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Women at Imperial: Inspiring women in the energy sector

Women at Imperial: Energy Futures Lab's Amy Trask speaks to staff and former students about their roles and advice for women in the energy sector

At Energy Futures Lab, we strive to nurture an inclusive culture that values and celebrates diversity, promotes equality, and respects the rights and dignity of all our staff, students, affiliates and stakeholders. 

Guided by Imperial College London’s Equality Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Strategy, we aim to fully integrate EDI into everything we do. We recognise that this requires us to continually evaluate and, where necessary, adapt or change our policies, procedures, working practices and materials. In doing so, we aim to listen to and learn from our Imperial community as well as external partners and collaborators. 

We also recognise that our responsibility extends beyond the walls of Imperial. As a leading UK energy institute, we will play our part in making the energy sector reflective of the society it serves, improving equality and inclusion in the industry’s workplaces and inspiring a new generation of scientists and engineers from a diverse range of backgrounds. We will always endeavour to use our influence to affect positive change in academia, research and industry and, where appropriate, we will share our learnings so others can benefit. 

Below you find some of the actions we have already committed to taking to promote and integrate EDI in our work. We will actively review the delivery of these commitments and report on them to our Advisory Board, taking further action where required. Beyond these commitments, we aim to lead and support the development of targeted EDI projects, including proposals for Imperial’s EDI Seed Fund

Our commitments to improve and promote Equality, Diversity and Inclusion:

Recruitment & Staff Training

  • With the aid of software, we will ensure gender and age-neutral language is used in job descriptions 
  • We will ensure appointment panels are diverse and that all staff involved in recruitment have undergone Imperial’s Unconscious Bias training
  • We will ensure all Energy Futures Lab staff undertake EDI training  

Education & Research

  • We will consider gender balance and diversity in recruitment to our MSC programme and provide scholarships to widen participation
  • We will engage early career researchers from a diverse range of backgrounds in the development of institute strategies and activities
  • We will offer support to early career researchers in the preparation of fellowship applications in energy topics, and actively encourage fellowship applications from under-represented groups
  • We will offer support to research and academic staff returning from career breaks or periods of parental leave in research development
  • We will engage with staff in research development opportunities inclusively and fairly, irrespective of background, rank or seniority and with due respect to confidentiality and non-disclosure 

Events

  • We will invite and encourage members of underrepresented groups to speak at and attend our events and ensure gender balance on our panels
  • Where events are held in person, we will use facilities that are fully accessible and, where possible, provide online access for those unable to attend in person
  • We will host annual events on EDI issues related to the energy sector for our Imperial community and industry stakeholders and participate in activities organised by others so that learning can be shared across the sector

Communications

  • We will invite a diverse range of staff and students contribute to our blogs, videos, podcasts and other outputs 
  • We will use inclusive language in all our communications and ensure that photography used in our materials reflects the diversity of the Imperial community 
  • We will support and promote opportunities and activities organised by Imperial networks and programmes including Imperial as One, Imperial 600, the Calibre Leadership Programme and the IMPACT Development Programme