Professor Sue Durbin’s mentoring scheme (‘alta’) for professional women across the aviation and aerospace industry has been announced as one of the finalists for this year’s ESRC Celebrating Impact Prize. The annual prize, now in its 10th year, recognises researchers who’ve achieved outstanding economic or societal impact from their work.
alta was launched in March 2019, through an industry-academic knowledge exchange project between the University of the West of England, Airbus, the Royal Air Force (RAF) Little Blue Private Jets Limited and the Royal Aeronautical Society (RAeS), the industry professional body. It was designed to address an industry-wide lack of mentoring provision for women, the under-representation of women in leadership roles and an industry skills shortage.
The on-line nature of the platform enables women to receive mentoring remotely, which was especially important during the Pandemic, during which time membership has increased by a quarter. The scheme has been acknowledged by an industry expert as ‘unique in being the only global women for women mentoring scheme in the industry.’
Sue commented:
“I am delighted to be a finalist for this prestigious ESRC impact prize, on behalf of the alta team and all women across the industry. The award recognises the many years of hard work and dedication by the team and more importantly, has meant that the many talented women across the industry are able to connect, support one another and build their careers in a supportive environment.”
The winners will be announced at an awards ceremony on 2 November 2022. The Celebrating Impact Prize ceremony will take place as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Science, which will be marking its 20th year.
Congratulations to Sue. View all the other finalists.