Empowering women in tech at Queen Mary: the story behind WHEN

What inspired you to set up the EECS Women in Higher Education Network?

We are concerned about the long-term gender imbalance in computer science and engineering, which remains a key barrier to diversity, with women making just about 20% of academic staff in these fields. With this project, we hope to contribute addressing these challenges by building and expanding a network for women-identifying PhDs, Post-Docs, and academics in the Faculty of Science and Engineering.

We’ve both been part of successful women’s networks in the UK, Europe, and the US — experiences that showed us how powerful community-building can be. We’ve learned that we need to be proactive in facilitating safe spaces for discussion and creating open platforms for members to connect, exchange knowledge, and make visible the often hidden work of women-identifying researchers in fields where we remain a minority.

WHEN’s mission emphasises building community, support, role models, and influencing policy. What are the core values that guide your work, and how do you put them into practice?

Our project aims to build and strengthen a community for women-identifying individuals and provide opportunities for exchange among academics at all levels. We envision that, through the network, we can advance diversity, equity, and inclusion by fostering trust, belonging, and a shared identity among members.

For example, Dr Claire Revell will offer group coaching sessions to network members, using her coaching expertise. We also believe community-building can help facilitate research collaborations, mentorship, and open conversations about difficult topics. After Professor Ying gave an inspiring WHEN talk, for instance, Katja began a successful grant collaboration with her group.

Thanks to generous funding from the ERIC Fund (£10K for the first round in 2024 and £7K for the second round in 2025), we’ve been able to realise our vision.

In the first year, WHEN focused on establishing a strong foundation for community engagement and support. We launched a dedicated website, mailing list, and Teams group, and organised six events — including educational workshops, talks, and social gatherings — which received positive feedback and fostered early connections.

We also hired a research assistant, PhD student María José Barrera-Chávez, who surveyed members to identify their needs for the future.

In the second year, we have targeted some of these needs. PhD student Antonella Torrisi joined as our new research assistant, helping with events and outreach. Dr Laura Crucianelli from the School of Biological and Behavioural Sciences (SBBS) also joined the core team. Having more perspectives has been empowering — we’ve been able to organise more events for different audiences and expand across schools in the faculty.

So far, we’ve held ten more events, including social gatherings, a meetup led by MSc student Lianganzi Wang, a networking event in collaboration with Byte Queens (including a CV workshop), a yoga event, a cinema screening, and a public engagement event led by Professor Paul Curzon.

This year, we’ve also experimented with new event formats and times, remaining open to suggestions and collaborations. Looking ahead, we hope to establish more regular meetings and special occasions to encourage members to step outside their comfort zones and grow together.

Could you highlight some of your key workshops, events, or initiatives so far? 

We’ve enjoyed every single event and watching the network grow! We now have over 70 subscribers on our mailing list. It’s rewarding to see larger events - like our Tea Party to celebrate International Women’s Day - become fully booked.

We were also excited to collaborate with like-minded organisations, such as Byte Queens, a UK-based tech network for women that aims to empower and connect women across the country to become the next generation of leaders in computing.

Our forthcoming events include a silent disco, a “painting in the dark” session, regular social gatherings, and yoga and Zumba classes. We’re also planning a long-term group coaching workshop led by Dr Claire Revell, which we’re very excited about! We want to bring regularity to our events - without losing the fun element that keeps people coming back.

What feedback have you received from participants, especially early-career academics, PhD students or staff? Are there specific stories or outcomes that stand out?

We’ve received overwhelmingly positive feedback from members. Regular attendees have formed a real community - we share personal and professional stories, support each other, and explore new ideas together.

A survey at the end of the first year provided valuable suggestions for future development, which we’ve been implementing in the second year.

Some great stories include MSc student Lianganzi Wang, who attended our events and has now started a PhD with us; and Antonella Torrisi, who is developing a “Notable Alumnae” interview series.

We’ve also built a close collaboration with the EECS Equality, Diversity and Inclusion newsletter (EECS@Equalities) led by Richard G. Clegg, and we’re starting to see more collaborations among members - from grant writing to resource sharing.

The network has also been helpful for early-career researchers and students who are exploring academic career paths and visiting our departments.

What lessons have you learned in how to structure and sustain a network like this?

Designing a sustainable network is always a challenge. In this second year, we’ve focused on organising a series of regular events running through spring 2026.

We believe that encouraging bottom-up initiatives from our members is key to helping the network grow organically. Our small organising team (Anna, Katja, Laura, and Antonella) works hard to keep things running, but a few people can’t cover everything. That’s why we warmly welcome collaborations and suggestions from colleagues and other networks, both within and beyond Queen Mary.

At the same time, we recognise that maintaining regular activities requires dedicated funding, which we’re actively seeking as part of our future plans.

Looking ahead, what vision do you have for WHEN in the next 2–3 years? What new projects or directions are you excited about?

We’d like to continue creating a supportive community of practice for women across career stages and disciplines at Queen Mary.

Our goals include consolidating our interdisciplinary network across STEM schools, maintaining regular social and networking events, and supporting members to share and develop their skills and knowledge. Upcoming initiatives include coaching sessions for women academics led by Dr Claire Revell and the interview series led by Antonella Torrisi.

We’d also like to expand our impact beyond Queen Mary by collaborating with women’s networks at other London universities, focusing on promoting role models and visibility for women in academia.

Finally, we aim to grow our digital and social media presence so that people from around the world can connect with WHEN.

What message would you like to share with early-career women academics and PhD students in EECS about possibilities, resilience, and finding community?

Be bold. If you don’t like something, try to change it. It doesn’t always work but it’s always worth trying.

And if you’re at Queen Mary University of London, join the network, come to our events, share your thoughts, and discover the incredible community of women-identifying members in EECS.

We also recorded an interview, you can watch it on our Youtube channel.