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Researchers, University leaders and Professional Services colleagues came together on 11 June to discuss the challenges faced by women in academia, and showcase some of the brilliant work of this year’s Sussex Women’s Leadership Academy participants.

The Academy, which launched in March, aims to empower women early career researchers to take control of their career through a programme of coaching workshops, online seminars and peer book groups.

Fiona Reith, a Designing Your Life coach, co-created the Academy with Dr Elizabeth Rendon-Morales and colleagues from Organisational Development and the Sussex Researcher School. She delivered an inspiring introduction to the showcase event.

This was followed by two presentations by Academy ‘graduates’ who received sandpit funding to organise activities for researchers in their own space, and put leadership skills into practice.

Hadir Elshafay and Marianna Iliadou spoke on behalf of their group about their new podcast, The Lost Academic, which will provide a reflective space for women, LGBTQI and other researchers to discuss the challenges they have faced in academia and how they overcame them. The project kicked off with a participatory workshop on 19 June led by Dr Liz McDonnell and Dr Lizzy McKinney, who used Lego to explore ideas of a healthy academia based on mutual aid.

Louisa Rinaldi, Samira Bouyagoub and Aline Amorim Graf presented Leap in Science: inspiring journeys in research and industry, combining a workshop on diverse career paths for women in research with a speed mentoring session focusing on finding the right fit for purposeful mentor support. The workshop is scheduled for November.

Academy participants Laura Blackburn, Carolina Maciel and Viviana Vella were then joined by Elizabeth and Prof Sarah Guthrie, Associate Dean for CEI in the Sciences and chair of the University’s Gender Equality Steering Group, to round out the session with a lively panel discussion chaired by Prof Erika Mancini.

It was inspiring to hear first-hand the profound changes the Academy has made to the 2025 cohort. They valued being given the time and space to process, reflect and grow together, and left with new friendships and boosted confidence. Where women in research are few and far between, providing space for them to connect and build community is incredibly powerful.

Carolina spoke of a renewed sense of belonging: ‘I am investing in the University and for it to return that and invest in me is important – it’s a reciprocal relationship.’ Show that the institution values women and they will fly, they just need that initial investment to create the spark.

The panel acknowledged that supporting individuals is just one piece of a larger challenge to address structural inequalities within the institution and the sector. Manager training is one of the missing pieces; research doesn’t always encourage compassionate leadership, and in STEM disciplines that tend to be dominated by white men, diverse experiences can go unrecognised. Leaders in these areas will inevitably prioritise issues that are visible to them.

It’s clear that there is renewed impetus across the sector to improve research culture, including in the next round of REF, and there are pockets of excellent practice at the grassroots level; what’s not clear is how to navigate the structural barriers in place to change policies and practices at the institutional level.

If you want to join the conversation, Prof Tamsin Hinton-Smith will be leading an interactive session on Negotiating Academia on Wednesday 16 July, the first in a Women’s Leadership Seminar Series that will run throughout 2025-26. The Academy itself will open for the next round of applications in Spring 2026.

For more information about Summer of Research 2025 events and opportunities to celebrate and support emerging researchers, visit the Celebrating Emerging Researchers webpage

Further information: https://www.sussex.ac.uk/research/about/festival

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