Opportunity Ecosystems Bridging the Gender Gap

Project Information

shemakes.eu

Grant agreement ID: 101006203

DOI

10.3030/101006203

Project closed

EC signature date 1 December 2020

Start date 1 January 2021

End date 31 December 2022

Funded under

• SCIENCE WITH AND FOR SOCIETY

Total cost

€ 1 495 031,25

EU contribution

€ 1 495 031,25

Coordinated by

CEDECS-TCBL
France

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - shemakes.eu (Opportunity Ecosystems Bridging the Gender Gap)

Reporting period: 2021-10-01 to 2022-12-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Women represent a majority of people employed in the textile and clothing sector in Europe: 81% in Fashion and 51% in Textiles. However, they are still over-represented in lower-paid jobs, which represents a large injustice. It is of utmost importance to research alternative ways to help more mainstream women getting into innovation in general, being recognised for their value and paid consequently.
Shemakes.eu blends the approaches of two leading innovation ecosystems within the textiles and clothing sector - Fabricademy and TCBL - and acts to promote, highlight and celebrate the leading role of women in innovation, with the goal of permanently re-shaping the opportunity structures of at least 16 European Member States and Associated Countries. The core of the intervention involves activities to:
- Define and develop Learning, covering a range of constituencies, from young girls to women innovators.
- Develop and adapt the TCBL Innovation Services for activities designed to bridge the gender gap.
- Carry out reputation management to highlight the value of leading role models.
These activities are supported by visioning and methodology, evaluation and Impact assessment, communication and dissemination, and project technical, financial and ethics management.

Work performed from the beginning of the project to the end of the period covered by the report and main results achieved so far

The first phase of activity was divided in two major periods.
- M1-M3: These three months were dedicated to launch the project, get the partners to know each other better, organise information processes and define the strategic approach for the operational activities to be conducted after M4.
- M4-M9: These six months were dedicated to conduct the activities as planned in all the Work packages, in a collaborative, hands-on and reflective approach.
For the Individual WPs, the progress made in this period (M1-M9) has been as follows:
- WP1: Opportunity ecosystem co-designed a bottom-up gender and innovation vision to align the whole consortium on a proactive yet realistic vision of change that shemakes.eu contributes to.
- WP2: Learning paths. After an in-depth exploration of the concept of curricula for girls and women innovators, this WP conducted quite an extensive range of activities including Minifabricademy bootcamp, Biomaterial workshop and Voodoo electronic rabbits (8-18 age group), Bootcamps, Bio-design workshops, Re-wool workshop for creatives and tech students or Robotics (18-25 age group) and Career mapping based on surveys and interviews for future innovators (25+ age group).
- WP3: Innovation services. The TCBL lab model and its innovation services were first adapted to the women innovators. Then, activities conducted in Community engagement were focused on identification of issues to be dealt with and the solutions proposed to solve them, Multi-lab projects started to explore the Re-wool project and Business engagement resulted in Challenge solving workshops or Business environment mapping.
- WP4: Reputation management. An Advisory Board of exemplary women was gathered, listened to in a first meeting and monthly conversations to inspire our targets. In parallel, the Gurus, lab partners who conduct and coach activities with our targets, were selected, and the process of selecting Ambassadors, participants that will help transferring activities, began.
- WP5: Evaluation and impact assessment introduced the theory of change and its indicators to prepare for measuring the impact of shemakes.eu at the end of the project, when it will take greater importance.
- WP6: Communication and dissemination, launched the website, the social media, and the Shemakes Voices series. WP6 also developed the communication templates to be used internally or externally.
- WP7: Project management started with a successful on-line kick-off meeting, dealt with strategic and technical guidance through progress meetings and dedicated workshops, and provided a first policy brief.
A total of 14 deliverables were Issued In the period and two milestones reached.

Progress beyond the state of the art and expected potential impact (including the socio-economic impact and the wider societal implications of the project so far)

Although Shemakes is less than halfway through its two-year timeline, the project Is already raising awareness of the gender gap In Innovation and more broadly in the textile and clothing Industry. Its lab activities are being carried out in collaboration with schools, science and technology museums, foundations, start-ups, etc., already Involving young people In the Innovation ecosystem and contributing to Increase the number of female Innovators in Europe. While it is early for evidence of the final impact, we hope ultimately to better match skills to job - In fact, creating jobs through Innovation

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