We’re delighted to announce that the Department of Biosciences and Chemistry has successfully renewed its Athena SWAN Silver award for a second time, meaning that the department has now held the award continuously since 2012.

The award recognises the department’s work in promoting equality of opportunity for female staff and students. Furthermore, the Department of Biosciences and Chemistry now stands alone as being the only department within the University to hold a silver award (other departments hold bronze awards and the University itself also holds a bronze award).

Speaking about the award, Professor Susan Laird (head of department of biosciences and chemistry) said: “The department is particularly pleased with the fact that we will have held an Athena SWAN award for over 10 years by the time we need to apply for renewal in 2023. It has certainly changed practice and increased transparency within the department, which is of benefit to all staff. We should all be very proud: only 8 science and medicine departments across the post-92 universities hold silver awards – and none have yet obtained a gold award.”

Our Pro Vice-Chancellor, Professor Alison Metcalfe, also added: “In maintaining its Athena SWAN Silver award, the Department of Biosciences and Chemistry has demonstrated its long-term commitment to promoting equity of opportunity for colleagues to develop their careers. We can use its experience and expertise to build on bioscience and chemistry’s success for other departments, which will have significant benefits for the University when funders and supporters increasingly expect us to demonstrate our values on equality and diversity.”

You can find out more about the Athena SWAN Charter here.