Athena Swan Silver Award Success
Warwick Chemistry retains prestigious Athena Swan Silver Award for efforts in improving gender diversity.
Dr Ann Dixon, Wellbeing and Diversity Group Chair, said:
"Our recent Athena Swan Silver renewal application has been successful and we have been awarded a Silver until 2027. The success of our application represents clear recognition of the amazing work that many of our staff and students are doing to improve equality, diversity and inclusion in chemistry and in science. ED&I work can be challenging and unrecognised, so I want to take this opportunity to thank everyone who has done their part – whether you helped prepare the application, attended a SAT meeting, ran an event or book club, acted as a mentor or mentee, started a society, attended an open mic or a film screening, went to ChemCafe, ran an ED&I conference or seminar series, supported a colleague in need, or just asked people to come for a coffee. It all matters."
Some of the key highlights from our Athena Swan work:
- Chemistry launched a new flexible working policy providing clarity around requesting flexible and part-time working.
- We supported Professional Support Staff development via a bespoke away day offering staff an opportunity to discuss their strengths, barriers/priorities, and plan future actions.
- Targeted, sustained efforts to improve participation by Research Fellows in the PDR process has generated a dramatic increase in uptake by women – from 20% in 2016/17 to 88% in 2018/19.
- PSoC is active in ED&I initiatives and its members have successfully secured RSC funding for several PSoC-led initiatives. We have seen an increase in diversity of seminar speakers since 2019, and the University has held up the Diversity Book Club (2021) as an example of best practice. The department will continue to support PSoC initiatives; including committing full financial and administrative support for the growth of Diversity Book Club post-2021.
- To further boost %females in Teaching and Research, we have focussed on attracting fellows applying for schemes which target diverse applicants (e.g., the Dorothy Hodgkin fellowship). In 2021, we advertised for applicants to this scheme across multiple channels and secured University support for a permanent appointment to the successful applicant.
See the full submission at: https://warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/chemistry/aboutus/athenaswan/.