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WISE initiative of the year award

Enter or nominate for this award

This award celebrates a groundbreaking programme or initiative that is actively advancing gender equity within STEM.

The winning entry will demonstrate innovative and measurable actions that remove barriers, create opportunities, and support wellbeing — enabling women to thrive, progress, and build long‑term careers in STEM.

Who can enter or be nominated?

A woman working in the UK STEM sector who:

  • Has developed an initiative or programme which is proactively supporting women’s wellbeing, development or success throughout its workforce
  • Has been actively running an initiative or programme for at least two years which has had a significant and evidenced impact for women in the organisation.

Who can enter or submit a nomination?

  • Organisations.

Key criteria

The nominee must have:

  • Significantly improved the workplace culture for women by fostering inclusion and supporting wellbeing
  • Used robust data and analytics to evaluate impact, inform decision-making, and continuously enhance the initiative’s effectiveness
  • Demonstrated creative and forward-thinking solutions that set a benchmark for gender equity initiatives in STEM.

Award nomination checklist

Before submitting an entry, please make sure you have the following information ready:

  • For self-nominations: Your referee’s name, email address and telephone number, along with permission to share these with WISE.
  • If you are nominating someone else: The nominee’s email address, telephone number, job title and organisation name, along with permission to share these with WISE.
  • The nominee’s bio as a Word or PDF document.
  • Evidence to support the nomination: As documents such as Word, PDF or PowerPoint, video files/links, testimonials, and supporting statistics. (Please submit in a Word document, outlining their relevance to the entry or nomination).
  • Organisation’s profile as a Word or PDF document, plus organisation’s logo as a JPG or PNG file format.

Terms and conditions

How to write a great nomination: Ten top tips
Provide evidence

Create impact by using examples, case studies, testimonials, evidence, facts and figures to demonstrate any statements.
Be specific

Help the award judges understand your nominee’s attributes and contributions.
Be concise

Avoid sweeping statements and make every sentence count. Avoid too many pronouns and run-on sentences.
Unique characteristics

What makes the nominee shine? (more than just what a great or nice person this nominee is).
Nomination category

Choose the right category. It’s the quality not the quantity of nominations.
Core values

Describe how the nominee reflects WISE’s core value of Championing women in STEM.
Break it down

Break down the question to ensure you answer every element.
Additional information

Support with additional information to back-up the nomination.
Proofread

Read through your statements carefully.
Sense check

Ask another person to review your nomination and give comments before submitting.