The AITSN was chosen to present a parallel session at the EQUITAS Conference hosted by Technological University of the Shannon (TUS) on the 23-24th May. The conference discussed best practice in Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
Our talk was entitled “A Spotlight on the Lab Elves”, which explored how techncial staff are very much a hidden workforce, the implications of this, and initiatives to redress this including the AITSN and the Technician Commitment. In what was due to be a two speaker talk, Dr Úna Prendergast ably performed both presentations and handled the Q&A as her co-presenter Dermot Barry was unable to make it due to illness.
One of the topics explored was the lack of research, particularly in an Irish context on technical staff in higher education and research. The UK is bucking this trend with valuable reports on a wide range of issues facing technical staff, and we at AITSN hope similar research will follow for Irish technical staff.