Events

RFOs CoP meeting in Vienna

The RFOs CoP has met twice during the consortium gathering in Vienna. The main purpose of the pre-meeting on 22 April 2023 was to get to know each other and the work of the various RFOs in implementing gender equality in the research and innovation funding process. The main objective of the RFO COP workshop organised following the consortium meeting and mutual learning workshop on intersectionality on 25 April 2023 was to share and scale knowledge and practises between RFO CoP members on intersectionality in the R&I funding process. The workshop was organised by using the NOW, HOW, WOW model. The NOW entailed an introduction and state-of-the-art presentation by Vinnova with the aim to get all members on the same starting point before entering the WOW; this took the form of a workshop in smaller breakout groups to discuss what achievements would be desirable to reach during the project time....

Consortium meeting and MLW on Intersectionality

Between 22 and 24 May, GENDERACTIONplus consortium met in Vienna, Austria, to discuss the work ahead and learn more about intersectionality and what it means at the research and innovation policy level. More than fifty representatives of beneficiaries and associates partners engaged in lively discussions that moved us forward in understanding the issues we face and clarifying mutual expectations. The event took place on the premises of our partner Austrian Federal Ministry of Education, Science and Research (BMBWF). On 22 May the two communities of practice, one of RFOs and the other of national authorities, meet to discuss the upcoming work and priority topics. On 23 April, after the opening speeches of Roberta Schaller-Steidl from the hosting BMBWF and the project coordinator Marcela Linková, the meeting participants were updated by Heidi Holt Zachariassen (Committee for Gender Balance and Diversity in Research) and Fredrik Bondestam (University of Gothenburg) on the results...

Webinar: Gender Dimension in Research and Innovation (GiRI)

The webinar held online on the 26th of April 2023 was designed for RFO CoP members, but all other GENDERACTIONplus partners were welcome to participate. Members of the policy CoP learned about the challenges of RFOs and become aware of potential support measures.  For years now, the Commission has requested that beneficiaries integrate the sex and gender dimension into research content and innovation (GiRI) in order to increase scientific excellence and innovation. GiRI has become of increasing relevance since it was included as a recommended thematic area in the Gender Equality Plans mandatory for Horizon Europe funding.  By taking gender (and other social dimensions like age, disabilities, ethnical background etc) into account in the production of knowledge and innovation (in research questions, data collection and analysis, prototypes etc) research funding outcomes will be more useful and beneficial to all members of society.  The main aim of this webinar was to...

Webinar: Relevance of a national Gender Equality discourse in R&I

The webinar, part of WP7 capacity building activities, was held online on the 25th of April 2023 and was dedicated to all GENDERACTIONplus consortium members. The aim of the workshop was to discuss the relevance of a national policy discourse for the successful implementation of gender equality policies in R&I. Participants became familiar with what is meant by a gender equality discourse and what are central elements of a gender equality discourse. They became aware of the relevance of a comprehensive national policy discourse for a successful implementation of gender equality policies in R&I at national level. The workshop discussed the need for and advantages of embedding the national gender equality discourse in the European discourse, and the ways in which the EU and national levels can support developments in each. National authorities acknowledge their responsibility for pursuing a national gender equality discourse and build capacities to develop their national...

News from RFOs CoP

On 30 March, more than 20 representatives of our Research Funding Organisation Community of Practice met to exchange experiences from work in the field of gender equality. Apart from the presentation of the webinars and other events now being prepared in the GENDERACTIONplus consortium, a new allied partner to the RFOs CoP, the Malta Council for Science and Technology, was warmly welcomed into the Community. We are sure that it will be a much-appreciated contribution to the CoP! The ongoing work of two Working groups was introduced in the second part of the meeting. Emer Cahill from Irish Research Council explained how to mitigate gender bias in the research and innovation funding process. In her contribution, she presented a detailed list of aspects to be taken into account and concrete examples of interventions from practice. She also emphasized the need to monitor the success of implementing measures. The second block...

Stakeholder & citizen engagement workshop

On 17 January 2023, our consortium partner, Vetenskap & Allmänhet (VA) held an online workshop focused on increasing the robustness and buy-in of the work being undertaken by the project. The 2.5 hours workshop covered the following topics: VA (Public & Science) is a national expert hub for public engagement, citizen science and science communication in Sweden, with many years’ experience of running engagement activities both within EU-funded and national projects. The stakeholder and citizen engagement workshop was part of WP7 Capacity Building activities.

GENDERACTIONplus consortium meeting

In February, we met online and discussed the first findings from the benchmarking study. We were also happy to welcome a new member of our Advisory Board, Agota Dávid. Elin Rekdal Müller from Kilden introduced the upcoming task of creating national impact plans (NIPs). She presented the overall goals of these plans, the timing of the work and the support that will be provided to project partners. Our Austrian colleagues shared their experience with implementing their NIP in the previous GENDERACTION project, which has helped them to successfully implement project recommendations.

RFOs CoP on gender-based violence

The third meeting of the GENDERACTIONplus RFO Community of Practice took place at the end of January 2023. In addition to sharing information on new developments in the field of gender equality in RFOs, the results of the needs assessment were presented, and Fredrik Bondestam from the Swedish Secretariat for Gender Reasearch, the WP3 leader, gave a talk about the role RFOs play in mitigating gender-based violence in academia. One of the results from the need assessment survey is to build capacities on intersectionality, something that the upcoming mutual learning workshop in Vienna in May 2023 will address, questions were posed to the RFO CoP members in the Menti platform about the challenges they have encountered and if they have any best practices to share at the Vienna workshop. In the second part of the CoP meeting, Fredrik Bondestam presented the findings from the UniSAFE project on gender-based violence (GBV)...

Dreaming up the perfect engagement activity: GENDERACTIONplus’ first capacity building workshop

In order to ensure real impact and buy-in, stakeholder and citizen engagement are an important part of EU-funded projects. But what is the key to effective stakeholder engagement? How do you design a successful engagement activity? And which participatory methodologies are the most effective? In response to a needs survey carried out at the start of GENDERACTIONplus, the project held its first capacity building workshop for the consortium on 17 January on the topic of citizen and stakeholder engagement. The workshop was run by the Swedish partner, VA (Public & Science), which acts as a national expert hub for public engagement, citizen science and science communication, and has many years’ experience of running engagement activities both within EU-funded and national projects.  The 2.5 hour online workshop was designed to provide project partners with a common understanding as well as inspiration for and tips on how to plan and undertake stakeholder...

RFOs Community of Practice meets second time

At the November meeting of RFOs CoP, recommendations of the GENDER-NET Plus policy brief on promoting gender equality in funding were presented and discussed. The document underlines the importance of GEPs in RFOs, monitoring and the overall need for transparency in all activities. It also stresses the measures to achieve more gender-balanced evaluation bodies, decision-making and support for increasing the number of women among grant applicants. After the presentation of Carl Jacobsson of the Swedish Research Council, the CoP members debated the potential tensions that can arise when RFOs try to achieve a gender balance in research teams or evaluation bodies and be at the same time as open as possible to non-binary people, along with taking a gender+ approach. Such an approach can make the achievement of a gender balance in teams difficult. In some countries, this may run against the obligation to collect and present gender-segregated data. There...