Trinity College Dublin Wins Landmark Athena SWAN Awards for Advancing
Gender Equality in Higher Education and Research
Dublin, July 29th 2015 – Trinity College Dublin has won a bronze institutional Athena SWAN
award for advancing gender equality. Three of its Schools (Physics, Chemistry, Natural
Sciences) have also received landmark bronze awards.
The Athena SWAN programme run by the Equality Challenge Unit (ECU) and implemented
by Trinity College aims to advance women’s careers in science, technology, engineering,
mathematics and medicine (STEMM) employment in higher education and research.
Welcoming the award, Trinity Provost, Dr Patrick Prendergast said:
“Inclusivity, equality and diversity are core values for Trinity College Dublin, and are
enshrined in our recent Strategic Plan. We strive to create an inclusive College community
in which women and men participate at all levels and where all are recognised fully for their
contribution to the university. These are fundamental principles that underpin Trinity’s
excellence."
Established in 2005, the Athena SWAN Charter originally rewarded institutions in the UK
that were actively tackling gender equality challenges. This is now accessible to Irish
institutions for the first time.
In winning the bronze institutional award, Trinity has joined just one other Irish university,
the University of Limerick with that distinction.
Director of the Women in Science & Engineering Research (WiSER) Centre, Professor Eileen
Drew, said: “The prestigious Athena SWAN award is a major milestonet for Trinity College. It
will copper-fasten the achievements we have already made towards gender equality and
paves the way for further gender actions that follow the practices of the best UK Athena
SWAN award holder universities: Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial, York, Edinburgh, UCL and
Queens University Belfast.”
Among the policies adopted by Trinity to level the gender playing field are training and
awareness sessions in unconscious bias for key decision-makers, leave arrangements postmaternity (or equivalent caring/sickness) leave to help academic staff to pursue their
research horizons.
In addition to the Athena SWAN programme, Trinity has also pioneered participation in the
INTEGER programme in Ireland which is being piloted in Trinity as part of an EU wide
project, INTEGER (INstitutional Transformation for Effecting Gender Equality in Research).
Next year, the Athena SWAN programme will expand to include the arts, humanities, social
sciences, business and law.