SAGE Athena Swan Program

The Athena Swan Bronze Award is the first step in SAGE accreditation, establishing the baseline data and evidence against which future progress is measured and laying the groundwork for meaningful and sustainable change. This evidence‑based process equips participating institutions to:

• Use data to understand the everyday experiences within our community, and how these may be shaped by gender, work context, or other attributes.
• Identify the real-world obstacles in our systems and culture that prevent some members of our community from having a fair chance to succeed.
• Develop a targeted Action Plan to address five key barriers, towards building a future where everyone has a fair opportunity to thrive in a supportive environment. 

The SAGE Cygnet Awards represent incremental progress checkpoints toward institutional transformation, enabling participants to evaluate and demonstrate their progress in addressing each key barrier since the Bronze Award. Each Cygnet project focuses on one key barrier and requires institutions to report on:

• Progress in implementing targeted actions and outputs, including those identified in the Bronze Action Plan.
• Measurable outcomes and impacts on experiences within our community resulting from those actions.
• Insights gained when the desired progress, outcomes, or impacts were not achieved.
• Planned actions to achieve or sustain the desired outcomes or impacts.

Bronze Renewal is required where an institution has not yet achieved all five Cygnet Awards within the Bronze Award period. It provides an opportunity to pause, reflect, and strengthen the approach to change before progressing further along the accreditation pathway

The renewal process recognises that addressing complex, systemic barriers take time. It enables institutions to build on the foundations established during Bronze, while refining their understanding of where change is needed and how it can be most effectively achieved.

As part of Bronze Renewal, institutions are expected to:

• Provide an updated institutional context, reflecting any changes in structure, workforce profile, or external environment that shape current experiences within the community.
• Reflect on leadership and strategic direction, including how organisational understanding of gender equity, diversity, and inclusion has evolved, and how this is influencing priorities and decision-making.
• Develop refined SMART action plans for the remaining key barriers, ensuring that actions are clearly targeted, measurable, and aligned with the institution’s current context and capacity.

Bronze Renewal is not a repetition of the original submission. Instead, it reflects a more mature, evidence-informed approach, with a stronger focus on:

• Linking actions to desired outcomes and impact.
• Embedding change within core systems and processes.
• Using data and lived experience to guide decision-making.
• Focusing effort where it will have the greatest effect.

Through this process, institutions strengthen their foundations for change and position themselves to achieve the remaining Cygnet Awards, with a clear pathway toward a future Silver application.

Once an institution has achieved five Cygnet Awards (one per key barrier), it is eligible to apply for an Athena Swan Silver Award. This is an opportunity for institutions to re-evaluate progress, establish a new baseline of everyday experiences within our community, and develop a further targeted Action Plan addressing five key barriers, facilitating future progress and supporting ongoing improvement.