We were delighted to have our Athena SWAN Gold Award successfully renewed for the third consecutive time in 2025, reaffirming our long-standing leadership in advancing gender equity in Chemistry. First awarded Gold in 2013, following a Silver Award, we were the first Department at Imperial to receive this prestigious recognition, and remain one of only two Chemistry Departments in the UK to hold Gold status continuously.
The Athena SWAN Gold Award recognises our sustained commitment to supporting women at all career stages, from undergraduate and postgraduate students to postdoctoral researchers, academic staff and our professional and technical teams. This latest renewal reflects our enduring efforts to embed equity and opportunity across all aspects of departmental life, and to foster an inclusive, supportive environment for women in science.
Since receiving our first Gold Award, we’ve increased the number of female academic staff by 46%, and maintained a 100% promotion success rate for women through tailored coaching, mentoring and structured promotion meetings. Our governance structure now includes 40% female representation across leadership roles, and we’ve embedded our Self-Assessment Team within our EDI governance framework to ensure strategic alignment and accountability.
We’ve also launched several bespoke initiatives to support wellbeing and inclusion. These include our Emergency Period Care provision, first introduced in the Molecular Sciences Research Hub (MSRH) and now adopted across other departments, and the creation of the Women’s Suite in the MSRH, a dedicated space for prayer and nursing. Our newly established EDI Committee, supported by an annual budget of £20,000, continues to drive departmental inclusivity activities and champion positive change.
We continue to be committed to enacting positive change for the women in our Department. As part of our Gold renewal application, we have committed to a number of ambitious aims, including the following:
- We will continue introducing new guidelines to improve our induction processes in the Department to ensure all staff and students start their time with us on an equal footing.
- We will continue to consult with staff who have taken parental leave and improve our communication on the availability of shared leave.
- We will continue recognising the achievements of our Professional and Technical staff within our Department by continuing to implement awards and nomination.
- We will continue to improve our staff training and raise awareness of issues faced by non-binary and trans individuals.
