Athena SWAN Ireland Virtual Ceremony

On 20 October 2021, Advance HE held a virtual ceremony to celebrate the Athena SWAN Ireland awards that were achieved in the November 2019, April 2020, November 2020, and April 2021 application rounds. The Faculty of Arts Humanities and Social Sciences (AHSS) at the University of Limerick achieved its Bronze Athena SWAN award in April 2020 and was included in the virtual ceremony. The successful AHSS application was co-chaired by Professor Helen Kelly Holmes, former Dean of AHSS, and Dr Lydia Bracken, Assistant Dean for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion.

The total number of awards achieved in Ireland is now 87. Of these, the University of Limerick holds 14 Faculty/Schools Awards (representing 27 departments), including Ireland’s first ever Athena SWAN Silver award, which is held by the Department of Physics.

Speaking at the virtual award ceremony, Minister of Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris TD, commended the work of the self-assessment teams and commented that the Athena SWAN is ‘one of the most important initiatives that we have in the higher education sector in Ireland.’