More Athena SWAN success for the Faculty

The Faculty is delighted to announce that three Divisions have been granted Athena SWAN Silver awards by the Equality Challenge Unit. These Divisions are Genetics & Molecular Medicine; Imaging Sciences & Biomedical Engineering; and Transplantation Immunology & Mucosal Biology. In addition, Cancer Studies; Health & Social Care Research; and the Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care & Rehabilitation have had their Bronze awards renewed until November 2019. The Faculty now has a total of six Silver and six Bronze Athena SWAN awards.

The awards, announced last Tuesday, recognise commitment to advancing women’s careers in higher education and research. In May 2015, the Athena SWAN Charter was expanded to cover non-STEMM (science, technology, engineering, medicine and mathematics) subjects, such as the arts, humanities and social sciences. Also, the new framework considers gender equality more broadly, and recognises commitment to advance gender equality within professional services.

To achieve Athena SWAN awards, applicants sign up to the Athena SWAN Charter and undertake thorough self-assessment of their practices, policies and culture, as well as develop measurable action plans to further good practice and address areas for improvement within four years.

On Friday 29 April, Diabetes & Nutritional Sciences; the Randall Division of Cell & Molecular Biophysics; and Cicely Saunders Institute of Palliative Care & Rehabilitation applied for Silver Athena SWAN awards. The result of these will be announced in early autumn. We wish them the best of luck!