Diversity and inclusion
Making the physics community more welcoming and supportive for people from all backgrounds.
Making the physics community more representative of society is one of the core goals of the IOP, set out in our latest strategy document. We want people from all backgrounds to make physics a satisfying career, whether in education, research, healthcare, industry or business. We know that for physics to help solve the challenges facing us today in healthcare, the environment, and the economy, we need to draw on talent, insights and perspectives from all parts of society.
We have been working to understand and remove barriers to wider participation in physics since 2006, but we recognise the world of physics still has further to go.
Below we set out our current initiatives on this vitally important topic.
Representative to Council
The IOP Council has appointed Dr Clara Barker to the new role of Representative to Council for Inclusion and Diversity.
The role has been created to provide advice and challenge to Council and the IOP more widely on inclusion and diversity issues. Dr Barker will attend up to two Council meetings a year and chair the Inclusion and Diversity Committee.
Dr Barker can be contacted at [email protected].
The case for EDI
The IOP has published a guide setting out the benefits of greater diversity and inclusion in physics and what people can do to support this goal.
The importance of equality, diversity and inclusion in physics
Our guide is available in English and Welsh, including in accessible format.
Sharing personal information with the IOP
Sometimes we ask you to share your personal information with us. This short animation (below) explains why we ask, what we do with your information and how you providing your information helps us make physics more inclusive. You can also watch this video in Welsh.
IOP Awards – past, present and future
Our awards have long celebrated exceptional achievements in physics and this will continue to be the core focus of the awards. We are keen to ensure we recognise excellence everywhere in physics and our awards have expanded in recent years from celebrating pure research to encompass those working in education, industry and business, technician roles, apprentices and those who reach out to the wider community. This year we are making it possible to self-nominate to almost all of our awards, to ensure people from all parts of the physics community have a fair chance of being recognised for their achievements.
IOP Awards analysed by gender over time
As part of our commitment to making physics more representative of wider society, we have analysed the gender balance of our past awards, and we are making all the data available.
Gender has been the main focus of our diversity work over the last few years, however we recognise that gender is only one element of diversity and are looking at how we address this in an appropriate and proportionate way.
Other initiatives
Limit Less
Limit Less is our campaign to support young people to change the world and fulfil their potential by doing physics.
Physics Inclusion Award
The IOP's new inclusion award, developed in partnership with the physics community, supports university physics departments to be welcoming and inclusive to all.
The Blackett Lab Family: Memorandum of Understanding
The IOP is working with The Blackett Lab Family to ensure the voices of black physicists are heard and included in the development of key activities.
Athena Forum
The Athena Forum was established in 2007/8 and is an independent committee supported by the Royal Society to help inform the wider debate on diversity in science, technology, engineering, mathematics and medicine (STEMM).
Diversity and Inclusion Progression Framework for Science and Engineering
The D&I Progression Framework was developed in a collaboration between the Royal Academy of Engineering (Academy) and the Science Council to progress diversity and inclusion (D&I) across 63 engineering and science professional bodies. The IOP are a signatory of this framework and regularly participate in the benchmarking exercise.
Find out more about the framework from the Science Council
Download the booklet resource from the Science Council website (PDF, 3.5MB)
Gender Action programme
An award programme created in partnership with King's College London, UCL Institute of Education and the University Council of Modern Languages, has a collection of resources, reports and guidance to help challenge gender stereotypes in schools.
IOP Accessibility Fund
Up to £250 for members who could not otherwise go to an event or conference because they are a parent or carer.
LGBT+ Physics Sciences Network
Formed in 2016 the LGBT+ Physical Scientists Network brings together members from IOP, the Royal Astronomical Society and the Royal Society of Chemistry with a mission to better drive LGBT+ diversity and inclusion within membership organisations.
STEM Disability Committee
We are a founding member of the STEM Disability Committee, a collaborative group of professional bodies committed to finding practical ways to removing the barriers to disabled people studying and working in STEM.
Key reports
Inquiry into Equity in the STEM Workforce
This report, released by the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Diversity and Inclusion in STEM, outlines the evidence on where equity and inequity exists in the STEM workforce, and highlights areas of positive sector-led initiatives and practices.
Our latest members' diversity snapshot survey: 'We are physicists'
This report is the third of a series of surveys of our members to help us understand who makes up our membership, their characteristics and some of the issues that they face.
Technicians: Providing frontline and vital support for student mental health and wellbeing
This report outlines the extent to which technicians are pastorally supporting students and offers a number of recommendations to the higher education and research sector, individual employers and to technicians themselves, in order to ensure that all involved are fully supported.
Building momentum towards inclusive teaching and learning
This good practice guide in undergraduate physics undertaken in 2017 was to identify good practice in teaching and learning already adopted by physics departments and share this with others in the sector.
Raising Aspirations in Physics
This report reviews research into barriers to STEM participation for students from disadvantaged backgrounds, and provides five recommendations to improve educational attainment.
Opportunities from Physics: Interventions in a multi-ethnic school to increase post-16 participation
From 2009 to 2011 we ran a pilot project to determine which science enhancement and enrichment activities were most effective in stimulating black and ethnic minority students' enjoyment of physics.
The lessons learnt from the pilot are in the report Opportunities from Physics.
IOP/RSC postdoctoral researcher survey
This joint Institute of Physics and Royal Society of Chemistry project conducted in 2011 investigated the experiences and career intentions of postdoctoral researchers in UK physics and chemistry departments.
External resources
Advance HE
Advance HE supports the higher education sector to realise the potential of all staff and students, whatever their race, gender, disability, sexual orientation, religion and belief, or age, to the benefit of those individuals, higher education institutions and society.
Athena SWAN Charter: recognising advancement of gender equality: representation, progression and success for all.
Race Equality Charter: improving the representation, progression and success of minority ethnic staff and students within higher education.
Equality and Human Rights Commission
The Equality and Human Rights Commission is to help Britain develop in a way that values the ideals that most of us hold dear – respect, freedom, equality, dignity and fairness.
Stonewall
Founded in 1989 by a small group of people who had been active in the struggle against Section 28 of the Local Government Act, Stonewall works to achieve equality and justice for lesbians, gay, bi and trans people (LGBT+).
The WISE Campaign
The Women Into Science and Engineering (WISE) campaign collaborates with industry and education to encourage UK girls of school age to value and pursue STEM or construction related courses in school or college, and to move on into related careers.