially are likely to be subtle. However, the repeated nature of the microaggressive behaviours, twinned with typical laboratory hierarchy systems can make for difficult environments. We would like our staff and students to become more aware; so that microaggressions stop. Additionally going forwards, we want to work with the Faculty and College to give support to those who still receive microaggressions. Please feel free to contact any member of our DDI committee if you would like more information. Other contacts within the college are:

Aspiring Leadership Symposia
We aim to host symposia of interest to the Development of ECRs that also include a chance for them to be actively involved. Recent topics have been ‘Obtaining a Fellowship’ and ‘Career profiles following an education at King’s’. Below are some of the sample of the career profiles talks we have organised:

Surveys
Conduct surveys to gauge the mood of our school, including staff, students, and visitors. Exit Surveys are key to establish what we are doing well and what we can improve on. When I joined the school, exit surveys were incomplete and over the last 6 months there has been a big push to encouraging staff leavers to complete the questionnaire. Results will be published soon. Other recent School surveys covered ‘DDI, where do we stand?’ and ‘Lockdown, how has it affected you’? This has led us to understand that Teams is an extremely useful tool to keep our community together.

Exactly How Diverse are We?: Power Bi
The PowerBi analytics data for Diversity & Inclusion provides information across King’s College London, in terms of disability, gender and ethnic diversity for all staff and students across the faculties and across the hierarchal employment structure. This information is accessible to all staff members, and I would urge you to acquaint yourself with it. The data obtained in 2018/2019 provides some interesting findings.

School Review of Academic Staff On Probation
The School is responsible for ensuring the probation process fulfills the requirements of the College and Faculty. Additionally, that the academic is prepared in the expectations of the end of probation meeting. Please see links to relevant paperwork and we have also designed a tool to help probationers. (for further information on this please contact sue.brain@kcl.ac.uk)
News
The Aspiring Leadership Symposium for ECRs, run by the SCMMS-DDI committee
The Aspiring Leadership Symposium, organised by the School DDI committee, was held at the James Black Centre Denmark Hill on Wed 22nd May.

School DDI Committee presented with award for videos on microaggressions
The School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine and Sciences (SCMMS) Development, Diversity and Inclusion (DDI) Committee has won a prestigious award for...

Development, Diversity and Inclusion Committee receives award for its work highlighting microaggressions
The School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine and Sciences (SCMMS) Development, Diversity and Inclusion (DDI) Committee has won a prestigious award for...

Projects

Microaggressions campaign
Microaggressions occur every day to students and staff. These insults and snubs may often be unintentional. They can act to exclude and marginalise individuals. We have identified common microaggressions and have produced two animation tools to tackle this subject. The first video animation: Classic microaggressions. The first is designed for general university use. Using results collected in a School DDI survey, launched soon after the murder of George Floyd, we have developed a short video on classic microaggressions. This encapsulates examples of the four most common types of microaggressions that occur. The second video animation: Laboratory microaggressions. The second is aimed at working in the research laboratory as we have been carrying out a project, to determine how microaggressions affect those in our School, and also more widely in the Faculty. We have evidence that microaggressions occur within the laboratory research environment. We researched and realised that there were practically no animated training materials for laboratory microaggressions. This video has been recently released. We established a number of common microaggressions that occur in the laboratory environment. For this video we further developed it to show first a negative approach that a colleague or supervisor may make and secondly a more positive approach to this scenario. The examples were as follows: Equipment – sharing whilst respecting others; Experiments that go wrong – how to approach discussions whilst being supportive; Understanding concepts – ensuring a positive approach to explaining, and At meetings – encouraging inclusion. It is noted that laboratory microaggressions especially are likely to be subtle. However, the repeated nature of the microaggressive behaviours, twinned with typical laboratory hierarchy systems can make for difficult environments. We would like our staff and students to become more aware; so that microaggressions stop. Additionally going forwards, we want to work with the Faculty and College to give support to those who still receive microaggressions. Please feel free to contact any member of our DDI committee if you would like more information. Other contacts within the college are:

Aspiring Leadership Symposia
We aim to host symposia of interest to the Development of ECRs that also include a chance for them to be actively involved. Recent topics have been ‘Obtaining a Fellowship’ and ‘Career profiles following an education at King’s’. Below are some of the sample of the career profiles talks we have organised:

Surveys
Conduct surveys to gauge the mood of our school, including staff, students, and visitors. Exit Surveys are key to establish what we are doing well and what we can improve on. When I joined the school, exit surveys were incomplete and over the last 6 months there has been a big push to encouraging staff leavers to complete the questionnaire. Results will be published soon. Other recent School surveys covered ‘DDI, where do we stand?’ and ‘Lockdown, how has it affected you’? This has led us to understand that Teams is an extremely useful tool to keep our community together.

Exactly How Diverse are We?: Power Bi
The PowerBi analytics data for Diversity & Inclusion provides information across King’s College London, in terms of disability, gender and ethnic diversity for all staff and students across the faculties and across the hierarchal employment structure. This information is accessible to all staff members, and I would urge you to acquaint yourself with it. The data obtained in 2018/2019 provides some interesting findings.

School Review of Academic Staff On Probation
The School is responsible for ensuring the probation process fulfills the requirements of the College and Faculty. Additionally, that the academic is prepared in the expectations of the end of probation meeting. Please see links to relevant paperwork and we have also designed a tool to help probationers. (for further information on this please contact sue.brain@kcl.ac.uk)
Publications
News
The Aspiring Leadership Symposium for ECRs, run by the SCMMS-DDI committee
The Aspiring Leadership Symposium, organised by the School DDI committee, was held at the James Black Centre Denmark Hill on Wed 22nd May.

School DDI Committee presented with award for videos on microaggressions
The School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine and Sciences (SCMMS) Development, Diversity and Inclusion (DDI) Committee has won a prestigious award for...

Development, Diversity and Inclusion Committee receives award for its work highlighting microaggressions
The School of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine and Sciences (SCMMS) Development, Diversity and Inclusion (DDI) Committee has won a prestigious award for...

Our Partners
- Faculty of Life Sciences & Medicine: DDI Committee
- King’s College London EDI, including where to get emergency help and the EDI blog
Yammer links for:
Sharepoint:

Group lead
Contact us
Please contact Dr Anna Zampetaki - School Lead for DDI, or Dina Parekh - DDI Committee Administrator