Our Impact

Since the network formed, the University of Limerick, Trinity College Dublin and University College Dublin have progressed to Silver, Dublin City University gained its first Bronze, University College Cork progressed to Silver, and Queen’s University Belfast achieved the network’s first Gold. Members attribute their progress partly to the network’s peer support and shared materials.

Two Higher Education Authority GEEF awards funded a dedicated data analyst and the first cross-institutional dataset on staff and student demographics in Irish chemistry departments. Member departments can now set evidence-based targets for the first time.

Our Shared Practice hub brings together 45+ ideas that have made a difference in member departments, from quick wins to sector-leading programmes, each linked to the institution that developed it. Short guides support those leading Athena Swan work.

The network has been presented as an exemplar at the RSC–IUPAC Global Women’s Breakfast (2024), reaching participants in more than 80 countries, and at EQUITAS 2025, Ireland’s national EDI in higher education conference, and was profiled in Chemistry World (2025).

The network is funded under the Higher Education Authority’s Gender Equality Enhancement Fund, first secured in 2023 through an application led by Trinity College Dublin and awarded again in 2025, with support from the Royal Society of Chemistry, which sponsored the first All-Ireland workshop in 2023 and has provided Inclusion and Diversity funding.

Annual meetings rotate between members (Queen’s University Belfast 2023, Trinity College Dublin 2024, University College Dublin 2025, University of Limerick 2026), with the RSC’s EDI team taking part. Members have used the network to develop joint, externally funded EDI programmes and to share Athena Swan applications.