February 2012 Webinar on gender-fair recruitment and retention with Marcela Linková on 23 February 2012, 1 - 3 p.m. CET: "Mobility and precarity in the early career stages: a gender perspective". To register, send an email to the Science Shop Vienna, wilawien@wilawien.ac.at.
Targeted participants are persons responsible for implementing gender equality policies. You can participate without leaving your workplace and without having to install additional software. The webinars are designed as a mentoring/coaching activity for Members of the genSET Stakeholder Network.
February 2012 European Conference on Gender and Innovation - Maximising Innovation Potential Through Diversity in Research Organisations, 19th - 20th March 2012, Stuttgart, Germany The European Commission has supported the “Gender Debate in the European Research Area” by financing a project, which focuses on current issues around gender and research in research organisations and higher education institutions. Good practices which support female researchers to advance along research career ladders are documented in an interactive database (www.gendera.eu). Nevertheless all countries face the common challenge that policies and action plans have not adequately led to a significant change in the numbers of female researchers reaching leading research positions. As a result it is necessary to consider the topic from other perspectives including research and organisational cultures as well as diversity being a driver for innovation.
What policy changes are needed to make further advances? What role does structural change play? And how can innovation be driven by considering gender? And what can be learnt by gendering research?
The conference “Maximising Innovation Potential through Diversity in Research Organisations” will gather experts from international and European organisations presenting and discussing how we can achieve a better impact in our gender activities. The conference invites all stakeholders to join the debate for increasing the innovation potential through more diversity and gender equality in research and innovation processes. Discuss with experts current and future policy on gender and innovation.
THE CONFERENCE AT A GLANCE Date: Monday, 19th 13.00 – ca. 20.00 and Tuesday, 20th March 2012, 09.15 – ca. 14.15 Conference Venue: Haus der Wirtschaft Baden-Württemberg, Stuttgart, Germany Conference language: English Information: More information about the conference can also be found under www.gendera.eu Registration: Participation at the conference is free of charge. Registrations will be accepted according to the order in which they are received. Registration closes on 13. March 2012.
To register please visit www.gendera.eu/index.php5?file=21 Conference Office: Steinbeis-Europa-Zentrum, Ms Milena Mikosch Email:events@steinbeis-europa.de
February 2012Webinar on gender-fair recruitment and retention with Flavia Zucco on 8 February 2012, 1 - 3 p.m. CET: "How and why implement new evaluation criteria".
To register, send an email to the Science Shop Vienna, wilawien@wilawien.ac.at.
Targeted participants are persons responsible for implementing gender equality policies. You can participate without leaving your workplace and without having to install additional software.
The webinar is designed as a mentoring/coaching activity exclusively for those who have been engaged in genSET and the genSET Stakeholder Network.
January 2012 Congratulations to The University of Tromsø, awarded Norway's Gender Equality Prize for 2011. According to the Ministry of Education and Research "Gender equality work at the University of Tromsø is clearly a prestige project for the university leadership, which sees gender balance as a prerequisite for success." Tromsø has worked closely with genSET since the project started in 2009, Pro Rector for Research & Development Curt Rice was a member of the Science Leaders Panel which wrote the Recommendations for Action on the Gender Dimension in Science consensus report and had been a valued support since. Read more about the prize and how Tromsø achieved it on Curt Rice's blog.
January 2012 genSET Partner, The Science Shop Vienna, is organising web conferences (webinars) on gender-fair recruitment and retention with renowned experts, taking place in January and February 2012. The target group of the events are research institutions in Europe. Targeted participants are persons responsible for implementing gender equality policies.Participating organisations should become part of the genSET stakeholder network. The events offer:
* exchange of experiences and ideas among those advocating gender equity at their different research organisations,
* reflection of gender policies and guidelines in respect to potential impact and feasibility, and
* support by highly qualified gender experts responding to participants individual requests on specific topics.
You can participate in the webinars without leaving your workplace and without having to install additional software.
For the events the Science Shop Vienna uses a simple free web conferencing system, Flashmeeting. For those who do not know it all, free orientation sessions of about 15 minutes are offered. Further information is available at http://wilawien.ac.at/genset/.
December 2011On the 16th December 2011, Dr Elizabeth Pollitzer, director of Portia (genSET coordinator) presented the Manifesto for Integrated Action on the Gender Dimension in Research and Innovation to Máire Geoghegan-Quinn, Commissioner for Research, Innovation & Science. The Manifesto is the result of the public consultation launched by genSET in conjunction with the 1st European Gender Summit. It summarizes the views of over 300 individuals working in the European science system who responded with recommendations on how to enhance research and innovation by addressing gender equality issues. We would like to thank all those who have already formally signed the document and would invite others to add their name to the signatories list. With the proposed framework for Horizon 2020 yet to be approved by the European Council and Parliament, it is most timely to demonstrate that Article 15, which states that: Horizon 2020 shall ensure the effective promotion of gender equality and the gender dimension in research and innovation content, has the support of a large and committed constituency made up of scientists, policy and decision makers, and gender research scholars.
November 2011 The European Gender Summit 2011 was a great success, attracting 400 participants and 70 speakers from across sectors and disciplines. The event has received excellent feedback and our thanks from genSET for the all the contributions from attendees as well as to COST and the ESF Conference Unit, our co-convenors. Watch the keynotes here. More materials from the event are available on the EGS2011 website.
October 2011The Gendered Innovations in Science, Health & Medicine, and Engineering Project launches November 1, 2011 at: genderedinnovations.eu
The Gendered Innovations project: 1) develops practical methods of sex and gender analysis for scientists and engineers; 2) provides case studies as concrete illustrations of how sex and gender analysis leads to innovation. It is crucially important to identify gender bias and understand how it operates in science and technology. But analysis cannot stop there: Analyzing sex and gender prospectively can serve as a resource to stimulate new knowledge and technologies. From the start, sex and gender analyses act as “controls” (or filters for bias) to provide excellence in science, health & medicine, and engineering research, policy, and practice.
The Gendered Innovations project was initiated at the Clayman Institute at Stanford University, July 2009. The project entered into a collaboration with the European Commission, January 2011. In addition to drawing experts from across the US, Gendered Innovations now involves experts from the EU 27 Member States.
The goal of the Gendered Innovations project is to provide scientists and engineers with practical methods for sex and gender analysis. To match the global reach of science and technology, methods of sex and gender analysis were developed through international collaborations, as recommended in the 2010 genSET Consensus Report and the United Nations Resolutions related to Gender, Science and Technology passed March 2011
October 2011 Gender Dimensions in European Research. Good Practice from Framework 7 and Future Outlook Wednesday, 16 November 2011, FFG - Austrian Research Promotion Agency The conference focuses on “gender dimensions in science and research” at the European level. During the last years several studies and research were carried out within the Science and Society-Programme. What happened? What kind of strategies towards gender equality were pursued? Do more women take part in EU-funded projects, are there more female project coordinators? Are gender-related perspectives implemented within the projects? What kind of part do approaches towards gender equality play within the discussion concerning HORIZON 2020? These and other questions will be discussed with coordinators of EU-funded projects, representatives of European Commission and interested researchers and stakeholders. Working language will be English. Elizabeth Pollitzer, genSET partner, will be presenting some lessons learnt from genSET and outcomes of the European Gender Summit at the session.
October 2011 Quo vadis gender in EU funding? 17 November, Berlin The contact point women into EU research (part of the EU Bureau of the German Ministry of Education and Research) is organising an event that will provide stakeholders and policymakers with a stocktaking of the EU's gender commitment in research funding thus far. Speakers will highlight different aspects, initiatives and developments in the field. Based on recommendations of the status quo and in the light of the new programme Horizon 2020 to be launched in 2014, the (potential) future of gender in EU research funding will also be discussed. A concluding panel discussion with actors from national and EU policy, science, and key players of women in science will allow for an exchange of expert views. 90% of this event will be held in German. Find out more on their website
Ever since the Treaty of Rome, the European Union has consistently advocated gender equality as one of its core policies. Yet, despite the efforts to promote gender in research, women remain under-represented and the issue of gender is far from being systematically addressed in research projects.
What’s more, there are sound reasons for the research community to invest in a gender-sensitive research agenda. Investing in equal opportunities for men and women in research makes for teams that perform better and attracts top-level researchers. Similarly, investing in a gender-sensitive approach to the research content makes for higher quality and validity.
To further promote gender equality in research, the European Commission’s Research DG has decided to develop a gender toolkit and training activities. The one-day sessions provide the research community with practical guidance on how to integrate gender into research.
A first series of training sessions ran from September 2009 till September 2010. Due to the success of this initiative the European Commission has decided to prolong the offer. A second series of trainings will take place between March 2011 and February 2013.
Locations are spread across Europe. Participation in a session is free. More information and the training calendar can be found on the project website.
Are you interested in hosting a session in your own organization? Contact the organizers at gender@yellowwindow.com
September 2011 Public Consultation on the Future of Gender & Innovation in Europe Closes OCT 1 All stakeholders in European science and innovation are invited to participate in the Public Consultation on the Future of Gender and Innovation in Europe.
Following the public response to the EC Green Paper "From Challenges to Opportunities: Towards a Common Strategic Framework for EU Research and Innovation Funding”, genSET has launched a complementary, in-depth consultation focusing on the role of the gender dimension in future research and innovation. This consultation will contribute important evidence and understanding of how Europe can benefit from more effective mainstreaming of the gender dimension in research, innovation and in the scientific systems. The results of the consultation will be published on these pages and will be discussed at the European Gender Summit in Brussels on 8-9 November. Together with the onsite discussions, the consultation responses will feed into the policy manifesto on "Integrated Action on the Gender Dimension in Research".
September 2011Mr Chichester, Vice-President of the European Parliament and responsible forSTOA has agreed that the European Gender Summit will take place under his patronage. The STOA Brief: the Assessment of Scientific and Technological Policy Options for the European Parliament. STOA is an official organ of the European Parliament, but its work is carried out in partnership with external experts. These can be research institutes, universities, laboratories, consultancies or individual researchers contracted to help prepare specific projects. STOA increasingly focuses upon round-table expert discussions, conferences and
workshops with associated or consequent studies. Members of Parliament and invited experts from EU institutions, international institutions, universities, specialist institutes, academies and other sources of expertise worldwide jointly participate in the analysis of current issues at these events.
September 2011 Preview of the Special Issue of Interdisciplinary Science Reviews on Gender and Science content available A special issue of the Interdisciplinary Science Review, "Gender in Science" is available from Maney Publishing. You can read the editorial and Table of Contents here. Contributors to the Special Issue included members of the genSET Science Leaders Panel and genSET Gender Experts. You can preview the content and read the editorial here
September 2011 the flyer for the Women in Leadership Conference being held in Queen’s University Belfast on Friday 21 October 2011 is available for download. There will be a dinner the evening before the conference on 20 October. To register and confirm attendance at one or both please see the link below. Cost: Early bird £75 (before 30 September) or £85 after. Dinner is £35. Register here For further queries contact Cathy Tolan at womeninleadership@qub.ac.ukor Tel: 02890 973712. Elizabeth Pollitzer, Director of Portia Ltd, the genSET coordinating organisation will be talking at the event organised by the Queen's Gender Initiative.
September 2011Call for abstracts for the 7th international interdisciplinary conference of Gender, Work and Organisations, 27th – 29th June, 2012, Keele, UK genSET Partner by1st October 2011. Portia Ltd, genSET partner, is convening a Stream on Gender in Science Institutions and Knowledge System. The purpose of the stream is to help advance understanding of how gender equality and scientific quality shape and are shaped by one another. We invite submissions from the international research community that can help create theoretically informed, multidisciplinary understanding of the issues affecting the quality of science work, workplace and workforce. Contributions are welcome in any of the following or related themes: Institutional processes and practices; Human capital; Legislation and compliance; and Science knowledge making. Download more information on how to submit your abstract or email team@portiaweb.org.uk for more information. Read more on the news page
August 2011 Do we really care about Gender Equality in Science? See Simone Buitendijk and Curt Rice talking on why, as leaders of scientific institutions, they do. Recorded at Women’s World 2011. In this 20 minute video the members of the science leaders panel also highlight the recommendations from the genSET Consensus Report most relevant to their work.
August 2011 Vienna: “Does gender matter in scientific performance?” Jeff Hearn, Professor of Gender Studies at Linköping University and genSET partner will be giving the keynote at the conference to be held in Vienna on the 4th of October 2011. The conference brings together academics and practitioners at the forefront of the area. The event will be held in German. Email gendermain@meduniwien.ac.at with enquiries.
August 2011 Belfast Vice Rector or Cardiff University and genSET Gender Expert, Teresa Rees, will be a speaker at the LAWN (Local Academic Women’s Network) meeting 'Supporting Research Excellence' hosted by the QGI (Queens University Belfast Gender Initiative) on the 14th September 2011. Go to the QGI site or download the announcement for more info. The particular purpose of the LAWN meeting is to develop, within the context of equality considerations, knowledge and expertise around the challenges of leading high quality research. Following on directly from the LAWN meeting, there will be a celebration of the recent development of a
Gender Equality Office in the School of Medicine, Dentistry & Biomedical Sciences. Speakers come with diverse backgrounds and include computer science (Professor Dame Wendy Hall, University of Southampton), social sciences (Professor Teresa Rees, Cardiff University), nursing (Professor Hugh McKenna, University of Ulster) and physical sciences (Professor Tom Millar, QUB). There will be good opportunity for discussion at the meeting and also during an extended lunch break. Email qgi@qub.ac.uk with enquiries.
July 2011 A Public Consultation on the Future of Gender and Innovation in Europe has been launched with great success, receiving 100 responses in less than a month. A press release is available for download or go to the consultation to give your views. The Consultation on Gender and Innovation was launched to expand on Commission Green Paper consultation (see May news below) which contained only one question on this topic. The feedback to the consultation will feed into a policy manifesto, to be finalised at the European Gender Summit. Knowledge and innovation are accepted as the key drivers for sustainable growth and prosperity in a future Europe. Politics, industry and research are therefore trying to find joint answers on how to transform the EU into an ‘Innovation Union.’ But have we been asking the right questions? genSET invites all European innovation stakeholders to give their view on the correlation between gender and innovation.
July 2011 The Women for Smart Growth session report is available for download now. Elizabeth Pollitzer of Portia facilitated the session at the Digital Agenda Assembly, held on the 16-17th June at Autoworld Brussels, transferring the recommendations from genSET to the specific ICT context. The mind-set of policy makers and industry needs to be re-focused on thinking about women as a resources and a competitive advantage, focusing on creating a new culture where in Europe both men and women can succeed and create an economic growth for Europe, enabling Europe compete internationally. The workshop report summarises the workshop and sets out a clear roadmap for action.
July 2011 The final proramme for the second meeting on “Genes, Drugs and Gender” is available for download. The meeting program will cover different areas of “gender medicine”, including, epigenetics, pathogenesis, diagnostics, pharmacology and clinical sciences. Sassari (Italy), September 23rd – 24th , 2011
June 2011 The Queen's Gender Initiative is holding an event on the 21st of October entitled "Women in Leadership: Challenging Times Create Exciting Opportunities". Download the outline. Conference delegates will learn how the speakers created, identified and took advantage of opportunities during good times and in more challenging contexts. Speakers will share experiences gained during their individual career pathways which shaped their development as leaders. Elizabeth Pollitzer, Director of Portia (a genSET partner organisation), will be speaking at the conference.
May 2011 genSET Science Leader Panel supported a written response to the European Commission Consultation: Green Paper on a Common Strategic Framework for future EU Research and Innovation Funding submitted under the subsection of "What actions should be taken at EU level to further strengthen
the role of women in science and innovation?". The Green Paper proposes major changes research and innovation funding. The responses from all interested parties will be collected and reviewed by the commission, informing the final proposals of the Green Paper at the end of this year. Download the response here and visit the Green Paper site for more
information and to see other submissions.
May 2011Second International meeting on Genes, Drugs and Gender Event announced, Aula Magna – The first announcement has been released and is availabe for download. University of Sassari, September 23rd – 24th 2011. The event held by a collaboration of the Department of Drug Sciences (University of Sassari), the Department of Therapeutric Research and Medicine Evaluation (Instituto Superiore Di Sanità, Rome). The event explores how gender analysis is enhancing different areas of medicine Leaders in their fields, 25+ speakers from across Europe and the USA will discuss: Anti-inflammatory drugs; Cardiovascolar diseases; Clinical gender –specific biomarkers; Epigenetics and autoimmunity; Female mosaicism and X silencing; Gasous transmission; Gender and cell fate; Gender and methodological questions; Specific female orphan cancers; System biology asks new questions about sex differences; The pathogenetic and diagnostic issue: Innovative insights. Contact milan@fondazione-menarini.it for more information and to register.
May 2011 You can now follow genSET on Twitter using @FP7genSET
April 2011 A presentation, entitled Gender as a resource and competitive advantage in research and innovation, delivered to EIRMA (European Industrial Research Management Association) by Elizabeth Pollitzer, Director of genSET partner organisation Portia Ltd on the 8th April 201,1 is available for download here. The talk summarises empirical research gives an overview of the perspective on the role of gender in scientific endeavour and innovation; summarises the genSET consensus report; and talks about some of Portia's other work in promoting gender equality in Science, Engineering and Technology related employment.
March 2011 Elizabeth Pollitzer, Director of genSET partner organisation Portia Ltd, delivered a presentation (click here to download) at 'Women in Science, Innovation and Technology in the Digital Age', a joint high-level conference organised by the Hungarian EU Presidency and the European Commission DG INFSO in Budapest on the 8th March 2011. Elizabeth spoke on how the gender dimension can drive quality in ICT and how The European Gender Summit will explore these themes. Elizabeth Gibney summarised the conference's declaration in her article, "Shortage of women is loss for science, says Budapest Declaration" for Research. Read the article in in full at www.researchresearch.com
February 2011The European Gender Summit is now open for registration. Convened by a partnership of the genSET project, the European Science Foundation (ESF) and The European Cooperation in Science and Technology (COST), the summit will be held at the Square in Brussels on the 8th and 9th of November 2011 under the auspices of the Polish Presidency of the European Council. The summit explores Scientific Quality through Gender Equality and will bring together contributors conducting the latest research on gender in science, leaders of scientific institutions and industrial R&D labs, science communicators and editors, and high level policy makers from across Europe and the world.
The Summit programme is organised around four key themes: Changing Research Cultures - Scientific Leadership, Human Capital, and Knowledge Production; Changing Innovation Cultures - Gendered R&D, Collaborative Strength and Intellectual Advantage; Emerging trends and institutional best practice on gender and scientific equality; Policies for Creating Gender and Socially Responsive Science Environment. Presentations and panel discussions will be combined with knowledge exchange and networking sessions, an exhibition and a presentation of best practice examples. A special session for science editors, science journalists, scientists and science policy makers on how to communicate gender issues in science is also included.
Find out more and register at www.gender-summit.eu
January 2011 The Summer School on Gender Medicine 2011 invitation is now available for download. Held at the Centre for Biotechnology Development and Biodiversity Research, University of Sassari, Italy, and organised by the EUGIM (European cUrriculum Gender In Medicine) project. For more information email eugimsummerschool@uniss.it
November 2010 The Lancet published an editorial, "Promoting women in science and medicine", highlights the status of women at the Lancet, both internally and in terms of contributors, and calls for change. ThegenSET Consensus Panel responded to the editorial with a letter to the editor (published in March 2011) calling for the Lancet to make inclusion gender and sex analysis a requirement when selecting papers for publication. Download the Editorial here and the Letter to the editor here
October 2010 The University of Tromsø (UiT) announces its adoption of the genSET Recommendations for mainstreaming gender in Science as the guiding principles for the development of its new gender action plan. Its new plan sets the target of increasing the percentage of women in top roles to 40%, from 23%. The plan to achieve this is based on the Gender Strategy contained in the genSET Consensus Report, "Recommendations for Action on the Gender Dimension in Science". Download the press release.
September 2010 A new booklet, Talent at stake. Changing the culture of research – gender-sensitive leadership, has been published by the Norwegian Committee for Gender Balance in Research. It examines gender in science with the Norwegian context and contains a range of information to “inspire everyone who wants to do something to increase diversity and promote greater gender balance within the research” Find out more and download the publication from the Gender Balance in Research – Norway website
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