The MTA launched a new funding scheme in 2018 for researchers raising young children. The aim of the call is to support women researchers with young children and single fathers of young children preparing a scientific thesis to be submitted for the degree of Doctor of Science (the next academic career step). The application was announced in 2018 and 2020, and will open again in autumn 2022.
The government’s trade and innovation agency, Enterprise Ireland, launched the “2020 Action Plan for Women in Business: Fuelling growth through diversity”. The Action Plan aims to drive national economic success by increasing the participation of women in entrepreneurship and business leadership, creating funding that targets women entrepreneurs and women researchers with the potential to advance their research into viable business propositions, and piloting an initiative to include women leaders/senior managers in project teams from third-level institutions Further information ENTERPRISE IRELAND 2020 ACTION PLAN FOR WOMEN IN BUSINESS
The national R&I funding programme, FUSION, is managed by the MCST. The funding rules were revised in 2017 to make the implementation of gender equality the decisive factor in cases where two or more research projects score the same in their evaluation. The specific provision states that “if two or more projects obtain the same mark following evaluation, then [the] MCST shall give priority to that project which provides the best consideration to the implementation of gender equality in the research project”.
In order to promote the visibility of women in decision-making positions, the Joint Committee of the DFG decided to introduce a special budget for DFG-funded research networks. Since the beginning of 2021, networks whose spokesperson/coordinator belongs to an underrepresented gender at leadership level can apply for additional, uncommitted funding of EUR 80,000 per funding year. The DFG regularly publishes information on underrepresented genders at project management level.
Quality healthcare requires integrating a sex and gender dimension in all aspects of health research and clinical practice. ZonMw and the Erasmus Summer Programme (ESP) offered a joint programme to further knowledge and skills in gender, health and research, through “Gender in Research” workshops and a “Gender and Health” course.The ZonMw “Gender and Health Knowledge Programme” provided up to 20 Gender in Research Fellowships each year for (inter)national PhD students and post-doctoral researchers.
In 2002, the CSIC Governing Board approved the Women and Science Committee. The Committee advises the presidency of the CSIC on issues related to recruitment and career promotion of women researchers, identifies problems and analyses causes hindering women’s access and career progression. It also analyses historical biases and gaps due to the deficit of women in scientific institutions and in their management bodies, and proposes corrective measures where appropriate.
Every year, the Swedish Innovation Agency, VINNOVA, invests approximately SEK 3 billion in research and innovation. Since 2015, it has successfully integrated a gender perspective in its activities and promoted gender equality in the distribution of funds for research and innovation. VINNOVA makes an effort to include gender perspectives in the projects financed, recognising gender equality as a prerequisite for sustainable societal development and innovation.
Since 2016, HKR has successfully worked with a model for equal distribution of internal research resources. The work started with a revision of the existing resource allocation model, as the old model was considered outdated. The earlier model resulted in an economical budget deficit for the university and allocated resources based on position (i.e. a fixed share of working hours allocated to “research time”).
This initiative is based on a protocol between FCT and the national Commission for Citizenship and Gender Equality (CIG) established in 2008, which aims at the development of public policies to promote GE as well as strengthening research activities for the advancement of scientific knowledge in GE. FCT and CIG are also responsible for the initiative The GenderResearch4COVID-19 support. It aims at developing knowledge and helps addressing, in the short term, the pressing constraints placed on the individual/family/economy by the gendered social relations and reactions to the pandemic.
Pavel Jozef Šafárik University in Košice was the first Slovak university to voluntarily prepare a gender equality strategy. In 2017, a working group consisting of five people from several faculties was formed, on the initiative of top management. The group undertook a gender audit, analyses of numerous international documents, studies and report and qualitative surveys before drafting the Gender Equality Strategy.
The GEP developed and implemented by VRVis included concrete targets for structural and cultural change in the organisation. It sought to increase stakeholder and staff awareness of the underrepresentation of women at VRVis through training and internal information. It also targeted at least 25 % women researchers and an increased share of women in decision-making processes. The GEP measures were implemented in three areas:
As a partner in SPEAR, Plovdiv University Paisii Hilendarski (PU) began to develop its institutional GEP. Gender equality had never been a matter of concern at PU and no gender work or capacity-building had taken place prior to its participation in SPEAR. Researchers started with interviews, workshops, discussions and other initiatives to get in-depth information about staff and management attitudes to gender, and to raise individual and organisational awareness of gender equality.