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Summary of Final Conference and Project Results

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Submitted by joerg on Tue, 03/29/2022 - 17:30

On the 14th and 21st of March 2022, the CASPER project has held its final online conference on the feasibility of establishing a European certification system for gender equality in Research and Innovation.

The two day final conference opened with a contribution by Anne Pépin, Senior Policy Officer at DG Research & Innovation of the European Commission, highlighting the recent policy developments and continued importance of gender equality in the European Research Area, including the Horizon Europe funding scheme.

Partners furthermore showcased the main results of the project, including an extensive mapping and assessment of existing European gender equality award/certification schemes (GECAS) and the design and validation of three concrete scenarios for a Europe-wide GECAS with numerous stakeholders throughout Europe and beyond. /p>

The scenarios, which have been delivered to the European Commission, include a (1) brand new ambitious gender equality certification scheme (EUQUAL), a (2) Gender Equality Strategy for Researchers (GES4R) building upon the widely used Human Resource Strategy for Researchers (HRS4R), and finally, (3) the internationalization of an existing national scheme, namely the Athena SWAN Charter from the UK. A fourth option presented refrained from building a pan European scheme and rather supported a convergence and harmonization of already existing national GECAS.

As the discussion with participants and invited panelists showed, gender equality certification in Europe would provide a window of opportunity to further institutionalize gender expertise while also facing important challenges such as a strong push-back to “gender ideology” in some European countries such as Hungary. Issues of ownership and prestige associated with a EU certificate as well as measuring and achieving real impact in R&I beyond the paper work involved were furthermore identified as key issues. The link of any certification scheme with access to research funding - as recently introduced by the European Commission with the - was deemed crucial to guarantee wide-spread uptake and impact, especially when it comes to addressing the persistent under-representation of women in decision making positions. Panelists also repeatedly referred to the diversity of gender equality policy frameworks across European countries and its implications in terms of existing knowledge, available resources and required support in case the European Commission should decide to go ahead with a new certification scheme.

The final conference also introduced two supporting tools developed by the CASPER project. First, the “Impact Drivers” model for assessing the institutional capacity for gender mainstreaming, and second, the benchmarking tool for assessing the alignment of existing national gender equality certifications with the new Horizon Europe Gender Equality Plan eligibility criterion.

A detailed report of the final conference is available . For the individual presentations and/or video recordings, please see the following list and links:

Day 1 - 14.03.2022 - 14:00-17:00 CET

Overview and introduction to the CASPER project. Anne Laure Humbert (Oxford Brookes University, UK)
View presentation as pdf:
View the video recording:

 

Gender Equality Plans and EU Policy for Gender Equality in Research and Innovation. Anne Pépin, Senior Policy Officer at DG Research & Innovation, European Commission.
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View the video recording:

 

Mapping and assessment of the existing award and certification schemes for gender equality. Charoula Tzanakou (Oxford Brookes University, UK)
View presentation as pdf:
View the video recording:

Related deliverables:

  • Nason, Giulia, and Maria Sangiuliano. 2020a. “Policy Framing Report.” doi:
  • Nason, Giulia, and Maria Sangiuliano. 2020b. “State of the Art Analysis: Mapping the Awarding Certification Landscape in Higher Education and Research.” doi:
  • Tzanakou, Charikleia, Shireen Chilcott, Kate Clayton-Hathway, and Anne Laure Humbert. 2020. “Key Prerequisites for a Europe-Wide Gender Equality Scheme.” doi:

 

Final, validated three award/certification schemes for gender equality. Alain Denis (Yellow Window, Belgium)
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View the video recording:

Related deliverable:

  • Denis, Alain, and Vasia Madesi. 2022. “Validated Version of the 4 Scenarios.” doi:

 

Validation process and results for the four certification scenarios. Marina Cacace (Knowledge and Innovation, Italy).
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Policy recommendations. Marina Cacace, (Knowledge and Innovation, Italy).
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Related deliverable:

  • Cacace, Marina, Federico Marta, Francesca Pugliese, and Gabriele Quinti. 2022. “Policy Recommendations on the Certification/Award System.” doi:

 

Panel discussion day 1

Gary Loke, Independent Equality Consultant, CASPER Advisory Board

Chris Grieve, Edge Certification, CASPER Advisory Board

Pat O’Connor, Emeritus Professor of Sociology and Social Policy at Limerick University, Ireland

Marcela Linková, Head of the Center for Gender and Science at the Institute of Sociology at the Czech Academy of Sciences

 

 

Day 2 - 21.03.2022 - 14:00-17:00 CET

“Impact Drivers” model for assessing institutional change. Lut Mergaert (Yellow Window, Belgium) and Ana Belén Amil (Central European University, Austria).
View presentation as pdf:
View the video recording:

Related deliverable:

  • Mergaert, Lut, & Kerremans, Aart. (2022). Report on the use of an innovative potential tool to assess the sustainability and impact of institutional change towards more gender equality. doi:

 

Benchmarking tool to assess the alignment of existing national GECAS with the new Horizon Europe GEP eligibility criterion. Maria Sangiuliano (Smart Venice, Italy)
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View the video recording:

 

Panel discussion day 2

Andrea Petö, Professor in the Department of Gender Studies at the Central European University, Austria

Marissa Herder, Senior Policy Officer at the Dutch Ministry for Education, Culture and Science.

Zulema Altamirano, Senior Adviser and director of the Women and Science Unit and Gender Equality Unit at the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation.

Gemma Irvine, Vice-President for Equality & Diversity at Maynooth University (Ireland).

 

 

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