OUR Organisation

We are one of the organizations that started and spearhead the International Day of LGBTQIA+ people in STEM, which is celebrated annually on November 18.

Creating Space and Championing LGBTQIA+ Individuals in STEM

Pride in STEM’s grassroots work tackles the major points in careers that research demonstrates matter for the retention of scientists with STEM fields: reaching those deciding to join STEM careers; at major decision points in their career trajectory; raising the profile of those growing 

their careers. Most longstanding is Pride in STEM’s work to support and raise the profile of LGBTQIA+ people in STEM through organizing “Out Thinkers” events – informal talks aimed at the general public charting the research work and personal journeys in the scientific and technical fields. Across the over-30 iterations of “Out Thinkers” Pride in STEM has always worked to make the event as accessible as possible through actions like paying speakers at events, subsidizing tickets or making sure they are mostly free, hiring sign language interpreters, and recording and then close captioning some of the talks. Pride in STEM has been invited to host “Out Thinkers” in collaboration with major national science communication bodies such as the Science Museum Lates, Norwich Science Festival, and the Royal Institution, testifying to the excellence and high-profile nature of the events the charity organises. This work is integral to making sure LGBTQIA+ researchers are recognised in their work and retained later in their career. 

Since the pandemic, Pride in STEM has stepped in to fill the gap of in-person networking that is vital for the retention of junior LGBTQIA+ communities in STEM through the creation of an informal network for early-career researchers and professionals. As an organization we have had annual picnic for the attendees of Pride in London. Pride in STEM has also run annual conferences, both in-person and virtual. In 2022 and in 2023, as part of this initiative, Pride in STEM ran the “Community & Career” conferences of workshops, talks, and strategy for overcoming adversity in their work. With their customary attention to access, Pride in STEM covered the cost of all the students attending, the events were fully hybrid, with accessible gender-neutral toilets, and sign language interpreters. This network catches STEM professionals as they are making important decisions about career pathways, and helps them continue to see themselves as scientists who can succeed. Pride in STEM has supported similar networks in events such as Space Pride as they launched their manifesto at the International Astronautical Congress in Milan in 2024. Pride in STEM is supporting a Queer Data showcase as part of a wider discussion on queer data in June 2025. 

With an eye to helping younger, school-age LGBTQIA+ people consider a career in STEM, Pride in STEM has been running “STEM for Queer Youth”. This project sees our collaborator invite LGBTQ+ scientists to visit an LGBTQ+ youth group in Wiltshire with the aim of raising awareness and knowledge of different science careers for young people, breaking down the stereotype of a scientist for the young people involved, and at the same helping the scientists to have increased confidence in delivering hands-on activities. This ground-breaking, first-of-its-kind in the UK, engagement model began in January 2020 (with co-funding from the Biochemical Society’s Diversity in Science). Based on the success of this project in the intervening years, Pride in STEM is planning to continue and expand the project in 2025.

Of course, encouraging LGBTQIA+ people to see themselves in STEM is a nationwide task, that Pride in STEM has also tackled through digital outputs and working with collaborators across the UK.  Pride in STEM’s flagship podcast “The Pride in STEM Podcast” tackles a variety of issues from the additional barriers that people with multiple marginalized identities face in STEM to the struggle to be yourself in professional settings, to the double-edged sword that queer data can be. With thousands of plays on the episodes, Pride in STEM recognises that the series provided a vital place for more in-depth analysis, rich conversations, and community connection for LGBTQIA+ people in STEM. This digital space is matched by Pride in STEM’s social media platform engagement; which is a forum for 

In autumn 2024, Pride in STEM started a new strategic project of “Small Grants,” picking nation-wide projects from the Outer Hebridies and Corwall, to Belfast and South London that empower LGBTQIA+ scientists and communicators to work with their own existing networks to build engagement, access, and recognition in STEM. The projects span the length and breadth of the UK, and through events like “Code with Pride” and “Communities and Inclusion at BES” offer learning space for LGBTQ+ folks in STEM to build skills and strategies, through “Science and Sorcery” and “Wet and Wild” give places to play games and develop community, and through “People’s Imagination Lab” making space to develop just futures under the climate crisis for multiply marginalised LGBTQIA+ people. These Small Grants take the vision of Pride in STEM and put it in the hands of the community to reach a wider network and empower more LGBTQIA+ people in their lives. 

Dismantling the Systemic Barriers LGBTQIA+ people face in STEM through Strategic Change and International Action

However, as research demonstrates many of the issues that face LGBTQIA+ scientists are not issues they themselves can resolve, but instead are systemic issues that require the resolution at the level of the institution. Here too, Pride in STEM has demonstrated their work to transform the wider STEM ecosystem. Pride in STEM have organised workshops at organisations such as the European Space Agency, the Department of Pharmacology at Cambridge University, Thales Alenia Space, among a roster of public institutes and private companies, with organization improving practices or establishing staff networks where there were none before. Such is the importance of our work on structural issues in STEM, Pride in STEM were invited to an All-Party Parliamentary Group on Diversity & Inclusion in STEM (convened by the British Science Association), to which we submitted evidence on the consequence of Brexit and the pandemic on LGBTQIA+ researchers and workers in STEM across the UK. 

However, the impact Pride in STEM has on the lives and profiles of LGBTQIA+ researchers goes beyond the UK, and Pride in STEM is working internationally to shape the visibility and recognition of researchers and the systems they work within. Along with its international sibling organizations, Pride in STEM started the International Day of LGBTQIA+ people in STEM, celebrated now every November 18, an event started in 2018. The event is celebrated globally with in-person events, social media, and traditional media coverage to mark this important date, which are developed and delivered by institutions and individuals alike. This demonstrates that while Pride in STEM was instrumental in its foundation, these initiatives have been taken on and owned by the LGBTQIA+ community worldwide. Pride in STEM was also instrumental in the UK-US bilateral meeting on policies aimed to improve the retention of LGBTQIA+ people in STEM. This meeting in turn was picked up in media reports and transformed the working practice of organisations like the Royal Society of Chemistry who went on to fund further projects on supporting LGBTQIA+ people in STEM. 

To find out more about Pride in STEM, why not visit us on:

Bluesky @prideinstem.bsky.social

Instagram @PrideinSTEM

or you can sign up/read our JISC maillist.