Associate Professor Stephan Uphoff the department's Athena Swan award

We took a few minutes to talk with Associate Professor Stephan Uphoff about the importance and impact of the department renewing our Athena Swan Silver Status and what it means to us all in the Department of Biochemistry.

Can you explain why the Athena Swan process is so important?

The goal of the Athena Swan framework is to improve gender equality in academia. Even though it’s been 50 years since the UK’s Sex Discrimination Act, inequalities still exist—especially when you look at how few women are in senior academic positions.

Change doesn’t just happen on its own. It takes focused effort to identify the barriers, measure their impact, and figure out how to break them down. That’s where Athena Swan comes in.

Applying for an Athena Swan award means taking a deep, honest look at how we operate—from how we run research and teaching, to how we recruit and support staff and students. It helps us ask important questions: Are our systems fair? Where are people falling through the cracks? And what can we do better?

Because our department is involved in teaching and research at every level—from undergraduates to postgrads—we have a real opportunity to drive change across the full academic pipeline.

And while Athena Swan focuses on gender, the work we’re doing also supports broader inclusion. Tackling gender inequality often helps open doors for other underrepresented groups in academia too.

What impact has it already had in our department?

The Athena Swan process has helped us step back, track our progress, and honestly reflect on both the wins and the setbacks in our journey toward gender equality. This has been the work of many dedicated people in the department over the years; particularly Catherine Pears who led the Biochemistry Department’s Athena Swan Silver Award applications in 2015 and 2019 and mentored the new EDI team during the development of the 2024 application.

To give a few examples of the impact across our department:

We used to see a gender gap in undergraduate admissions—male applicants were 7.8% more likely to get an offer than female applicants (2012–2017). We revised our admissions scoring to fix that, and since 2018, the gap has narrowed to just 1.1%.

The number of female PIs has steadily grown—from 29% in 2015 to 36% in 2024. Our senior leadership team (the Strategy Group) is now gender-balanced. We’re proud to have many brilliant women in the department, from students to staff, and we’re creating opportunities to celebrate their achievements and raise their visibility as role models—for example, through events like International Women’s Day. We’re also now the host of the international Suffrage Science Award ceremonies, which is a great way to showcase and honour leading female researchers.

We’ve also done a lot of work to improve communication, new staff inductions, and career development frameworks. This included surveys, focus groups, and dedicated efforts from HR and many others. And it's paying off—67% of staff and 91% of postgrads now say communication is open and effective, a 17% jump since 2021, with female staff leading the improvement. Back in 2021, staff inductions—especially for women—had low engagement and satisfaction. So, we launched a revamped programme with both online and in-person elements. It’s worked: participation is now at 71%, and satisfaction has reached 81%.

Finally, because Athena Swan relies on real, measurable feedback, we’ve put a lot into improving our staff surveys. Participation keeps growing, making the results a solid foundation for making decisions that matter.

Are there plans for further developments in this area and what are they if so?

Absolutely. While we’ve made progress, there’s still plenty to do. Our current five-year Athena Swan action plan tackles key gender equality challenges across the department—many identified through our staff surveys.

One major focus is addressing the drop in female representation as you move from students to senior academic roles. We’re reviewing our recruitment strategies to see how effective they are and where we can do more to support the hiring of women.

We’re also working on building more structured career development support. The goal is to move away from systems that rely on personal connections and instead create fairer opportunities for everyone, especially those from underrepresented or disadvantaged backgrounds. These efforts are aimed at staff and students alike, and we’re already seeing signs of a more gender-inclusive work environment.

We’ve also designed specific actions to support groups that often face added challenges—like parents, carers, and staff with disabilities—to help close remaining gaps.

Ensuring we have adequate mechanisms in place to tackle bullying and harassment has been another priority. We’ve implemented key actions under the Athena Swan framework. We’ve also got several initiatives lined up to continue improving staff wellbeing.

How is this something that everyone can be involved in across the department?

We’re really fortunate to work in a place where people are supportive and genuinely care about inclusion and gender equality. But it's important to remember—equality, diversity, and inclusion aren’t things a single person or committee can achieve alone. They’re about the whole community, and it takes all of us working together.

So, I’d encourage everyone to take a moment to reflect on your own work environment—and think about how you can contribute to positive change. Colleagues can check out the Athena Swan action plan; see if there’s something they care about and get involved. We love to hear new ideas!

Everyone’s already connected through groups like the postdoc society, PSS network, parents and carers group, OUBS, PI seminars, and more. These networks thrive because of engagement—so showing up and getting involved is so valuable.

Read a summary of the department’s application here.

Read our full application and feedback here (access via SSO only).