Department's award for equality success

Imperial’s Department of Life Sciences has received a bronze Athena SWAN award for its activities supporting female academics - News

By John-Paul Jones
Friday 26 August 2011

Imperial’s Department of Life Sciences has received a national award for its activities supporting female academics and ensuring equality in the workplace.

Announced in the past week, the Department has achieved Bronze in the Athena SWAN Awards, which acknowledge demonstrated commitment by an institution or department to recruit, retain and advance female academics. It was one of ten institutions or departments to receive awards this year.

The activities of the Department recognised by the award include a staff survey and an evaluation of evaluation of departmental policies and practices, to help establish what works well and where improvements can be made. The Department has also been developing an action plan which includes monitoring data related to student and staff recruitment, career progression and retention, as well as mentoring and other forms of career support.

Dr Sally Power, who coordinated the activities submitted to Athena said:

“Winning is a recognition, both internally and externally, of the many efforts which have already taken place to ensure that the Department is a productive, equitable and enjoyable place to work in.”

Dr Power said she felt taking part in the Athena nominations had been beneficial to the Department as a whole:

“It was an important way of making sure that the Department is working towards a system which ensures a level playing field for all staff and creating a strongly supportive work environment.”

Professor Maggie Dallman, Principal of the Faculty of Natural Sciences congratulated the Department saying:

“I’m delighted by Life Science’s success in this year’s Athena SWAN awards. It’s a fitting tribute to the commitment that staff in the Department have shown to supporting female staff and is a great encouragement for the whole College.”

Successes for the College in previous years include an institutional Silver SWAN award for the College as a whole, as well as silvers for the Department of Materials and the School of Public Health , and bronze awards for the Departments of Computing and Earth Science and Engineering last year.

The news comes in the same week that the Times Higher Education reported a new initiative from the Department of Heath to combat gender imbalance. It has been announced that National Institute for Health Research will only shortlist NHS/university partnerships for Biomedical Research Centre and Biomedical Research Unit for funding if the academic institution holds at least a silver SWAN award, demonstrating its commitment to women in science.

The Athena bronze follows a number of equality successes this year. Other achievements include Imperial being one of only four universities to match all ten criteria in a checklist looking at whether university practices and policies are welcoming and supportive of lesbian, gay and bisexual students, and achieving number 87 in Stonewall’s 2011 Workplace Equality Index.