Athena Swan Silver Award for IGH

In the latest round of ECU Athena Swan Awards, the Institute of Infection and Global Health (IGH) was conferred with the Silver Athena SWAN Departmental Award – 1 of only 24 Silver awards announced for this round.

The Institute has been committed to advancing women’s careers in STEMM (science, technology, engineering, maths and medicine) since its inception in 2010 and this achievement is a mirror of IGH’s Athena SWAN team effort through the years.

Professor Mathew Baylis, IGH Research Strategy Lead and head of the current Athena Swan team, said about this award: “I am absolutely delighted that the changes being implemented in IGH to encourage, support and promote women scientists have been recognised in this Silver Award. I am grateful to the entire IGH Athena Swan team for their hard work”.

In recent years the Institute has employed a series of measures to ensure that women across the Institute are encouraged and supported in their career progression. At the time of application towards this Athena Swan Silver Award women constituted at least 50% of all Institute Committees, including its Management Team. Additionally, women at the institute have been successfully using initiatives such as a mentoring programme and leadership training which have led to an increase in the number of female academic postgraduate students and staff at all career progression levels. Ultimately, for all members of the Institute, it is clear that IGH foments a positive atmosphere for women. This is reflected in family-friendly policies, allowing staff to bring children to meetings when necessary and the implementation of the “Maternity Mentors” initiative to support staff and students planning or returning from maternity leave.

Professor Tom Solomon, Head of the Institute, added: "I would like to congratulate everyone who has worked so hard on this over several years, from Jane Hodgkinson who initiated our application, all the way through Matthew Baylis, Jo Parker and the current team. It is a well-deserved achievement that truly reflects our many activities to support our women in science."

The Institute continued efforts to champion women in STEMM will not stop here and more positive initiatives will be implemented in the coming period through their Silver Action Plan. One of the main focus of this being the ongoing support of women transitioning from post-doctoral researcher to lecturer through the FLIGHT (Fostering Liverpool Infection and Global Health Talent) programme and the continued investment in initiatives such as the Institute’s highly successful tenure-track programme.