Equality and diversity

We are proud to be a member of the Athena SWAN Charter, a scheme that recognises and celebrates good practices in higher education and research institutions towards the advancement of gender equality.

We have held a prestigious Athena SWAN Silver Award for our institution since 2016. It recognises a significant record of activity and achievement in promoting gender equality and inclusivity, such as supporting women at key transition points in their careers, and the promotion of women researchers and researchers from different ethnic backgrounds into leadership roles. 

Our most recent award application, submitted April 2019, shows the issues that we have identified, and the action plan we are delivering to make further progress. The implementation of the action plan is led by the Athena SWAN Steering Group, which is composed of members from all divisions and staff groups and chaired by Professor Christina Yap.

The Women in Science Group

This networking and leadership development group, chaired by Professor Christina Yap, brings together senior researchers and staff from the ICR and The Royal Marsden to help address the inequality in the number of women in the most senior research leadership roles.

Topics explored include supporting high-performance teams, influencing skills, personal brand, leadership and mentoring.

Celebrating Women in Science

Every year for International Day of Women and Girls in Science, and International Women's Day, we shine a spotlight on some of the many fantastic women leading the way at the ICR.

Through different themes, we explore the stories of some of our scientists and hear from them about their experiences as women pursuing science careers.

Meet our researchers

Hear from women at different stages of their careers, sharing their experiences of working in science.

Hear from three of our researchers

In 2022, we held a Twitter Space, hosted by Rose Wu, discussing the challenges and opportunities experienced by three of our cancer researchers, Holly Tovey, Dr Vivian Dimou, and Dr Alison Tree and their advice for future women in science. You can listen back to it below.

Stopping the tenure clock

Researchers at the ICR can apply to ‘stop the tenure clock’ for up to a year for each period of leave, to minimise the impact of taking maternity or shared parental leave on their careers. 

Everyone whose tenure at the ICR is limited by a workforce agreement is eligible, including postdocs, ICR Fellows, members of Career Development Faculty and Clinician Scientists.

Maternity mentoring

The ICR can match academic and clinical academic researchers and students with a maternity mentor, as it can be useful to talk to someone who has already been through a period of maternity leave to discuss concerns and hear the experiences and advice of others. 

Parent groups and new parent buddies

We run parents groups on our sites in Sutton and Chelsea, with around 70 members across both sites. 

The groups bring staff together to build a support network and forum for discussion for people with children. 

We also run a peer mentoring scheme across the ICR where new parents are matched with supportive mentors, who can provide support and insight into what has helped them in balancing work and family life. 

Flexible working practices

The ICR offers a range of options to work flexibly, including compressed hours, job sharing, part-time working and varied start and finish times. 

We deliver workshops for both staff and managers to help them understand the options.

Contributions towards care costs

The ICR offers contributions towards the costs of care for children or relatives to staff and students attending residential training courses and conferences arranged through our Learning and Development department. 

The REACH Forum brings together our staff and students to meet with other colleagues and learn about each other's experiences.

Jointly run by ICR and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust staff and students, the Forum provides a space to discuss issues and push for initiatives that can help promote diversity and drive greater equality in our workplaces.

The forum meets regularly, both through informal monthly ‘lunch and chats’, and through formal monthly meetings. The Forum also runs regular social events to bring staff together across the whole of our two organisations.

To find out more about the forum, please get in touch at [email protected].

Reaching those beyond the ICR is also one of the organisation’s commitments to addressing racial equality on a wider scale. School students from minority ethnic backgrounds are at the heart of the ICR’s public engagement strategy, which aims to encourage much greater diversity in science through various outreach activities.

Because certain ethnic groups such as black students are less likely to access and progress into science careers, the strategy aims to help address this shortfall long before recruitment or employment.

Vacation studentships

The ICR’s Undergraduate Vacation Scholarships summer scheme offers ring-fenced studentships for Black British and first-generation students. These students are likely to apply for a PhD in the future.

The Pride Network provides a space for staff and students to meet with colleagues and allies from across the ICR and The Royal Marsden NHS Foundation Trust. 

The Network meets every two months to share experiences and highlight issues that may affect LGBT+ staff, students and patients. The meetings also provide an opportunity to influence ICR strategies and policies and help to promote diversity within the ICR and The Royal Marsden.

Recent initiatives led by the network include the ICR's rainbow lanyards, which you will see staff wearing around both of our sites, and guides on how to be an ally to people in the LGBT+ community. The Network also contributed to the ICR's policy on supporting transgender and gender non-conforming staff and students.

The Network also organises regular seminars with guest speakers and social events to mark LGBT+ History Month, Pride Month and LGBT+ STEM day. 

For more information, you can contact [email protected].

Equality networks

We have six equality networks, run in collaboration with The Royal Marsden Hospital (RMH), who are working to develop a welcoming and inclusive culture for all: 

• The Race, Ethnicity and Cultural Heritage (REACH) Forum
• The PRIDE Network
• The Disability At Work Network (DAWN)  for staff and students with disabilities and health conditions
• The Parents Group
• The Gender Equality Network
• Expats at the ICR 

Formal committees

We also have three formal committees working on equality and diversity:

• The Equality Steering Group, which manages equality across all nine protected characteristics. It has oversight of all our equality programmes and ensures that they are integrated and aligned with the ICR’s other strategies and programmes. 
• The Athena SWAN Steering Group leads our gender equality programmes and implementation of the Athena SWAN action plan. Membership includes representation from all divisions and staff groups, to ensure that many voices and experiences are heard. 
• The Race Equality: Beyond the Statements Project Board brings together action holders from HR, Communications, Academic Services, the race equality champions and representatives from the REACH Forum to implement and track progress on our race equality action plan. 

We also have staff and student committees for Postdocs, Scientific Officers, students and administrative staff.

We understand that disability covers a range of impairments – from mobility difficulties through to long-term illnesses, neurodivergence, or mental illness. Staff and students are not obliged to disclose a disability, but are encouraged to do so so they can receive appropriate support. 

We have a duty to make reasonable adjustments to our practices and premises to accommodate a disabled person, where the arrangement or physical feature of the premises causes a substantial disadvantage. Such adjustments can include making changes to premises or location of workplace, altering the working hours, allowing time off for rehabilitation or treatment, acquiring equipment, providing training, and more. 

The Disability At Work Network (DAWN) is a staff and student equality network for staff and students with disabilities and health conditions. It is joint with The Royal Marsden, meets quarterly, and aims to provide a peer support network for disabled people, carers and allies and to advocate and raise awareness of disability.

We believe that an open and supportive working and learning environment that values everyone and is free of intimidation, bullying and harassment is essential for our work to defeat cancer. We do not tolerate bullying, harassment or sexual misconduct of any kind and will always take any such allegations extremely seriously.

We deliver mandatory training for all new staff and students, which covers our working culture, relevant equality legislation, bullying and harassment, and being an active bystander - empowering staff and students to challenge unacceptable behaviours.

We also set up several routes to discuss or report unacceptable behaviour, including volunteer wellbeing advisers, trade union representatives, and an online Report + Support platform which gives the option to file an anonymous complaint. 

Bullying

We define bullying as conduct – often, but not necessarily, involving the abuse or misuse of power – with the intention or the effect of undermining, humiliating, demeaning, oppressing or intimidating the recipient. In many cases it takes the form of aggressive, offensive, intimidating, malicious or insulting behaviour. There may be no direct intention to bully. This definition is based on the ACAS definition of bullying.

 Harassment

Harassment is legally defined by the Equality Act 2010 as unwanted conduct relevant to a related protected characteristic which has the purpose, or effect, of violating an individual’s dignity or creating an intimidating, hostile, degrading, humiliating or offensive environment for that individual. 

The Equality Act 2010 defines the following as protected characteristics: Age, disability, gender reassignment, marriage and civil partnership, pregnancy and maternity, race, religion or belief, sex, and sexual orientation. 

Harassment may be persistent or a single incident and is likely to constitute unlawful discrimination. Some forms of harassment can be a criminal offence. 

Sexual misconduct

Sexual misconduct relates to all unwanted conduct of a sexual nature, including but not limited to: unwanted sexual advances; promises made in exchange for sexual favours; assault; rape; speculation about an individual's sexuality or sexual behaviour; and the distributing of private explicit images or videos of an individual without their consent.

All staff and students at the ICR have the right to practice their faith or religion, and we do not tolerate discrimination because of religion or belief (including lack of belief). 

A chapel and a prayer room are available at both our sites in The Royal Marsden and are free to be used by all staff and students, whether they practice a particular religion or not. 

In February 2021, we adopted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s working definition of antisemitism. This supports our commitments to promote equality and diversity and to prevent discrimination on grounds of race, religion, or other protected characteristics.