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Athena Swan

The University of Manchester’s Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health (FBMH) has been awarded the Athena Swan Silver Award. The award is designed to help institutions achieve gender equality and meet equality legislation requirements. It also identifies areas for positive action, recognises and shares good practices, and supports the promotion of inclusive work environments.

Athena Swan Submission [pdf]

Achievement Plan [pdf] 

Athena Swan History

The Athena Swan Charter was established in 2005 by the Equality Challenge Unit (now part of Advance HE).

It aimed to encourage and recognise commitment to advancing the careers of women in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine) employment in higher education and research.

In 2015, the Charter was expanded to include non-STEMM disciplines, professional and support staff, and trans staff and students. The Transformed Charter recognises work undertaken to address gender equality more broadly, not just barriers to progression that affect women.

See our certificate of commitment to Athena Swan principles [pdf]. 

Athena Swan in the Faculty

All three Schools (School of Biological Sciences, School of Health Sciences, School of Medical Sciences) were holders of individual Silver Athena Swan awards since the formation of FBMH. In 2024 the Faculty consolidated efforts into one Athena Swan Award application and successfully achieved the Silver Award.

The Silver award highlights the Faculty’s commitment to creating structures, processes and a culture that enables the University to move towards greater gender equality. Leadership and senior buy of the Athena Swan Charter Mark help to ensure the EDI agenda is woven through all aspects of the Faculty. 

"Achieving this Athena Swan Silver Award is a proud moment for us, not only because it represents a huge amount of work from the team putting in the application, but also because it is recognition that we are putting into daily action the principles of fairness and equity that we hold at the heart of our Faculty."

Professor Allan Pacey MBE, Interim Vice President and Dean of the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health 

Our Commitment

The Faculty has identified 8 key priorities to help guide actions and future work related to gender equality.

Priority 1: Creating an inclusive learning and teaching environment

Priority 2: Addressing progression for female academic staff and the under-representation of female academic staff on senior boards and committees

Priority 3: Continuing to improve diversity and representation on EDI-related boards, increase EDI-resources, and inclusive leadership

Priority 4: Addressing gender/BAME under-representation across cohorts in the PS community, with clearly defined routes of progression

Priority 5: Establishing a sustainable and stable community of academic and PS staff

Priority 6: Tackling sexism, bullying, harassment and discrimination

Priority 7: Improving workload, work-related stress, and wellbeing

Priority 8: Enhancing a sense of community and belonging 

To achieve our 8 priorities, we have created an ambitious, gender focused and intersectional Action Plan to tackle the priority areas identified over the next 5 years. We have mapped the actions against the UoM EDI strategic priorities and relevant Faculty Action Plan to ensure colleagues are aligned with our goals and are equipped to assist us in achieving them. 

More information

To find out more about Athena Swan in FBMH, please contact us.

Natalie Gardiner – Vice Dean for Social Responsibility
Email: natalie.gardiner@manchester.ac.uk

Beth Micakovic – Executive Director of Faculty Operations
Email: elizabeth.micakovic@manchester.ac.uk

Katie Samosa – EDI Officer
Email: katie.samosa@manchester.ac.uk 

Getting involved

If you would like to get involved with an EDI and/or Athena Swan team, please submit your details via our online form.

Alternatively, you can get in touch with the relevant School Director/Lead for EDI lead:

School of Biological Sciences
Email: suzanne.verstappen@manchester.ac.uk

School of Health Sciences
Email: juhi.gupta@manchester.ac.uk

School of Medical Sciences
Email: katharine.dibb@manchester.ac.uk and neil.pemberton@manchester.ac.uk

Athena SWAN and EDI initiatives are supported by regular network events, meetings and workshops, and everyone is welcome to attend. 

Resources

Contact us

Equality and Diversity Partner

Tahira Majothi

tel: 0161 306 5879

email: tahira.majothi@manchester.ac.uk

Equality and Diversity Officer

Katie Samosa

email: katie.samosa@manchester.ac.uk