EPSRC-WES Ambassadors for Women in Engineering

Funding to provide up to 15 researchers with the benefits of Women’s Engineering Society (WES) membership for 12 months.

The Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) has partnered with the Women’s Engineering Society (WES) to support researchers with strong motivation to foster equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in the engineering research and innovation landscape.

The opportunity will provide the applicant with all of the benefits of a WES membership, as well as closer engagement with EPSRC on EDI, and in particular gender issues in engineering. EPSRC will fund up to 15 WES memberships.

The initiative aims to promote understanding of gender issues and intersectionality in engineering, and support researchers who wish to become EDI ambassadors in their networks. The awardees are expected to work independently and as a cohort to set an agenda for their personal and collective goals as members of WES, and to advocate creatively for gender inclusivity and equality in engineering, EPSRC and WES.

The applicant must be able to describe how the benefits of this opportunity will help them develop their career, networks etc that would otherwise not be possible. There should be a clear indication of how the membership will be used, such as events that the applicant will attend or involvement in a mentorship scheme, etc.

EPSRC expects that successful applicants will be willing to report back on their experience, informing in this way the Engineering Theme’s future direction in this area.