We have been successful in renewing our Silver Athena SWAN award, which we first achieved in 2010 and which will now see us through to April 2018. These are given to UK university departments recognising significant achievement and exemplary practice in supporting women to develop science, technology, engineering and medicine careers. Part of our role is to track key Athena SWAN metrics of diversity.

We were one of 89 successful departments of 125 applicants in this round (a 71% success rate). This means that we are eligible for Biomedical Research Centre (BRC) funding in the next round that was worth £163 million last time. This will be highly motivating not just for female academics in our department but all our staff and students who have seen major improvements over the past three years as a result of our Action Plan (Word)‌. We hope it will encourage a higher quality of new recruits to join the School and we are pleased to be upholding the success of the College as an institution that supports women in STEMM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Medicine) careers.