TRansforming Institutions by Gendering contents and Gaining Equality in Research (TRIGGER): final report published

CIMR

The TRansforming Institutions by Gendering contents and Gaining Equality in Research (TRIGGER) was a project designed to understand the underrepresentation of women in Science, Technology, Engineering, Maths and Medicine (STEMM) subjects in academia, and the institutional changes needed. TRIGGER was an applied five-country research project funded by the European Union which ran from 2014 to 2017, and Birkbeck College (University of London) was allocated €400,000 to research and address the nature and causes of underlying gender inequality in STEMM fields.

The TRIGGER project’s final report, detailing the extensive achievements of the project, is now available to download here.

Key TRIGGER achievements include:

  • Pilot TRIGGER-Athena SWAN mentorship scheme for women in STEMM, subsequently adopted across all Birkbeck departments in 2017
  • 10 TRIGGER networking events with over three hundred attendees across the UK, Ireland, and Sweden, hosting academic and non-academic speakers from policy makers to businesspeople and campaigners
  • Renewed Birkbeck College’s Athena SWAN Bronze Award in 2017 and 2020, expanded to all areas across the College and all staff groups
  • Contributed to two Athena SWAN Awards to the Department Biological Sciences and Psychological Sciences (accounting for 67% of STEMM staff at Birkbeck), Bronze Award achieved in 2015, and Silver Award in 2018
  • Birkbeck membership of WISE (Women into Science and Engineering campaign)
  • TRIGGER report submitted to the Women In Executive Management inquiry (2016) of Women and Equalities Committee, UK Parliamentary Select Committee, on the under-representation of women at executive level in UK business


TRIGGER 2017 Statistics

  • More women academics in post than men (164 vs 153)
  • Women academics more likely to apply for promotion than men (23% of women vs 15% of men) for the second year running
  • Women academics more likely to be successful in their promotion application than men (84% of women versus 79% of men)

For more information

Published by CIMR