Opening Word of the final conference from GENDERACTIONplus Coordinator
Shaping the Future: GENDERACTIONplus Conference Calls for Stronger Gender Equality in FP10
In a fitting tribute to the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, the GENDERACTIONplus final conference convened in Brussels under the patronage of the Polish Presidency of the Council of the EU. Bringing together a distinguished assembly of policymakers, civil servants, gender equality practitioners, researchers, and key stakeholders, the conference served as a critical forum for assessing progress on inclusive gender equality within the European Research Area (ERA). The conference occurred at a critical moment amid ongoing policy negotiations and increasing political challenges to gender equality. “We are now facing a real threat, a real gender backlash, which is to dilute commitment to ensure gender and mainstreaming in Research and Innovation and to reduce investment in gender research. This is just unacceptable, absolutely not acceptable,” stated Lina Gálvez, Chair of the European Parliament’s Committee on Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM), in her opening remarks. Over the past...
Our conference Towards New Horizons is over. Read an opening word from the Project Coordinator
Dear colleagues and friends, For the past four years I have had the honour to work in GENDERACTIONplus with amazing colleagues to coordinate and enhance inclusive gender equality policies in European Research and Innovation through the work of our incredibly motivated Communities of Practice of national authorities and research funding organisations. Today, we are meeting to celebrate what we have achieved together, and what our consortium members have achieved in their national and organizational settings. This entire time, we have worked in an unprecedented period of positive policy development. This was the time that the issue of gender-based violence started to be addressed at the policy level for the first time, with Czech Presidency kicking off the new ERA Policy Agenda in 2022 with a conference on ending gender-based violence, followed by the Spanish presidency the year after, and the Zero Tolerance Code of Conduct adopted by the ERA Forum...
Save the Date! GENDERACTIONplus final conference is coming
Towards New Horizons: Inclusive Gender Equality in FP10 and Beyond For those who could not participate, we will publish a video from the conference and a report soon. You can read a Final Word of the Projects’ Coordinator Marcela Linková here. When: 12 February 2025 | Where: Ateliers des Tanneurs, Brussels & online Find the Goodie bag with GENDERACTIONplus policy advice and other relevant materials related to our conference here. You can also find the Policy Advancements presentations in the Goodie bag, or click here. Over the past three years, Horizon Europe project GENDERACTIONplus has worked to advance inclusive gender equality in the European Research Area. Our work is coming to a close at a time of intense policy negotiations that are shaping the future priorities for research and innovation, including Framework Programme 10. This is happening against the backdrop of strengthened right-wing anti-gender politics, social upheaval, and an emerging...
Mutual learning workshop addressed gender bias in research and innovation funding
Last week, GENDERACTIONplus Research Funder community gathered for an insightful mutual learning workshop (MLW) dedicated to a critical issue in research funding: mitigating bias. The workshop, designed in collaboration with Joanneum Research, work-group lead Emer Cahill, and Vinnova as the Community of Practice (CoP) lead, offered participants a dynamic platform to share, learn, and innovate on this complex challenge. Mitigating bias is fundamental to ensuring that public funds for research are distributed equally and fairly. Extensive research has revealed various factors that can introduce bias at different stages of the funding process. Addressing these requires not only raising awareness but also building capacity among Research Funding Organizations (RFOs) to identify and counteract such biases effectively. A needs assessment conducted in the GENDERACTIONplus RFOs CoP identified bias mitigation as an urgent issue for the CoP. This workshop took a significant step towards addressing this priority by selecting subtopics and corresponding speakers....
Our objectives
1
Develop strategic policy advice on existing and emerging policy solutions in the five key thematic areas in the two Communities of Practice.
2
Enhance the policymaking process through engaging with stakeholders, CSOs and citizens, as relevant, in the five key areas.
3
Build capacities, competence and expertise for gender equality and mainstreaming in R&I, with special attention to countries with a less comprehensive policy.
4
Create impact through communication, dissemination and exploitation, including National Impact Plans and an EU impact plan.
Communities of Practice
Two Communities of Practice are active in GENDERACTIONplus, working to build shared understandings and insight; enable policy dialogue and practice on emerging topics; stimulate capacity building through mutual learning, mentoring and self-reflection, benchmark and diffuse existing knowledge. All this is geared toward designing policy solutions, achieving policy coordination and, ultimately, generating policy change.
The Community of Practice of Research Funding Organisations (the RFO CoP) is led by Vinnova, in close collaboration with Joanneum. The Community of national authorities (the Policy CoP) is co-led by the Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences and South Denmark University. The two CoPs organise bimonthly meetings for peer support and mentoring and organise online and onsite mutual learning workshops for the development of practical strategies and skills.
Intersectionality and inclusiveness
We wil explore the use of terminology, existing policies and practices on intersectionality, diversity and inclusiveness in research and innovation in the ERA, and ensure that the gender+ perspective is mainstreamed into GENDERACTIONplus topics.
We aim at policy coordination and capacity building on gender-based violence and sexual harassment in Research Funding Organisations, Research Performing Organisations and national authorities, through policy benchmarking and targeted mutual learning and development of strategic policy advice.
Gender-based violence
Gender dimension in R&I
We will enhance policy coordination across the EU Member States and Associated Countries to advance the gender dimension in research and innovation from an intersectional perspective through the whole cycle of research and innovation funding.
We will provide indicators for monitoring the implementation of inclusive gender equality policies at the national level. Presented through a dashboard on the project website, indicators will be advanced, and will complement the ERA scoreboard and the ERA monitoring.
Monitoring and evaluation of GE actions
Promoting institutional change
We will develop a system for monitoring and evaluating the implementation and impact of Gender Equality Plans in order to support institutional change as the main instrument to promote inclusive gender equality in the new ERA.
Outputs
- Policy mapping and benchmarking
- Strategic policy advice
- Mutual learning and capacity building
- ERA stakeholder and citizen engagement