The Crick has received a Bronze Athena SWAN Award in recognition of our work to support equality of opportunity and promote diversity across the institute.
The Athena SWAN charter was initially founded in 2005 to tackle the unequal representation of women in science. It has since grown and expanded its scope to consider equality and diversity more broadly across all academic disciplines. The Bronze Award is the first of three available awards and shows that the Crick has a solid foundation for eliminating gender bias and developing an inclusive culture.
Our director Paul Nurse said, “I am delighted that the Crick has received a Bronze Athena SWAN Award. It is a significant achievement, particularly given the complexities of collecting and analysing the required data for such a young institute. Equality, diversity and inclusion have been central considerations throughout the Crick’s development and are key features of our strategy.
“This award confirms that we have the right policies in place to ensure all staff are treated equally. We must now focus on implementing our action plan, including addressing those areas where we can do more. I’d like to thank all those involved in the application and the Crick’s Athena SWAN Steering Group for their hard work and continued commitment to this issue.”
Applicants for a Bronze Athena SWAN Award are required to provide at least three years of data and identify trends to show how their policies and procedures impact gender equality and ethnic diversity. The Crick opened in 2016, and applied for the award in the first year that we were eligible. On average, only 57 per cent of applications for an Athena SWAN Bronze Award are successful.
Our application was the result of a year of work by a group of staff members and students who volunteered to form the Crick’s self-assessment team (SAT). This group has now evolved to become the Athena SWAN Steering Group and will be responsible for implementing the action plan developed as part of the application.
Our Bronze Award is valid until 2023, after which we can either renew it or apply for Silver or Gold.
