The first award of its kind was given in 2011 and is supported by the Medical Research Council’s Laboratory of Medical Sciences. The award started to mark the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day and is designed to encourage others to enter science and reach senior leadership roles. The scheme started with 11 women who passed on their Suffrage jewellery to the next cohort in 2012 and continued every two years from then on while it also expanded to other areas like Engineering and Physical Sciences and Mathematics and Computing.
Professor Lynn Rochester, who is Professor of Human Movement Science at the Translational and Clinical Research Institute and co-leader of the Digital Health, Ageing Innovation and Inclusion Theme at the Newcastle BRC, has been awarded the 2024 International Suffrage Science Award for Life Sciences in recognition of her scientific achievements in her career, as well as for her leadership and ability to inspire others in the field. She is currently co-ordinator for the Mobilise-D consortium consisting of 34 partners from academia and industry funded through the EU IMIJ2 scheme, which aims to accelerate the development of interventions and ways in which to detect and measure mobility loss.
At the Newcastle BRC, the Digital Health, Ageing Innovation and Inclusion Theme aims to support the well-being and function of patients, carers and the public through novel insights from the three research programmes: the Digital Biomarker Discovery Programme, the Digital Health Interventions Programme and the Digital Health Inclusion Programme. Each awardee of the Suffrage Science Award scheme will nominate the next winners and pass on their awards. This means, that each heirloom creates its own 'family tree' as the award gets handed from one awardee to the next creating an international network of inspiring female role models across all the Suffrage Science branches.
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