Founded 1992 Area served UK | ||
Key people Professor Dame Glynis Breakwell (Chair of Trustees), Dr Katie Perry (Chief Executive) Website | ||
The Daphne Jackson Trust is an independent UK charity founded in 1992 which runs a scheme to help scientists, engineers and technologists return to their careers after a break for family reasons. The Daphne Jackson Trust arranges paid two year, part-time fellowships which are normally based at a university or industrial laboratory throughout the UK. Fellows carry out a supervised research project and retraining programme.
Contents
The fellowships are designed to significantly increase employability and remove the disadvantages associated with a career break.
The Trust has worked with over 200 fellows since it was established.
History
The fellowship scheme was started by Daphne Jackson, the first female professor of physics in the UK. Over the course of her career she met many clever and highly qualified scientists who were reduced to taking low-level jobs because they had taken a career break. Daphne Jackson is reputed to have said, “Imagine a society that would allow Marie Curie to stack shelves in a supermarket simply because she took a career break for family reasons.” Deciding that this was a waste of talent and investment, in 1985 Jackson began a pilot scheme that enabled women to return to their careers.
The pilot scheme enabled talented women to return to their careers in science, engineering and technology (SET) after a break by offering fellowships composed of a retraining programme linked to a challenging research or development project, with the overall focus put firmly on improving future employment potential of the individual. The key objective was that the fellowship should help re-establish professional expertise as well as personal confidence, within an appropriately supportive environment, with significantly improved job prospects at the end. A total of 27 fellows successfully completed fellowships during the pilot scheme, which ran during the late 1980s.
Jackson left a legacy after her untimely death in 1991 which enabled the Daphne Jackson Trust to be formed in 1992. The physicist Professor Elizabeth (Betty) Johnson was a major force in the establishment of the Daphne Jackson Trust. Betty had been one of the first Daphne Jackson Fellows in 1986 at Imperial College London. Betty Johnson was appointed a MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours list of 2002 in recognition of this work.
The Trust named its 100th fellow in 2002 and has gone on to work with more than 200 returners. The Trust took its first male fellow in 2003, and now works with both men and women.
Governance and administration
A board of Trustees governs and controls the affairs of the Daphne Jackson Trust. Trustees are: Professor Dame Glynis Breakwell (Chair of Trustees), Dame Fiona Caldicott, Professor Rob Eason, Professor Dame Julia Goodfellow, Mr Philip Greenish, Ms Wendy Harle, Dr Robert Hawley, Dame Louise Johnson, Professor Nigel Mason, Dr Jan Peters, Dr Mary Phillips, Mrs Janet Purnell, Professor Margaret Rayman, Professor Sibel Roller-Walach, Mr Richard Rooley FREng, Professor Edward Smith, Professor John Wood
The Patrons of the Daphne Jackson Trust are: Professor Dame Athene Donald, Ms Vivienne Parry, Ms Maggie Philbin, Professor Sir Christopher Snowden
An administration team looks after the fellowships and all day-to-day operations.
The Daphne Jackson Trust was established as a Charity in 1992, Charity Number 1009605. The Trust was incorporated as a Company Limited by Guarantee in 2008. The Charity Number was changed and its new status became effective from 1 December 2008.
Registered by the Charity Commission as the Daphne Jackson Memorial Fellowships Trust with Charity Number 1125867.
Registered Offices: Department of Physics, University of Surrey, Guildford, Surrey GU2 7XH.
Sponsors
The Daphne Jackson Trust now relies on sponsors and donors to carry on its work. Sponsors include The UK research councils: EPSRC, Natural Environment Research Council, BBSRC, Medical Research Council (UK) and the Science and Technology Facilities Council.