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Support Us

• Guidelines for sponsors and donors
• List of sponsors and donors
• Case studies
• Legacies

Support Us

There is a huge waste of talent and investment when highly qualified science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) professionals are unable to return to their careers following a prolonged career break. Women in particular face many barriers in trying to return to their former levels in STEM careers. The UK economy also suffers if thousands of bright people’s skills are simply wasted through lack of appropriate help in retraining. We provide a conduit to this help that is so badly needed. We enable returners to retrain and gain the latest knowledge and most up to date skills, mentoring them throughout their Fellowship, providing all the support, encouragement and help they require to enable them to re-establish their professional confidence and credibility thus enabling them to compete for employment on a level playing field with their peers.

The Daphne Jackson Trust runs the foremost returner’s scheme in the country. The Trust has been highly praised by many, including Sir Robert May, President of the Royal Society and formerly Chief Scientific Advisor to the Government, who said:

“I have been familiar with the Daphne Jackson Memorial Fellowships Trust for some time. I regard it as an extraordinarily important and successful programme, to which I would accord the highest priority. I am not in the habit of automatically ticking the ‘top one percent’ boxes on application forms, but in this case I have unhesitatingly done so. This is a programme that really does make a difference.”

With less children choosing science subjects at school and falling numbers of SET graduates we must do all we can to encourage and protect the valuable resource we do have, namely those with scientific training but who may not be actively working and help them to return to careers in SET. This is especially relevant given the changing demographics showing that we are becoming an older workforce. Therefore it is essential for all employers to include returners as an important source of talent for the country’s workforce. Without the help of the Daphne Jackson Trust many of today’s brilliant minds may become lost to science and their talents wasted. I am sure you will agree that this would be a very sad situation.

Reasons for taking a career break are many and varied; re-location with a partner, illness, rearing children, redundancy, short term contracts coming to an end, caring for relatives, etc. It is a commonly acknowledged fact that the longer a SET professional is out of employment the harder it is to return at their previous career level. As scientific research and development constantly moves forward it is inevitable that there will be a skills gap and a need for retraining which is why the work of the Trust is so crucial.

The Daphne Jackson Trust normally offers part time, paid two year Fellowships for returners to SET careers in academic institutions and industrial R&D laboratories. Each application is individual and unique and we offer personalised help and support throughout the application process and the Fellowship. The Trust runs courses to update skills, address work life balance, and increase confidence.

We constantly strive to raise our profile and the community’s awareness of who we are and what we do. We rely on our sponsors and donors to enable us to continue and our long term aim is to expand and increase the number of people we are able to help.