The quest for gender equality at The Pirbright Institute has been recognised through an Athena Swan Silver Award.
The Athena Swan Charter is a framework used across the globe to support and transform gender equality within higher education (HE) and research.
The five-year accreditation acknowledges Pirbright’s achievements in addressing key priorities such as gender balance amongst students and staff at all career levels.
Dr Marion England, Research Fellow and Pirbright’s Athena Swan Lead since 2020, said: “The award recognises our success in developing employment practices to support and develop the careers of women and other historically marginalised groups in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM). We’re absolutely delighted to achieve our silver status, which demonstrates our dedication and progress since first becoming bronze award holders in 2013.”
Dr Louise Barton, Head of Research and Innovation at Pirbright, added: “Everyone put a lot of hard work into securing this award, with new processes put in place including improved support for grant applications, which has brought female grant success rates in line with male colleagues. Overall, our grant success rate across the last five years is 41% for males and 42% for females.”
Professor John Hammond, Director of Research, said: “We are fully committed to raising the Institute’s profile as a globally recognised scientific research organisation where women are supported to progress their careers. Our Gender Pay Gap has reduced from a mean of 14.7% (median 15.16%) in 2017 to 10.3% (median 6.6%) in 2022. And our target of achieving a 50:50 gender balanced work force by 2025 was achieved in 2020 and has remained consistent over the subsequent years."
The Silver Award recognises significant progress and impact in gender equality practices and affirms the Institute’s five-year future action plan to continue its positive trajectory, refocusing on new priority areas such as inclusive communication and employee wellbeing.
Established in 2005 to encourage and recognise commitment to advancing the careers of women in science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine (STEMM) employment, the Charter is now used to address gender inequality and intersectionality more broadly, and not just barriers to progression that affect women.
Pirbright is one of eight institutes strategically supported by the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Centre (BBSRC) through UKRI, which is committed to gender equality within its workforce, and across the research and innovation system as part of its wider focus on Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.
Image caption: The Pirbright Institute Athena Swan application team (L-R): Georgina Limon-Vega, Marion England, John Hammond, Bryan Charleston, Louise Barton.
Hear first-hand from members of our staff on their experience of equality, diversity and inclusion at Pirbright:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=imX7SSeq18E?si=OvZCNv6rwgxLo3gR