Support
We are committed to create a school inclusive and just for all. Find out below about our current initiatives to realise this aim.
EDI initiatives for students
If you have a question about Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) that isn't answered on this page, please email the EDI Academic Lead Elizabeth Rendon-Morales.
More Engineering and Informatics equality, diversity and inclusion news.
Information and resources
Gender equality
International Women's Day
The School of Engineering and Informatics celebrated International Women's Day on 8 March 2025. This day recognises the achievements of women across society, including in economics, politics, and culture. It also calls for further action to contribute to women's equality worldwide.
As part of the celebration, we organised an event at ACCA to showcase our students’ work and host a discussion around experiences in their career journeys.
Celebrating Women in STEM: International Women’s Day Panel Inspires Action and Innovation
As part of International Women’s Day celebrations, a vibrant and thought-provoking event took place highlighting the contributions of women in engineering, design, and informatics. Held under the theme "Accelerating Action in STEM", the event brought together students, researchers, and professionals to share experiences, exchange ideas, and build connections.
Celebrating Early Career Researchers this IWD 2025
As part of our IWD 2025 celebrations, we also shone a spotlight on the incredible contributions of Early Career Researchers (ECRs) at Sussex. These talented individuals are pushing boundaries in their fields, advancing knowledge, and driving positive change. An exhibition featuring photographic portraits of some of our ECRs opened in the Library Open Learning Space in March. The portraits are accompanied by summaries of the research they are working on and encouraging comments to inspire other women. You can also take a look at this Padlet featuring inspirational quotes from Sussex ECR.
This is the second IWD exhibition that Dr. Elizabeth Rendon-Morales has curated in the Library. Last year’s exhibition invited women from across our staff community to participate. A full collection of portraits taken in 2023 and 2024 is available on the Women at Sussex webpage and a full set of photos and supportive comments by a wider group of Sussex’s women is available on Padlet.
Find out more.
Career Timelines
These timelines illustrate the career progression of some of our faculty members. We aim to show you the many routes your career could take, including the ups, downs, and unexpected turns. See on padlet.
Sussex Women's Leadership Academy
We're also launching the new Sussex Women's Leadership Academy, which is a programme developed to empower early-career researchers and in particular women researchers -inclusive of all women and minority genders – to maximize their research potential and take their career to the next level.
The programme will be running between late March and June and will include workshops with Fiona Reith, a Designing Your Life coach who has helped put the programme together. Weekly online seminars will focus on common barriers and practical skills, including time management, collaborating and communicating, research grants, and promotion.
The deadline for applications is 12 noon on Monday 10 March. Find out more and how to apply.
Support offered to disabled students
The School of Engineering and Informatics recognises the need to better support disabled staff and students. We strive to make our building as accessible as possible, and ensure our estate is inclusive. Whether our community has physical, mental or hidden disabilities, a key priority will be to improve provision for disabled staff and students. Special exam arrangements, deadlines, mentoring, and adjustments are available for disabled students.
If you feel something has gone wrong, talk to someone. We have EDI staff who can provide advice, support and guidance. You can also contact Dr. Emeline Brule.
Find out more at the links below:
Supporting female students’ initiatives
We provide support to our female student’s initiatives: Robogals and Equality in Engineering Societies aimed at promoting a better student gender balance and inclusion. Robogals proposes playful workshops to initiate young people to robotics and coding. Equality in Engineering, organizes talks by our alumni or students to open career opportunities or make complex problems more accessible. These societies are led by our Engineering and Informatics students.
Since 2019, the School of Engineering and Informatics has established a partnership with Women's Engineering Society (WES) to strengthen our commitment to support our students and staff development, by having access to a professional network of women engineers, scientists and technologists offering inspiration and support. There will be a series of events co-sponsored by WES, if you are interested in being part, please contact Dr. Elizabeth Rendon-Morales.
If you have any suggestions for improving female representation within the School, you can email us the Academic Lead Elizabeth Rendon-Morales / Athena Swan chair Spyros Skarvelis-Kazakos
International Women in Engineering Day
The School of Engineering and Informatics celebrated International Women in Engineering Day on 23 June 2025 with a digital exhibition.
INWED aims to raise the profile of women in Engineering, and encourage more women to join the Engineering profession. The School of Engineering and Informatics recognises that women are still vastly underrepresented within Engineering due to gender stereotyping, systemic bias, and a lack of visible role models.
The full campaign is shared on the School social media pages. In addition, staff were asked to share an encouragement for our students, and those wanting to study or join STEM careers, which are displayed on a padlet.
Improving racial equality
The School of Engineering and Informatics is committed to working towards racial equity. We recognise that to enable success for all staff and students, we must directly address institutional and structural racism.
It is vital that we acknowledge the real racist events that occur within our School, listen to Black and other people of colour’s voices and lived experiences, do work to understand how we can take action to build more equitable and just spaces, and act to work for sustainable change. If you have any concerns about racism within the School, you can contact anyone in the School EDI committee.
Black Lives Matter
The School of Engineering and Informatics pledges its support to Black students and staff across the University. We condemn the violence and terror of racism in all its forms. We also acknowledge its structural presence and histories in all our lives.
Recent events are a powerful reminder that locally we can lose no more time in bringing about the cultural shift we would like to see in wider society. We recognise the urgency of addressing racism within the higher education sector and the specific work we can do to ensure that our staff and students reflect the values that will move us towards justice. Staff and students are critical in helping us all to identify our shortcomings as a School and as an institution, and the actions we should take in response.
Many of our students and staff work on anti-racist projects already, but this labour is overwhelmingly provided voluntarily. This is not acceptable. The University needs to support this work by putting additional actual resources in place. At School level and beyond, we will work to make sure that this labour is valued and recognised. Our goal is to increase the diversity of our community, and we will work to ensure equitable opportunity for Black applicants in the recruitment of both staff and students. We will examine promotion practices to ensure equitable opportunity and we will make training on cultural competency and race equality mandatory for all staff. We will revise our teaching and learning materials and methods where necessary to fully reflect the diversity of our subject and to remove cultural bias. We welcome the challenge of transforming our culture.
Support offered to disabled students
The School of Engineering and Informatics recognises the need to better support disabled staff and students. We strive to make our building as accessible as possible, and ensure our estate is inclusive. Whether our community has physical, mental or hidden disabilities, a key priority will be to improve provision for disabled staff and students. Special exam arrangements, deadlines, mentoring, and adjustments are available for disabled students.
If you feel something has gone wrong, talk to someone. We have EDI staff who can provide advice, support and guidance. You can also contact Dr. Emeline Brule.
Find out more at the links below:
LGBT+ equality
We have produced an LGBTQ careers guide.
The School of Engineering and Informatics will celebrate LGBTQ+ STEM Day on 18 November 2025. This day recognises the work of LGBTQ+ people in the fields of science, technology, engineering and maths. It also aims to highlight the difficulties and barriers still faced by LGBTQ+ people in these fields. This date was chosen to remember the struggle of Astronomer and gay rights activist Frank Kameny, who fought against workplace discrimination in the US supreme court from the 1960s.
Find out more from the official organizers, Pride in STEM.
We recognise that LGBTQ+ individuals are underrepresented in STEM fields, and often face barriers in both education and the workplace. In the School of Engineering and Informatics we are working to make sure that our school is the best possible environment for all students and staff.
Dr Kate Howland, Senior Lecturer in Informatics and Director of Student Experience, said “I am really proud to be part of a School that celebrates LGBTQ+ in STEM Day. It’s important that all our students know that our School recognises the barriers that LGBTQ+ students, academics and professionals still face, and celebrates the many successes of those who are out in STEM today, as well as influential historical figures. We are working to ensure that this School is a safe space for LGBTQ+ people, in which no-one is discriminated against on the basis of sexual orientation, gender identity or gender expression.”
As a way to celebrate LGBTQ+ people who have made significant STEM contributions specifically to Engineering and Informatics professions, the School office created a display highlighting 10 individuals and their contributions. This display will be in the Chichester Lecture Theatre Foyer from 15-22 November, and on digital display boards around the school.
LGBTQ+ People celebrated by the display include:
Lynn Conway, Computer Scientist & Electrical Engineer
Audrey Tang, Computer Scientist & Digital Minister of Taiwan
Sally Ride, Astronaut & Physicist
Arti Agrawal, Electrical Engineer & Physicist
Siddharth Garg, Computer Scientist & Professor of Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence
La-Chun Lindsay, Aerospace Engineer & Former Managing Director of GE Aviation Wales
Orkut Büyükkökten, Software Engineer & Social Media Entrepreneur
Alan Turing, Computer Scientist & Mathematician
Sophie Wilson, Computer Scientist & Inventor
Coraline Ada Ehmke, Software Developer & Social Justice Activist
Dr Spyros Skarvelis-Kazakos, Senior Lecturer in Electrical Engineering, added his admiration for one of our LGBTQ+ STEM day notable people, Alan Turing. He said “Alan Turing has been the most impressive researcher that I have read about in my research career. He effectively set the basis for artificial intelligence and made a real difference in WWII. Sadly, he was persecuted for something completely irrelevant to his world-changing work: his sexual orientation.”.
Local support resources for LGBTQ+ Students and Staff:
The Clare Project – self-supporting tansgender support and social group in Brighton and Hove open to anyone wishing to explore issues around gender identity
Allsorts Youth Project – charity that listens to, supports, and connects LGBTQ+ children and young people under 26
Brighton and Hove LGBT Switchboard – Charity for LGBTQ people for community, support or information, and provides services and links to other specialist organisations
MindOut – Mental health service run by and for LGBTQ+ people
Improving access to higher education through scholarships and WP
We offer Masters scholarships to increase diversity in the AI and data science sector and to support students from underrepresented groups to access, participate and succeed in higher education.
The Sussex Widening Participation team aims to support students/learners who are under-represented in higher education.
Inclusive use of language — resources
The School is committed to the inclusive use of language. Communication (both written and oral) should not make implicit assumptions that may may lead to people feeling excluded or inferior. Find out more about gender equality guidelines for UNESCO publications.
