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News

August update


Industry updates 

WUN survey finds gap between formal policies and everyday realities of workplace culture

A survey from Womens Utilities Network (WUN) has found that while most participants feel their workplace supports work-life balance, with leaders taking culture and wellbeing seriously, over a quarter felt they cannot always be their authentic selves. Many said they feel unable to reach their full potential and access equal opportunities, and more than half had also witnessed or experienced inappropriate behaviour that was dismissed as banter.

🔗 Read the full report 👉 The power of culture: a leader’s guide to creating change in the utilities workplace

Energy UK highlights progress embedding EDI

Energy UK has published its second EDI Progress Report, showing sustained progress in embedding equity, diversity and inclusion (EDI) in both its internal operations and the wider energy sector. Highlights include achieving Investors in People Platinum accreditation, meeting gender diversity targets for its event speakers, and continued support for sector-wide EDI activity, including TIDE and the EDI in Energy conference.

🔗 Read the full report 👉 EDI Progress Report 2026 – Energy UK

AFBE-UK and Honeywell developing inclusive pathways for engineers

The Association for Black and Minority Ethnic Engineers UK (AFBE-UK) and Honeywell Technologies have announced plans to create more inclusive pathways into engineering and STEM careers for individuals from underrepresented backgrounds. Honeywell also plans to broaden its talent pipeline through the collaboration, which began in June.

🔗 Find out more 👉 AFBE-UK announces new collaboration with Honeywell Technologies to expand access and opportunity in engineering

IGNITE+ calls for new participants in STEM fairness study

An IGNITE Network+ study exploring how offline Natural Language Processing (NLP) could support fairer grant review is calling for new participants to submit successful and unsuccessful STEM grant applications. The project, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC), aims to identify potential bias in peer review processes, improve fairness and inclusivity in funding decisions, and strengthen future research assessment practices.

🔗 Find out more, including how to take part 👉 Assessing the Use of Natural Language Processing NLP in Reviewing STEM Research Grant Applications

WES reports 50% improvement under mentoring platform

The Women’s Engineering Society (WES) has reported an increase of 50% in matches under its mentorship programme following the launch of an enhanced platform. MentorSET was enhanced following a review with new features designed to make mentoring more flexible and accessible.

🔗 Find out what these improvements have meant for users 👉 MentorSET: Free mentoring for members

An open call from TIDE

It’s been great to see many organisations updating EDI calendar with exciting events and training for the coming weeks, which you can find below.

Please do also send through any news updates. We would love to receive contributions so we can share the great work everyone is doing in 2026.

Send us your contributions 👉 diversity@energy-uk.org.uk


Events 

Have you used TIDE’s industry-wide EDI Calendar yet? It’s a great tool to help you catch annual milestones recognising EDI themes and stay aware of upcoming events across the sector. You can even add your own events for TIDE channels to support and promote.

Explore the UK EDI calendar

Women to Work’s Confidence, career planning and resilience coaching workshop series

September 2026

Registration is open for Women to Work’s September series of personal development coaching workshops for women in energy with a 15% discount on all 2026/2027 bookings – including one-to-one coaching – available to Energy UK members. The four short, impactful and practical workshops cover career progression, options and pathways; challenging limiting beliefs, imposter syndrome and having your voice heard; an introduction to building resilience in yourself and others; and coaching tools and techniques for work and life.

Find out more on the series of workshops 👉 Women to Work September 2026 series

Or email info@womentowork.co.uk to book places and quote “Energy UK” to receive the discount.

WiN Western Thriving with Confidence Masterclass

8 September | 12:30 – 2:30pm | Online

Women in Nuclear (WiN) Western will host a 90-minute interactive masterclass exploring how the way we think influences how we perform, communicate, lead and progress. The session will be led by transformational growth coach Aleksandra Atma, a psychologist and former Deloitte leader with over 20 years’ experience developing leaders across engineering, infrastructure, professional services and the built environment.

🔗 Find out more information 👉 Masterclass: Thriving with Confidence: The Mindset between Career Growth, Visibility and Leadership

Energy Research Hackathon

11 September | Birmingham 

Energyz Black will deliver an Energy Research Hackathon in partnership with the UK Energy Research Centre (UKERC), Supergen Energy Networks, Energy Demand Research Centre (EDRC), and SuperAIRE. It will bring together early-career researchers, academic institutions, industry representatives, and policy stakeholders from across the UK energy sector to tackle real-world energy challenges.

More details will follow👉 Energy Research Hackathon: Empowering the Next Generation of Energy Researchers – Supergen

POWERful Women Breakfast: Authentic Presence at Work

15 September | 8:30 – 10am | Online

POWERful Women will be joined by Christina Brugger – founder of Keys to Impact, which works to improve leadership visibility for women in STEM – for an online breakfast session focused on practical, science-backed frameworks to help women working in middle management within the energy sector communicate with confidence while staying true to themselves.

🔗 Find out more, including how to sign up 👉 Breakfast with Christina | Powerful Women

Inclusion by Design: The Future of Energy Research

16 September | 9:30am – 5pm | London

EDI+, UKERC, Supergen Energy Networks Hub and IGNITE Networks+ will showcase the work of the EDI+ Fellowship, engage in discussions on inclusive research cultures, and network with researchers, practitioners and sector leaders from across energy and STEM.

🔗 Learn more and register 👉 Inclusion by Design: The Future of Energy Research – Supergen