Examples
Worked examples
- Is an instance
A university chemistry department forms a self-assessment team, analyses five years of gender-disaggregated data on recruitment, promotion, and attrition, and submits a Silver-level Athena SWAN application with a five-year action plan addressing an identified drop-off in senior lectureships held by women.
- Is an instance
A UK medical school preparing a Research Excellence Framework (REF) environment statement cites its departmental Athena SWAN Silver award as evidence of a supportive research culture and career pipeline for women in science, even though holding the award is not itself a formal REF eligibility requirement.
Counter-examples
Looks similar, but isn't
- Not an instance
A university-wide equal-opportunities policy statement issued with no self-assessment team, no gender-disaggregated data analysis, and no time-bound action plan is not an Athena SWAN award — it is exactly the kind of general policy commitment the Charter's self-assessment process is designed to go beyond.
Editorial commentary
The Athena SWAN Charter is an accreditation framework for gender equality in higher education and research, administered in the UK by Advance HE. Universities and their departments apply for a Bronze, Silver, or Gold award by carrying out a structured self-assessment of gender equality in their staff and student data and working practices, then committing to a time-bound action plan to address what that assessment finds. Originally UK-only and focused on women in science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM), the Charter has since broadened in scope and gone international, with related schemes now running in Ireland, Australia, the United States, and Canada.
Origins and what the Charter covers today
Athena SWAN (the name stands for Scientific Women’s Academic Network) was established in 2005 by the UK’s Equality Challenge Unit — now part of Advance HE — with the first awards made in 2006. It was created specifically to address the under-representation of women in STEMM academic careers: the “leaky pipeline” of women lost at each career stage from PhD through to professorship.
In May 2015 the Charter’s scope was extended beyond STEMM to arts, humanities, social sciences, business, and law (AHSSBL), to professional and technical staff (not only academic staff), and to trans staff and students. On 30 June 2021, following an independent review, Advance HE launched a “transformed” UK Charter: a more flexible, less prescriptive framework built around a smaller set of principles, with a lighter application process (Advance HE reports the revised materials more than halved the administrative burden of an application) and explicit recognition of gender identities beyond a binary framing.
Award levels: Bronze, Silver, Gold
Institutions and individual departments/schools each apply separately, and every applicant’s first award must be at Bronze — there is no route to Silver or Gold without first holding (or applying concurrently for) Bronze. The three levels are often described, informally, as marking progress from planning to doing to sustaining:
- Bronze — a self-assessment that identifies the department’s or institution’s gender equality priorities, an initial action plan responding to them, and the governance structures (a self-assessment team, in particular) to carry that plan forward. Bronze does not require evidence that the plan has already produced measurable outcomes.
- Silver — everything Bronze requires, plus evidence that a previous action plan has actually been implemented and had a measurable impact on gender equality, alongside a further, more developed action plan.
- Gold — everything Bronze and Silver require, plus evidence of sector-leading practice and of the department or institution actively supporting other organisations to improve their own gender equality practice.
Awards are valid for five years from the date of the award letter. That five-year term is itself a reform: awards ran for three years before 2015 and four years after, before the Charter’s independent review recommended extending validity to five years, which Advance HE applied from the April 2020 award round onward. A related prerequisite — that an institution could only hold a university-level Silver or Gold award if enough of its departments already held Silver or Gold — was also dropped as part of the same reform programme.
The application and self-assessment process
Every Athena SWAN application, at any level, rests on the same underlying process:
- Convene a self-assessment team (SAT) — a group representative of the department’s or institution’s own gender balance and staff types, given time and recognition (not just an unpaid add-on) to do the work.
- Analyse quantitative data — staff and student numbers broken down by gender at every career stage and grade: recruitment, promotion, appraisal outcomes, attrition, and pay, tracked over several years to reveal where the pipeline actually narrows.
- Gather qualitative evidence — staff surveys, focus groups, and exit-interview themes covering culture, workload, flexible working, and career-development support, to explain the patterns the quantitative data shows.
- Identify priorities and write a five-year action plan — specific, owned, time-bound actions targeting the gaps the assessment surfaced, not a general equal-opportunities statement.
- Submit for peer review — Advance HE convenes a panel of reviewers (peers from other member institutions) who assess the application against the Charter’s principles and either make the award, request revisions, or decline.
Because the assessment has to be evidenced with real institutional data rather than asserted in general terms, most of the administrative burden of an Athena SWAN application sits with whoever compiles and analyses that data — commonly a research or HR administrator working alongside academic self-assessment team members, rather than the SAT chair alone.
Geographic scope: from a UK charter to an international family of schemes
Athena SWAN itself remains a UK (and, via a parallel scheme, Ireland) charter administered by Advance HE, but its self-assessment methodology has been adopted, with local adaptations, well beyond the UK:
- Ireland — Athena Swan Ireland launched in 2015, supported by the Higher Education Authority (HEA), and uses the same Bronze/Silver/Gold structure.
- Australia — a pilot began in 2015 under Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE), a partnership of Australian science and technology academies, applying the Athena SWAN methodology to the Australian higher-education sector.
- United States — the STEM Equity Achievement (SEA) Change programme, run by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) from 2017, is broader in scope than the UK Charter (covering more than gender) but draws directly on the Athena SWAN self-assessment model.
- Canada — the Dimensions pilot programme, launched in 2018, likewise draws on Athena SWAN’s methodology as part of a broader equity, diversity, and inclusion framework rather than adopting the Athena SWAN name or award levels directly.
A research administrator working with international collaborators or multi-site awards should treat “Athena SWAN” as the specific UK/Ireland-branded charter, and confirm separately which locally-adapted scheme (SAGE, SEA Change, Dimensions, or none) applies at a non-UK/Ireland site — the underlying self-assessment logic is shared, but the award levels, timelines, and administering bodies are not identical.
Why it matters for research administrators
Athena SWAN status has mattered to research administrators in two distinct ways: as a historical hard funding-eligibility requirement, and as ongoing evidence used in funding and assessment processes that don’t formally require it.
From 2011, following a requirement set by the UK’s Chief Medical Officer, organisations applying for certain National Institute for Health Research (NIHR) funding — including Biomedical Research Centres, Patient Safety Translational Research Centres, and Applied Research Collaborations, and Integrated Academic Training posts — had to hold at least a Silver Athena SWAN award and maintain it for the life of the award. NIHR discontinued this mandatory requirement on 10 September 2020, as part of a wider government push to reduce administrative burden in research and higher education. Applicants for NIHR funding are now instead expected to demonstrate their commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion generally, addressing the nine protected characteristics defined in the Equality Act 2010 — Athena SWAN accreditation is no longer mandatory, but institutions may still use it as evidence of that broader commitment.
Separately, Athena SWAN status has also featured in Research Excellence Framework (REF) environment statements: many UK departments’ REF 2021 environment templates cited an existing or in-progress Athena SWAN award as evidence of a supportive research culture and career pipeline for women, even though holding an award has never been a formal REF eligibility gate. Because Athena SWAN’s own gender-equality focus overlaps with United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 5 (Gender Equality), institutional Athena SWAN evidence sometimes also appears in SDG-alignment and impact reporting.
The practical implication for a research administrator: don’t assume a specific funder eligibility rule tied to Athena SWAN still applies just because it did historically (the NIHR Silver requirement is the clearest example of one that was withdrawn) — check the current funding call’s own eligibility and evidencing requirements directly, and treat institutional/departmental Athena SWAN status as one possible, useful piece of EDI evidence rather than a fixed compliance checkbox.
Frequently asked questions
Is Athena SWAN still required for NIHR funding?
No. NIHR required academic partners applying for certain awards to hold at least a Silver Athena SWAN award from 2011, but discontinued that mandatory requirement on 10 September 2020. NIHR funding applicants are now expected to demonstrate a broader commitment to equality, diversity, and inclusion instead; Athena SWAN accreditation can still be offered as supporting evidence, but it is no longer a formal eligibility condition.
What is the difference between Bronze, Silver, and Gold Athena SWAN awards?
Bronze requires a self-assessment, an initial action plan, and the governance to carry it forward, without requiring evidence of outcomes yet. Silver requires everything Bronze does, plus evidence that a previous action plan produced measurable impact. Gold requires everything Bronze and Silver do, plus evidence of sector-leading practice and of actively supporting other organisations to improve.
Who runs Athena SWAN?
Advance HE administers the UK Athena Swan Charter (and a parallel Ireland charter operates with Higher Education Authority support). Advance HE itself was formed from a 2018 merger of the Equality Challenge Unit (which created Athena SWAN in 2005), the Higher Education Academy, and the Leadership Foundation for Higher Education.
Is Athena SWAN only for STEM subjects?
No, not since May 2015. It originally covered only science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM), but was extended to arts, humanities, social sciences, business, and law, and to professional and technical staff as well as academic staff.
How long does an Athena SWAN award last?
Five years from the date of the award letter, for awards made from the April 2020 round onward. Earlier awards ran for three years (pre-2015) or four years, before the Charter’s independent review recommended the extension to five years.
References
- Advance HE, “Athena Swan Charter” (advance-he.ac.uk/equality-charters/athena-swan-charter)
- Advance HE, “A step-change for gender equality — the transformed UK Athena Swan Charter is launched today” (advance-he.ac.uk, June 2021)
- Advance HE, “Extension of UK Athena SWAN award validity to five years” (advance-he.ac.uk)
- Advance HE, “The requirement for institutions to hold departmental silver or gold awards” (advance-he.ac.uk)
- Advance HE, “Advance HE responds to the NIHR’s announcement on funding criteria, including Athena Swan” (advance-he.ac.uk, September 2020)
- Advance HE, “Research Excellence Framework (REF) 2021 and equality” (advance-he.ac.uk)
- Medical Women’s Federation, “Discontinuation of Athena Swan requirement for organisations applying for NIHR funding” (medicalwomensfederation.org.uk)
- Higher Education Authority, “Athena Swan Ireland Charter” (hea.ie/policy/gender/athena-swan)
- Science in Australia Gender Equity (SAGE), sciencegenderequity.org.au
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