In May 2021, the School of Natural and Built Environment was awarded a Bronze Award by the Advance HE Athena Swan Panel. This prestigious award reflects the School’s commitment to the Athena Swan Charter on equality and inclusion and is conferred for five years. Over this period, a dedicated cross-disciplinary committee will continue to work with all staff and students to make the school more inclusive and supportive to everyone. This award reflects many years of hard work by a number of key people in SNBE including Dr Clare Mulholland, Dr Tristan Sturm and the late Prof Aileen Stockdale.

The School of the Natural and Built Environment have a dedicated Athena SWAN team who are responsible for advancing gender equality and embedding the Athena SWAN principles in the School, led by our SWAN Co-Champions Dr Heather Ritchie and Dr Satish Kumar, discipline leads and Self Assessment Team.

SWAN Co - Champions: 

Dr Heather Ritchie and Dr Satish Kumar

Discipline Leads (SWAN): 

Geography - Dr Merav Amir

Civil Engineering - Professor Wei Sha

Architecture (+ EDI) - Dr Clare Mulholland 

Planning - Dr Cristian Silva 

Archaeology & Palaeoecology - Dr Patrick Gleeson 

SWAN SAT Team: 

Professor Gerry Hamill (Head of School)

Dr Patrick Gleeson (Deputy Head of School)

Maria Bennett - School Manager 

Sarah Gormley  – Professional Services Rep

Dr David Hester (Director of Research)

Dr Phillip Bolland - Director of PGR

Dr Guiseppina Amato – Academic Rep

Dr Chantelle Niblock – Academic Rep

Dr Tara Brooks – Academic Rep

Dr Paul Ell – Academic Rep

Dr Madjid Karimirad – Academic Rep

Dr Niek Turner – Academic Rep

Professor Eileen Murphy (Sustainability) 

Professor Marios Soutsos (Racial Equality Champion) 

Some of our achievements to date include: 

• Unconscious bias training for all members of the School Management Board (SMB) and Athena SWAN Self-Assessment Team.
• A School Board dedicated to raising awareness of University and School policies on inappropriate behaviour.
• Posters relating to the Principles of the Athena SWAN Charter displayed in prominent locations throughout the School's buildings.
• Promotion of family-friendly policies.
• Introduction of core hours.
• Athena SWAN information included in presentations for student open days.
• Celebrating International Women's Day with the launch of our alumni Inspirational Women video
• Annual staff and PGR surveys (complemented by focus groups).
• Reviewing annual workload allocation models for potential gender-specific issues.
• Greater gender balance among research seminar speakers.

Queen’s University Belfast has been a member of the Athena SWAN Charter since 2005 and currently holds a prestigious Athena Swan Silver award. Athena SWAN Charter is committed to recognising advancement of gender equality: representation, progression and success for all. Further information about Athena Swan at Queen's.