News

#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...

#SafeAcademia: Celebrate the International Day of Women and Girls in Science with us

GENDERACTIONplus and our sister projects will again celebrate together. Women and girls are more likely to be exposed to gender-based violence and sexual harassment in education and academia than their male counterparts. Also, LGBTQ+, ethnic minorities and persons with handicaps and people with multiple disadvantages are often targets of different forms of violence and discrimination. This may play an important role in the decisions that these groups of people make about becoming a researcher and staying in academia. The goal of this IDWGS campaign is to raise awareness about the importance of creating safe, respectful, and inclusive environments in academia for all. How can you join? Post under #SafeAcademia between 11 and 17 February 2023 on Twitter or other social media: Use English and/or your national language. You can download the graphical PPT template to create longer statements and save some precious characters for your Tweets and tagging/nominations your friends...

Foreign researchers improve gender balance in Norwegian academia

kifinfo.no: “We didn’t think that international recruitment would influence the gender balance in academia in favour of more women in senior positions, but we were wrong,” says researcher Kaja Wendt. The findings to which Kaja Wendt is referring, which show a link between internationalisation and women in senior positions in academia, appear in a recently published article in the journal Scientometrics. More details at kifinfo.no.

Ireland reviewed gender equality in higher education

The review was carried out by a 6-person expert group of national and international members with expertise and experience in the area of gender equality, including GENDERACTIONplus coordinator Marcela Linková. Through the consultation process with key stakeholders, and the feedback from an online consultation and written submissions, the expert group has identified a number of overarching thematic areas in relation to the advancement of gender equality for all staff in Irish higher education, both academic and professional, management and support staff. Since the first HEA National Review of Gender Equality in Irish Higher Education Institutions in 2016, two issues have emerged as key to the advancement of gender equality in higher education: the need to take an intersectional approach when addressing gender inequality; and the impact of precarious employment on career development. The review makes also a number of recommendations accompanied by a set of indicators. The HEA will monitor...

How can RFOs advance racial equity?

thelancelet.com: Unequal representation in science means that some scientific questions are not getting asked or answered, and crucially, this limits the breadth of research and stifles innovation. For example, it is now known that encouraging broader populations to participate in clinical trials makes better therapies. Additionally, we know that increasing the diversity of human genome data can beneficially inform therapeutic development and the direction of genomics more broadly. Increasing the diversity of who participates in research careers improves health equity and outcomes by increasing the spread of research problems that are tackled. Funders have a responsibility to encourage questions of representation within their activities to achieve racial equity, and should do so with care — especially as we know that not focusing on cultural differences combined with poorly designed incentives can lead to harmful and extractive interactions between researchers and the very populations that should be benefiting from research. Finally,...

UK´s Wellcome Trust created a database to address funding inequities

Wellcome’s Equitable Funding Practice Library contains more than 50 distinct methods, models, approaches and ways of working that RFOs have used to address funding inequities. It brings together repeatable ideas that can be mixed and matched or applied individually to solve common challenges in reducing and eliminating inequitable funding outcomes.  For each featured practice, the library provides a short description of what the practice does. Users can click through for further details including why the practice is needed and examples of the practice in implementation. For a subset of ten practices, a more detailed profile and case study are provided, highlighting implementation tips and insights as well as evidence of success where available.  Learn more about the Equitable Funding Practice Library here. And explore the library here.

Knowledge and skills needs of consortium members identified

To launch its capacity building activities, the GENDERACTIONplus consortium carried out a needs assessment survey aimed at assessing project partner’s knowledge and identifying priorities, preferences, and needs. The results will guide the development of the plan for the policy and RFO Communities of Practice (CoPs).   The results show that in both the CoP, respondents have a good understanding of the institutional and policy context at regional and national level (institutional functioning, legal and policy context, relevant stakeholders) and of GEP design and implementation. Moreover, they have a fair level of soft skills (communication, negotiation, stakeholder engagement, participatory methods and techniques).   Although slight differences can be observed between the two CoPs as well as between respondents with different levels of work experience in gender equality (1-5 years compared to more than 5 years), intersectionality and gender+ approaches and dealing with resistance stand out as points of common and high interest. The...

Call for Action to End Gender-Based Violence

Join the effort to end gender-based violence in academia. Both individuals and organisations are invited to endorse the Call for Action. The time to act is now! Call for Action WORKING TOWARDS SAFE AND RESPECTFUL HIGHER EDUCATION AND RESEARCH FOR ALL was launched as an outcome of the conference Ending gender-based violence in academia organised in Prague on 24 and 25 November 2022 under the auspices of the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports, within the framework of the Czech Presidency of the Council of the EU. The Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports of the Czech Republic, holding the Presidency of the Research configuration of the Council of the EU in the second semester of 2022, strongly supports this Call for Action and invites all relevant stakeholders in the EU, including Research Performing Organisations, Research Funding Organisations, EU Member States and European Commission, to take action and to build...

Australia sets a 50:50 funding target

From 2023, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC) in Australia will set targets to award equal numbers of Investigator Grants to women and men in a new commitment to address gender inequities in research funding. The Investigator Grant scheme is NHMRC’s largest funding scheme and a significant investment in Australia’s health and medical research workforce. The new initiative will see NHMRC introduce a special measure under the Sex Discrimination Act 1984 that extends targets to fund an equal number of Leadership grants for women and men in the senior Investigator Grant scheme. Read more on this initiative here.