News

Intersectionality and inclusion in European R&I

The 1st GENDERACTIONplus benchmarking deliverable report was published on the project website. The results from a benchmark survey of 15 national authorities and 20 RFOs indicate that they include many equality dimensions in their legislation and policies. However, when analysing the documents provided (laws and policies), these dimensions are not clearly articulated or discussed at any length. According to the authors of the report, Heidi Holt Zachariassen and Ella Ghosh from Committee for Gender Balance and Diversity in Research (KIF), Norway, there was a leap from inclusive legislation and policy to references to the intersections between different equality dimensions in documents and which groups are particularly vulnerable in academia. Where several equality dimensions are included, they are included in introductory statements and an additive approach is taken. The lack of a unified understanding of concepts and uncertainty about terminology are obstacles for national authorities and RFOs to develop inclusive policies....

News about GE in R&I from Slovakia

On the 9th of May 2023 – Europe Day, Marcela Linková delivered a keynote presentation at the Fair Academy conference, organised by the Slovak Centre for Scientific and Technical Information and Žijem vedu (We live science) organisation in Bratislava. Marcela informed about key developments in EU gender equality policies for research and innovation (including project actions of GENDERACTION(plus) as well as about the Czech Center for Gender & Science as an inspiration for a possible model in Slovakia. “It was a great opportunity to connect Czech and Slovak actions and to compare the progress achieved. We must continue to work closer together again! Thank you, Marcela, ” adds Alexandra Bitušíková from Matej Bel University in Banská Bystrica and our GENDERACTIONplus colleague who has long been working to advance gender equality in R&I in Slovakia. The key topics for further discussion included gender-based violence in academia; the use of inclusive gender-sensitive language;...

WP4: Benchmarking data visualisation

In the autumn of 2022, WP4 (Gender dimension in R&I) implemented a benchmarking survey that focused, among other things, on initiatives to promote sex/gender analysis among research funding organizations. To learn more about the benchmarking report, follow this link (available soon). The most important findings include: See the detailed quantitative information provided by RFOs in the dashboard below.

GEPs in the public sector of the Czech Republic mapped

A new analysis by the Centre for Gender and Science shows that, as of January 2023, 70 public sector research organisations (i.e., 66%) had a gender equality plan (GEP). Specifically, 71% of higher education institutions and 64% of public research institutions. The GEPs tend to follow the mandatory minimum requirements the European Commission sets. However, only 34% of organisations conducting research in the Czech Republic’s public sector meet all the mandatory requirements. Although the plans of the higher education institutions are more consistent than those produced by research institutions, they meet the mandatory requirements set by the European Commission with a slightly lower success rate than the research institutions. The largest increase in the number of GEPs occurred in 2022: while 11 institutions had a GEP in 2021, 69 did in 2022. At the Czech national level, GEPs are now also required by the Czech Science Foundation, which has significantly...

The higher education funding system can support gender equality and inclusion

A new study released by EC analyses the implementation of performance-based funding systems in the 27 EU Member States and evaluates their impact. One of the findings is that performance agreements and other funding instruments can promote gender equality and inclusion. In these cases, inclusion is translated into targets that refer to accessibility of higher education for students from minorities, mentoring and supporting disadvantaged students, encouraging equal opportunities, gender equality, innovations in teaching and learning and improvements in the quality of teaching and learning. The study mentions the Netherlands, Germany-Berlin, Croatia, Luxembourg and Denmark as an example of this approach. To learn more, go here.

GENDERACTIONplus presented at Impact of GEPs across the ERA event

On 15 March, the European Commission organised an event to present and discuss key findings of a study of impacts that the EU and national policies and programmes supporting or requiring Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) have had in research organisations across the ERA. In addition to mentioning the outputs of our project, our coordinator Marcela Linková commented on the future challenges in this area. The day before, she was elected as a MS Co-chair of on ERA Forum Sub-group on Inclusive Gender Equality. A video recording of the event is available on youtube:

GENDERACTION(plus) at the SPEAR project final event

Copenhagen, 1 March 2022: Marcela Linková presented the Horizon 2020 GENDERACTON project outputs and the GENDERACTIONplus project plans. It was an excellent opportunity to meet the sister projects’ community and experts from all over Europe!

Czech Rectors’ Conference condemns sexual harassment and discrimination in universities

“I very much welcome this move, all the more so because it is the first time in the 30-year history of the Czech Rectors’ Conference (CRC) that this topic has been addressed, and seriously at that. We have a big problem, and just how big it is will be shown in a prevalence study we are launching this autumn,” said Marcela Linková. Universities in the Czech Republic are currently facing another wave of neglected sexual harassment cases. Thanks to the media’s interest in the topic, institutions are beginning to realise that they must take active steps. And that the systems in place so far have been inadequate, as a large number of the cases have been ongoing for years. “Czech universities must create safe, friendly and fair environments, and the CRC considers it essential that individual schools and their units have functional procedures in place that can quickly identify and...

GENDERACTION and GENDERACTIONplus at Czech Days for European Research

On 14 February 2023, the Czech Days for European Research (CZEDER), the largest conference dedicated to the European Framework Programmes for research, technological development and innovation (FPs) in Czechia, took place. GENDERACTION and its successor GENDERACTIONplus are proud to be among the European projects selected for the exhibition.

#SafeAcademia campaign

Almost three hundred Tweets, ten EU sister projects involved, and plenty of individuals and research funding and performing organisations (our consortium members including) joined the celebrations of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science between 11 and 17 February under #SafeAcademia on Twitter. GENDERACTIONplus used the opportunity to present initial findings from our benchmarking that, among other issues, focused on gender-based violence and sexual harassment policies at the national level and those adopted by RFOs. During the 7-day campaign, our Twitter account got 12.5K impressions, 70 retweets and 189 likes. The campaign also ran in the Czech language. Among those involved were, for example, the ambassadors of Germany and Canada to the Czech Republic or the Minister for science and research. At the international level, in addition to disseminating information about the campaign, active campaign participants addressed the topic from various angles. See for yourself below some of...