Policy cycle in research

European Commission, Directorate-General for Research & Innovation: The She Figures report is the main source of pan-European comparable statistics on the state of gender equality in research and innovation. Published every 3 years since 2003, She Figures is the European Commission’s publication that presents human resource statistics and indicators in the research and technological development (RTD) sector and on gender equality in science. It provides information on the situation of women in science and research, based on data collected every 3 years by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Research & Innovation, in close cooperation with the Helsinki Group on Women and Science and its statistical correspondents. It covers a wide range of themes, including the proportions of women and men among top‑level graduates, academic staff and research/advisory boards, the working conditions of women and men researchers, the integration of the gender dimension in the content of peer-reviewed scientific articles, and various indicators measuring gender gaps in scientific and innovation outputs. In She Figures, the joint repository for these data are referred to as the Women in Science database (WiS).

In 2012, the European Commission published the fourth She Figures. In July 2015, preliminary findings of the She Figures 2015 report were published (the full report is due to be released at the end of 2015).

The Eurostat Statistics on Research and Development is a collection that provides data concerning R&D expenditure and R&D personnel broken down by the following institutional sectors: business enterprise (BES), government (GOV), higher education (HES) and private non-profit (PNP). It also provides the total of all sectors. All data are broken down by the sectors of performance. R&D personnel data are available in full-time equivalent (FTE), in head count (HC), as a percentage of employment, and as a percentage of the labour force. The data are further broken down by occupation, qualification, sex, size class, citizenship, age groups, fields of science, economic activity (NACE Rev. 2) and regions (NUTS 2 level). At EU level, the sector is the basis for the calculation of the main sex-disaggregated indicators concerning R&D, in particular for the She Figures publication and database. 

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) began to study science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) gender indicators in 2006. It follows an innovative methodology. In 2007, the UIS, together with UNESCO’s Natural Sciences Sector, published the first international report on science, technology and gender. Through its biennial survey and partnerships with other statistical organisations, the UIS collects cross-nationally comparable, gender-disaggregated statistics on research and experimental development – by sector, area of research and level of education – for more than 200 countries and territories. These data are used to support national and international policymaking to promote gender equality in science and technology and to expand the role of women in all fields of scientific research. 

MORE2 (funded by the European Commission, Directorate-General for Research) is a study that intends to provide ‘support for continued data collection and analysis concerning mobility patterns and career paths of researchers’, as provided for under the 2010 People Work Programme of the Seventh Framework Programme. This foresees support for continued data collection and analysis and provides the opportunity to consolidate, improve and refine the results achieved under MORE1. Within this framework, a set of internationally comparable indicators on stocks, flows, working conditions and career paths of European researchers, as well as a database, were implemented. Indicators on the stock, employment situation and mobility of researchers in all EU countries in 2012 are presented, ‘disaggregated by sex’.

This report sets out the first comprehensive view of experiences and practices in Europe and abroad relating to women and science research. Its aim is to collect and analyse research on horizontal and vertical gender segregation in research careers, as well as the underlying causes and effects of these 2 processes. The objectives of the study were to thus provide an exhaustive overview and analysis of research on gender and science carried out at the European, national and regional levels; to make the study results accessible to researchers and policymakers via an informed bibliography (online database) and a set of reports; and finally, to steer policymaking on gender and science and define future research priorities within the framework programme, in particular through examples of good practice and gap analysis in the various research topics.

The report presents a summary of the situation in the field of research decision-making, with the aim of identifying problem areas and recommending changes. The report does not cover all the possible sectors in which research in Europe is performed. Nevertheless, the conclusions may still apply to a wide range of sectors (institutions of higher education, public and private research institutions, membership organisations such as science academies, non-governmental/non-profit organisations and commercial enterprises).

This report describes and assesses the large number of projects funded by the Sixth and Seventh European Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development, highlighting their contribution to 2 major steps: the first aimed at encouraging, preparing and adapting women to the existing research system, and the second aimed at adapting the research system to women’s needs (structural change).

This compendium is intended to be a useful reference for anyone interested in gender research. It presents the wide range of activities carried out under the Sixth and the beginning of the Seventh Framework Research Programme in the field of socioeconomic sciences and humanities. These pursued both gender-specific research as well as the mainstreaming of gender issues in research.

This report is based on a survey among the members of the Helsinki Group, the Commission’s advisory group on gender, research and innovation. It gives a detailed analysis of the current state-of-play in terms of EU Member States’ and associated countries’ initiatives for promoting gender equality in research and innovation.

This publication includes case studies as concrete illustrations of how gender analysis leads to new ideas and excellence in research in several fields such as health and medicine, environment and climate change, food and nutrition, transport and technological development.

This text presents the main steps to be followed when performing gender analysis in the research sector.

This report presents a synthesis of the key findings and recommendations of 7 studies carried out as part of the gender impact assessment exercise, launched by the European Commission in June 2000, with a view to assessing the way in which gender issues are being addressed within the Fifth Framework Programme (FP5). It entails specific recommendations for mainstreaming gender in the framework programme implementation cycle and research areas.

The European Platform of Women Scientists (EPWS) is an umbrella organisation bringing together networks of women scientists and organisations committed to gender equality in research in all disciplines in Europe and the countries associated with the EU’s Framework Programmes for Research and Technological Development. The platform welcomes researchers working in any discipline and working in science in its widest sense, ranging from the natural to the social sciences, and including, but not restricted to, science, engineering and technology. EPWS currently includes more than 100 member organisations and represents more than 12 000 women researchers all over Europe who are active in academia and industrial research.

This is a COST-funded network for the promotion of gender equality in research and innovation. It organises awareness-raising events across Europe.

GenPORT is a developing online community of practitioners, served by an Internet portal and made up of organisations and individuals working across the globe for gender equality and excellence in science, technology or innovation.