Final Report Summary - GENOVATE (Transforming organisational culture for gender equality in research and innovation)
Executive Summary:
GENOVATE is an action-research project involving 7 European universities based on the implementation of Gender Equality Action Plans (GEAPs) in six universities [University of Bradford, UK, University College Cork, Ireland, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, Università degli Studi di Napoli, Italy, Ankara University, Turkey, Trnava University in Trnava, Slovakia] supported by on-going participatory evaluation undertaken by University of Madrid (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), Spain. It brought together a consortium with diverse experience with gender equality mainstreaming approaches, varying institutional and disciplinary backgrounds and located in different national contexts. GENOVATE covers three common areas for intervention: recruitment, progression, and research support; Working environment, work-life balance, and institutional culture; and Standards and diversity in research excellence and innovation. Each partner addressed these areas through their individually tailored GEAPs that built on existing structures and policies where relevant, or develop new systems and practices where appropriate. This contextualised approach was supported by an on-going knowledge exchange system and shared learning for all partners.
GENOVATE project involved the development of two overlapping and interlinked processes – (1) at the micro/institutional level linked to the implementation of GEAP in the six implementing partner institutions (with the exception of UCM which led Work Package [WP] 7 and supported the GEAPs’ evaluation), and (2) at the macro/Consortium level linked to the development of eight different Work Packages (WPs). Both were conceived of as crucial processes for developing the GENOVATE model of gender equality in transforming research and innovation - underpinned by the social model of equality, which recognises that society is the main contributory factor to inequality and therefore that equality can only be achieved through structural or systemic change. The project, therefore, prioritised actions on structural and cultural change within the partner institutions and in their wider networks, while individual-level actions aimed at women researchers were also seen as necessary in order to facilitate adaptation to changing environments and to encourage leadership for structural and cultural change.
In all institutions, GENOVATE has contributed significantly to institutional strategic objectives, as well as specific gender equality change programmes, including definition of policies, gender equality units and structures, institutional practices, and research. There is evidence of institutionalisation and improvement towards sustainability of gender equality change; emphasis has been placed on intersectionality, with strong evidence of utilisation of a combined top-down and bottom-up approach.
Some important progress have been made towards gender equality and diversity changes in recruitment, progression and retention, such as improving practice of gathering, and availability of gender and diversity monitoring data; evident increased inclusion of gender equality and diversity component within professional development programmes; increased provision of specific positive action and/or mentoring programmes to support women or people who suffer discrimination on grounds of race, gender, sexual orientation etc.
Evidence of advances in partners’ practices to ensure satisfying gender culture and climate for diversity has been visible. All partner institutions have successfully instituted practices to promote gender equality and diversity competence in assessing excellence in research such as undertaking equality impact analysis of their research practices; developing institutional code of practice; supporting the development processes and structures for gender-balanced research excellence; and integration of gender perspectives in processes of research knowledge production, knowledge transfer and innovation systems.
Partners have clearly identified enabling and addressed disabling factors linked to institutional policies and strategies, structures and mechanisms and people.
Sustainability remained a central principle in the project. All project actions sought to effect institutional change, which would be maintained beyond the lifetime of the project and further progressed by an enhanced gender perspective in the wider research sector. The involvement in the GENOVATE team of personnel from senior levels in the partner organisations facilitated this. Sustainability planning was incorporated from the outset as partners sought to embed project actions within the partner institutions. The Gender Change Academy model emphasised the factors necessary for sustainable institutional change in its focus on incremental institutional change rather than single unrelated innovations.
The GENOVATE project lasted 54 months [January 2013 to June 2017] with one partner [Lulea University of Technology] withdrawing at month 48.
Project Context and Objectives:
GENOVATE, an action-research project involving seven European universities (University of Bradford, UK [UNIBRAD], University College Cork, Ireland [UCC], Lulea University of Technology, Sweden [LTU], Università degli Studi di Napoli, Italy [UNINA], Ankara University, Turkey [AU], Trnava University in Trnava, Slovakia [TU] and University of Madrid (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) [UCM]) was based on the implementation of Gender Equality Action Plans (GEAPs) in six universities supported by on-going participatory evaluation undertaken by one university. It brought together a consortium with diverse experience with gender equality mainstreaming approaches, varying institutional and disciplinary backgrounds and located in different national contexts. GENOVATE covered three common areas for intervention: i) recruitment, progression, and research support; ii) Working environment, work-life balance, and institutional culture; and iii) Standards and diversity in research excellence and innovation. Each partner addressed these areas through their individually tailored GEAPs that built on existing structures and policies where relevant, or developed new systems and practices where appropriate. This contextualised approach was supported by an on-going knowledge-exchange system and shared learning for all partners.
Despite the general advancement of equality principles and policies in Europe, an examination of the career paths of academic researchers highlights a persistence of career patterns and outcomes that differ for men and women. Attention to the issue in Europe has been given a new impetus since the Lisbon Agenda in 2000. The creation of the European Research Area and the recognition of the contribution it can make to Europe’s knowledge economy has encouraged a new awareness of the strategic value of gender equality. When looking at the area of research and innovation gender equality is strategically valuable because it is now recognised that research excellence requires accessibility, resources and advancement opportunities for the best researchers, irrespective of gender; and innovation demands the diversity of perspective and input that is possible from a truly diverse research.
Numerous reports and projects in recent years (for example Helsinki Group, 2002; ETAN 2000, Expert Group on Structural Change, 2011; PRAGES 2009, genSET, 2010; GENDERA, 2010) had recognised the gap that continues to exist between principle, policy and practice: despite a gender equality agenda, gender inequality persists in selection, experience and outcome across disciplines, levels and countries. International academic literature on the policy/outcome gap supports the findings of these European reports: (for example, see Doherty and Manfredi, 2010 ; Özkanlı et al, 2009 ; Bagilhole and White, 2008 ; O’Connor, 2011 ).
Explanations of gender inequalities have evolved over time, but have centred on the role of three key elements: individual factors, organisational structures and institutional cultures. Early gender mainstreaming approaches include legislative prohibition of explicit discrimination and positive action measures for individual women. Such policies suggest that different outcomes may be explained by individual choice, behaviour and ambition in the expected absence of direct discrimination. Aside from on-going debates about whether or not explicit discrimination is actually banished by such legislation, understandings on the ways that gender influences academic and research careers have progressed. There is increased recognition of the complex interplay of individual and organisational factors that influence different outcomes and that, most importantly, produce and reproduce structures and systems that cumulatively disadvantage women throughout the process. This shift in focus from outcomes to the importance of structural and cultural gendering processes in the workplace and throughout the career is more recently being concentrated even further on the very nature of academia and the research enterprise themselves.
Greater diversity and equality of opportunity are crucial to enhancing excellence in research and innovation. The higher education sector is a key axis of the European research sector: Universities are the foundation of researcher development and a focal point for original research and innovation. The project’s emphasis on research in the academic sector is a strategy that targets the heart of the research and innovation enterprise as a whole. Policies for gender equality have had limited success, and there is a need to address the policy-outcome gap through more contextualised approaches. The importance of addressing the policy/outcome gap is reflected in recent calls for strategies that can actually be implemented, that will be implemented and that will achieve real outcomes to promote gender equality in the research and innovation sector. GENOVATE sought to bridge the gaps between policies and outcomes through the production of an accessible body of knowledge on the actual process of implementing locally-appropriate gender equality strategies in a range of academic organisations in different historical and political contexts with a view to transforming organisational structures towards more gender-competent management and further the achievement of robust, substantial and sustainable gender equality research systems. It sought to do this through a process that documents the implementation process in different institutions, with the aim of developing a social model of gender equality implementation that is locally and contextually-specific. The GENOVATE social model of gender equality implementation is underpinned by Jackson’s (2004) Change Academy Model, the social equality approach, and informed by data collected and analysed throughout the GENOVATE project. The model aimed to provide a set of guidelines for implementation that is highly contextualised and of relevance to institutions across Europe. The Change Academy model is based on the complexity thinking approaches of Stacey (2000) and of Plsek, Lindberg and Zimmerman (1997) . Jackson (2004) has applied the model to HE institutions, recognising that contemporary HE institutions are highly complex social systems, which continually change (adapt/invent) in spontaneous and unpredictable ways through the everyday conversations and interactions of people. As a result, complex, adaptive and flexible ways of thinking are required in order to create change.
This means that it is necessary to include both push and pull approaches internally in relation to behaviours and attitudes as well as externally in terms of organisational movement. If change for gender equality in each partner institution, and in the wider research environment, is seen in terms of a complex adaptive system needing to transform, then simply changing policies will never work. Previous experience has shown us, as outlined above, that there is frequently a wide gap between policy and practice in attempting to effect change for gender equality in research. Thus, GENOVATE will focus on influencing attitudinal as well as behaviour change, whilst trying to ensure that the change is not seen as directly imposed or as having predominantly negative personal effects thus creating barriers and greater reluctance.
The Gender Change Academy Model also recognises that each system, organisation or institution, is unique. Therefore there cannot be a standard replicable strategy for introducing more gender-competent management in research organisations in Europe. What is needed is a change strategy, which recognises that the structures, systems and cultures of organisations have evolved in different ways and at different paces, while also recognising the wider structures, systems and cultures of which they are a part. Strategies for change therefore need to adapt to their environments. GENOVATE has drawn on the change models and resources of the HEA Change Academy to construct a local model of change within consortium institutions and their partners involving both top-down and bottom-up approaches.
GENOVATE’s core goal was to ensure equal opportunities for women and men by encouraging a more gender-competent management in research, innovation and scientific decision-making bodies, with a particular focus on universities. The aims were
• To implement innovative and sustainable strategies for change in universities and research organisations to better support gender diversity and equal opportunities
• To promote the ways in which gender equality and diversity benefit excellence in research and innovation
• To facilitate meaningful knowledge exchange between European universities with very different levels of experience
• To develop and widely disseminate a sound management approach for abolishing gender inequalities and contributing to the improvement of working conditions for male and female researchers
GENOVATE recognised at the outset that the six core partner institutions (UNIBRAD, UCC, LTU, UNINA, AU, and TU) were in different ‘places’ in terms of their institutional approaches to gender equality, research and innovation, their needs and their organisational cultures. Therefore, the GENOVATE project was based on the implementation of Gender Equality Action Plans (GEAPs) in the six core partner institutions, which are unique to each partner institution, and are shaped by the local needs and readiness of those institutions. GENOVATE’s uniqueness was in its institutional and cross-disciplinary focus - recognising the different challenges faced by STEM, social sciences/humanities, medicine/health and other disciplines while also acknowledging the role of institution-wide factors. At the same time, it recognised the gendered nature of the wider structures, systems and cultures of which the institutions are a part, and together seeking to address this through both recognition of the wider research system itself and also through the shared aims, combined actions and knowledge exchange activities of the project.
The inherent potential for inequality in the research system is addressed in the project’s concern with enhancing research and innovation excellence, in recognition of the close connection between diversity and excellence. By improving gender equality in research and innovation, the standards of European research and the research-innovation nexus will be improved. GENOVATE therefore sought to develop a code of practice for embedding gender equality and diversity into research and innovation excellence standards based on the principles of transparency, consistency, accountability and inclusivity.
In addition, the shared learning between partner universities through the implementation process allowed GENOVATE to develop, iteratively, a social model of gender equality implementation, which is highly contextualised. This involved documenting and monitoring the implementation process, identifying facilitators and barriers to GEAP implementation in each partner institution, in the context of the institution’s particular social, political and historical characteristics, and documenting the knowledge exchange and learning achieved in each organisation, among their stakeholders and in the consortium as a whole. An evaluation process was integrated into each step of the project to monitor success and to facilitate learning from practice throughout the project. The outcome has been a holistic, top-down and bottom-up, contextualised and people-informed way of effecting gender equality implementation in research institutions across Europe.
An on-going evaluation process was built into the project involving both formative and summative assessments at different levels of the project, fulfilling the functions of (a) improvement - informing learning from practice and improving the GENOVATE project, (b) accountability - towards the EC - and (c) enlightenment - supporting sustainability and learning beyond the GENOVATE project and for contributing to the transformation of organisational cultures towards gender equality. The evaluation provided opportunities to foresee what else can and should be done in this realm after the project concludes. The evaluation contributed to two different, but complementary, purposes – to facilitate the decision-making processes within and beyond the GENOVATE project and to facilitate organisational learning and transformation of institutional culture towards gender equality. This means that the evaluation was embedded and integrated in each partner institution and each GEAP, and used participatory, empowerment, learning and capacity-building tools.
The evaluation was not an ‘external’ task to the Consortium. Although the evaluator (UCM) was responsible for the evaluation work package, an integrated evaluation required the participation of all partners: not only for facilitating the systematic information-gathering needed for the evaluation accomplishment, but for the generation and analysis of site-specific data at all levels of the project and the development of recommendations. Therefore, evaluation capacity-building took place throughout the process.
Project approach - Activities were organised in three Strands and eight work packages which facilitated delivery and monitoring of progress. GENOVATE Consortium management was provided through WP1 (Lead UNIBRAD); Strand 1: Model Development (WP 2 Lead TU and UNIBRAD); Strand 2: GEAP Implementation Roadmap (WP3 Lead UCC; WP 4 Lead AU; WP 5 Lead LTU with UCC providing overall coordination for Strand 2); and Strand 3: Evaluation, Reflections and Outputs (WP 6 Lead UNINA, WP 7 Lead UCM, WP 8 Lead UNIBRAD).
Project Results:
GENOVATE project involved the development of two overlapping and interlinked processes – (1) at the micro/institutional level linked to the implementation of GEAPs in the six implementing partner institutions (with the exception of UCM which led WP7 and supported the GEAPs’ evaluation), and (2) at the macro/Consortium level linked to the development of eight different Work Packages. Both were conceived of as crucial processes for developing the GENOVATE model of gender equality in research and innovation.
GEAP Implementation at institutional level
GEAP implementation at institutional level has involved the application of WP tasks within partner organisations utilising the GENOVATE Action Research Cycle and Process [GARCP], which constitutes 5 overlapping stages - review and refine current GEAP; Map actions; Take actions; Evaluate/Reflect on Actions; Specify Learning. The GARCP has guided the overall project delivery and GEAP implementation at an institutional level to produce both action outcomes and research outcomes. Implementation activities have helped to embed gender equality into institutional structures with impact across all institutions. The GARCP remained cyclic, participative, qualitative, reflective, responsive and emergent throughout the project. It responded effectively to the emerging needs of partners based on their individual contexts.
Reviewing and refining institutional Gender Equality Action Plans
This happened early on in the project with partners reviewing their institutional GEAPs against those that were submitted at proposal stage and made slight revisions to reflect changing institutional contexts. For example, due to significant changes within the institution, UNIBRAD mainstreamed GENOVATE activities across the University generic change programme, such as wellbeing programme, Bradford:Leader , wholesale Human Resources [HR] policy review and development, and Bradford Excellence Programme, and aligned Athena SWAN actions with its GEAP and governance structures, so as to achieve sustainability and institutionalisation of gender equality. GENOVATE@UCC contributed to the Athena SWAN process at University College Cork and influenced the Athena SWAN Gender Equality Action Plan for the university. Lulea University of Technology [LTU] extended plans to develop targets in 2016 for the recruitment of women professors from 2017 onwards, due to the slow progress on the Swedish Governmental level. LTU also changed the order of activities in relation to task 4.1 and the analysis of the employee survey was postponed to 2016. Trnava University [TU] amended their GEAP including additional activities for WP5 and based on a baseline review of institutional practices, clarified actions for WP3 and WP4. Ankara University [AU] revised their GEAP to include a new objective and related actions to ‘empower institutional resources for academics on the basis of gender equality’. TU refined the relevant GEAP actions to provide more focus, clarity and feasibility. The process of refinement of the GEAP involved discussion within the TU team, and more broadly with the Institutional Advisory Board, and senior staff from across the university, in order to engage people in the GEAP implementation process and to increase the awareness on the gender issues in academia. During the first meeting with the Institutional Advisory Board of GENOVATE@UNINA, University of Naples Federico II [UNINA] decided to extend the GEAP implementation to all departments in the 2 phases (Phase 1 involved implementation within the Division of Science and Technology and Phase 2 extending into 2 more divisions - Division of Human and Social Science and Division of Life Science).
Mapping actions
Partners identified areas for additional action within their institutions. For example: UNIBRAD identified a new action around the need to link intersections of gender with other areas of diversity. An action was set to work with the internal Equality and Diversity Unit [EDU] to embed GENOVATE principles into a support guide for Transgender staff and students. TU repeated surveys on recruitment and career progression and on gender climate on 2 occasions, the results informed further implementation of GEAP. A new action was added to the GEAP to develop a gender equality course for Master of Public Health academic year 2014/2015. UCC re-organised and refined their GEAP actions into 8 core actions for the university.
Taking action
Implementation of WP activities took place across all institutions to embed gender equality into institutional structures. Sample [non-exhaustive] activities include: National Learning Circles; contextualised governance institutional and consortium committees; regular mutual exchange ‘Stop and Share’ sessions; GENOVATE Cafés; GENOVATE open days; Development of GENOVATE Change Academy Teams (GeCATs); Tailored engagement with internal and external stakeholders; Development of implementation strategies; Positive Action activities; Culture change programmes; application of WP guidelines and principles; Feedback and contribution towards deliverables and tasks; Gender Climate Assessments; Guided and written reflections; E-portfolio development; Development and dissemination of GENOVATE resources and tools.
Evaluating and reflecting on actions
In addition to regular guided and written reflections undertaken, partners worked with the evaluation team, UCM, to utilise a range of quantitative and qualitative evaluative tools for ongoing developmental evaluation. Specifically, a set of tools were used during different phases of the project: documentary analysis; participatory observation; evaluation workshops at annual GENOVATE conventions; on-site visits; interviews with individuals in charge of WPs; and a series of questionnaires. These included a questionnaire to determine expectations and understandings; questionnaires for project processes and outputs; a mid-term review of the project on diversity and gender equality change; and on implementation and institutional changes, and two evaluation questionnaires at two distinct periods for members of the International Advisory Board. Moreover, the UCM team carried out an analysis of the GENOVATE project’s visual production with respect to notable successes and challenges from an e-Portfolio, which formed as part of the GEAP Implementation Roadmap within the GENOVATE online platform.
Specifying learning
Each institution took part in knowledge exchange activities to share the issues that emerged in their specific institutional and country context with both partners and stakeholders. Knowledge exchange activities involving the sharing of implementation experiences, challenges and opportunities took place as part of the Annual GENOVATE Conventions and through virtual Stop-and-Share sessions. In addition, specific knowledge sharing activities were arranged to share partners’ expertise in different areas. For example, UNIBRAD has recognised expertise in diversity, Equality Impact Assessment Analysis (EIAA) and the Change Academy Model (CAM), and worked with partners to develop the Social Model for Gender Equality Implementation; UCC has recognised expertise in Mentoring and supported partners to build this into their institutional practices. LTU has a recognised expertise in setting gender targets; AU has an expertise in designing distance learning courses and supported the online infrastructure for gender competent leadership package [D4.1]; Università degli Studi di Napoli [UNINA] has recognised expertise in knowledge exchange technologies and Universidad Complutense de Madrid [UCM] has recognised expertise in evaluation; providing workshops and supporting partners in their GEAP evaluation practice.
Throughout the project, the consortium shared this expertise through the use of Stop and Share sessions .
In addition to activities linked to the actual implementation, institutions have undertaken dissemination activities that are explained under WP8.
Summary of institutional GEAP implementation
UNIBRAD: UNIBRAD’s continued development of its model of gender equality implementation using the Gender Change Academy Model [CAM] has realised institutional successful outcomes. This has enabled comparison of GEAP implementation at institutional and Faculty levels, and continues to identify facilitators and barriers to implementation. GENOVATE has supported the University to implement structures and processes to support its equality and diversity policies and dissemination of information. These structures have in turn played a part in the GEAP implementation. The University is renowned amongst the UK HEI sector for its leading role in research on equality and diversity and continues to build strategic networks with key stakeholders within and external to the sector. These networks are extensively being explored in creating strategic collaborations with respect to GENOVATE project implementation, sustainability, and knowledge exchange. The University is guided by both sector-wide and institutional policy frameworks, which form the primary foundation to set out actions as envisioned in the GEAP implementation document.
Organisational challenges were anticipated in regards to the progression of such a complex institutional change programme. The issues of aligning GENOVATE to other institutional activities were overcome by working with HR and Senior Management Team, and providing individual support tailored specific to each Faculty. Resistance was expected by some staff members to the GEAP activities, however as people are already in a change culture due to university wide transformation programmes taking place, resistance was minimal. In selecting GEAP actions UNIBRAD was mindful of the University's institutional values and vision, and of the diverse national context in which the University is based. It is important that equality and diversity is reflected throughout all faculties and roles within the University. Hence, as per the CAM model, cross-functional change academy teams were set up at institutional and Faculty level to provide strategic support and information to facilitate the required transition – structures, processes and behaviours.
UNIBRAD’s holistic approach to addressing gender equality within the institution ensures that gender initiatives such as Athena SWAN, AURORA, COMPACT and the health and wellbeing initiatives are closely aligned with GENOVATE. GENOVATE@UNIBRAD have worked with HR and the Equality and Diversity Unit to develop a composite gender equality plan drawn from 3 gender projects. They have identified and celebrated some quick wins, e.g. gender balanced appointment panel; Gender projects have been identified and implemented at faculty levels; GENOVATE cafés are now used as a barometer for checking perceptions around gender equality as well as raising the profile of gender equality both at institutional and disciplinary levels; Institutional Athena SWAN Bronze Award, increase in the number of women in leadership roles including recent appointments of Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic), Pro Vice Chancellor (Learning, Teaching and Quality), Chair of Council and one of the UK’s leading business women, appointed as UNIBRAD’s Chancellor. A summary of achievements in UNIBRAD include:
• Gender equality work has gained momentum
• Resources for gender networks and gender equality support systems have been given higher priority and strengthened
• Institutionalisation of gender equality in different institutional structures, resources, working methods and approaches
• Attempts to integrate gender equality into the university’s core functions, activities and priority areas are being received positively.
UCC: UCC team have achieved their objectives in GEAP implementation. In Year 1, concrete task-based activities were identified and developed. In Year 2, as the GENOVATE project moved into the implementation phase, UCC established positive working relationships with key stakeholders and consolidated the GEAP activities into eight core action areas. In Year 3 they increased GEAP implementation and engagement activities as the Stakeholder Engagement Strategy was rolled out. In Year three, UCC engaged with institutional stakeholders through a series of Cafés, an Open Day and multi-media platforms and presentations to strategic institutional decision-making bodies such as Academic Council and UCC’s Strategic University Management Team. In Year 4 and Year 4 Extension, GENOVATE@UCC deepened its internal engagement in implementation of the 8 core GEAP actions, with particular emphasis on the university strategic planning processes and sustainability.
Overall their activities and achievements have included: (a) conducted institutional research to investigate policy, practice and outcomes, including a project on experiences of maternity leave; (b) development of a Briefing Note series to highlight identified challenge), focus attention on the proposed actions to redress challenges and pathways to implementation and provide a strategic vehicle for engagement and implementation regarding proposed actions; (c) catalysed visibility of, and conversations about, gender in/equality, through the Stakeholder Engagement Strategy; (d) raised awareness of equality issues in the management of maternity leave in the institution, produced a set of guidelines to support good management of leave and led to the establishment of a Cross-University Working Group on Good Management of Maternity/Family Leave; (e) produced a set of six Tools to support implementation of actions; (f) successfully engaged Academic Council to commit to strengthening gender balance in decision-making; (g) successfully engaged the University Management Team to establish periodic reporting on the implementation of gender equality actions as part of its Annual Operational Plan; (h) successfully engaged the University Management Team to commit to implementing all eight of GENOVATE’s gender equality actions; (i) launched The GENOVATE Hub including multiple resources to support implementation of GENOVATE’s gender equality actions; (j) participated in a successful national initiative (led by Trinity College Dublin) to extend the Athena SWAN initiative to Ireland and subsequently engaged with, and inputted into, UCC’s Athena SWAN work resulting in an increased profile and commitment to gender equality actions within the institution; (k) advocated for the establishment of a multi-dimensional Equality Office for the university which would have oversight, policy development, research and advisory functions (subsequently, a new Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Unit for the university has been announced). Overall, GENOVATE has contributed to a growing momentum for change in the university, in particular in terms of visibility of gender issues and in institutional commitment
LTU: LTU team recognised two types of gender gaps: vertical segregation of gender (few women hold professorships) and a horizontal segregation between fields of research and education (extremely few women in ICT and some areas of engineering). The main features of their activities were gender equality implementation, promotion of gender mainstreaming benefits in ICT innovation systems and decision-making bodies, support of and collaboration with LTU’s ongoing gender initiatives, and further development of gender equality tools and methods in close collaboration with internal and external stakeholders. LTU has maintained a focus on implementation throughout the project. Engagement of both internal and external stakeholders has been organised by the needs and drivers of stakeholders, with the aim of contributing to more creative and inclusive innovation systems.
LTU’s gender-balanced Advisory Board has been key in promoting structural change at the institution. LTU team members have selected high profile board members because of their knowledge and expertise in ensuring involvement of management in promotion of gender-aware structures and culture at the institution. In 2015 the LTU advisory board was widened with two new members to strengthen the innovation dimension of implementation activities. Their strategy has been to attract more women researchers to ICT and ICT innovation systems on all levels at the university, as such, challenging and transforming workplace culture and structures. LTU has involved internal and external stakeholders as partners in gender equality initiative, in order to enable interaction and to promote joint learning processes. The aim was to understand stakeholder individuals’ needs and drivers and to inspire stakeholders to promote a more gender-aware environment and structures in research, innovation and decision-making bodies as well as to promote a more sustainable change. Stakeholder participation and promotion of the ownership of a change process has been a key success factor for LTU.
AU: GENOVATE team targeted four main intervention activities for gender equality at AU: [a] Networking with the significant platforms of AU (Equality Coordinatorship, Women’s Platform, Women Studies Centre); [b] Close collaborations established with the central units of AU (Technology Transfer Office, Scientific Research Project Unit and Distance Learning Centre); [c] Monitoring selected gender indicators using the data provided by AU research units and sharing the changes and identified challenges with the related Unit; [d] Reviewing and revising fundamental directories and structural policy documents of AU and sharing reports with the top management; and [e] Networking activities with stakeholders and community engagement. When GENOVATE Project started in 2013, there was no policy document of the Higher Education Institution (HEI) on gender mainstreaming, which is the supreme organisation that determines higher education policies in Turkey. On top of the commitments at the institutional level, GENOVATE AU team took the responsibility to contribute preparations of gender equality action plans as for the inner and outer stakeholders of the Project as HEI.
At AU, key advances include the incorporation of gender equality as a core managerial principle by top managers. Another notable result was increasing gender awareness within the university’s more active faculties. AU has successfully included a diversity competent leadership package within in-service training in order to transform leadership and decision-making processes. AU have also improved networking as external stakeholders are sharing an interest in GENOVATE, and inviting the AU GENOVATE team to attend external activities.
UNINA: The UNINA GEAP was implemented taking into account some modification with respect to the initial proposal. UNINA team identified the priorities of the GEAP implementation and grouped together similar GEAP actions in few main projects; it was decided not to limit the sphere of action of GENOVATE to the Division of Science and Technology, which is the biggest of the UNINA Divisions, but to cover also the other three UNINA Divisions, in such a way to properly take into account the needs of all the institution.
In this process, UNINA team continued to identify the challenges that impede the realization of positive action, searching for the best way to overcome the barriers. In particular, prior to GENOVATE project, several initiatives had promoted and supported gender equality at UNINA: the Gender Studies Graduate Programme, the Equal Opportunities Committee, the Neapolitan Women in Science group, the Academic Senate. Yet GENOVATE has enhanced these initiatives and has led to a more coordinated activities and created the safe space to discuss common objectives, and actions eventually. In addition to the Gender Observatory on university and research established in the institution, other positive results of GENOVATE in UNINA are:
• Approval of the rules for the elections of the members of the Guarantee Act Committee for equal opportunities and promotion of well-being in the workplace, against any form of employee discrimination by the Academic Senate. In addition, a clear institutional vision and mission related to coordinating gender equality implementation at UNINA has been established.
• Actions directed to involve top-management and varied university stakeholders have been successful for the most part, which may indicate that, however slowly, gender awareness is progressing in the institution. With the help of the steady support of top management it is conceivable that challenges, such as low student involvement in gender equality initiatives as well as low involvement of male colleagues in GeCAT teams, could be overcome.
• The necessity of guaranteeing sustainability to the processes catalysed by the GENOVATE project, challenged by, for instance, the small number of people actively involved in the process, or the difficulty to motivate certain target groups such as students and male colleagues, can be secured by the support of top management.
• The implementation of the first mentoring programme for women in science in the Italian academia. The implemented mentoring model was object of study by the Gender Studies Graduate Programme of UNINA aimed to design a mentoring model for gender equality in academia suited to Italian academic context.
• The realisation of the First Gender Budget of the Ateneo Fridericiano, a strategic tool that provides an assessment of the political-economic and financial decisions of the administration from a gender-sensitive perspective, aimed to support a more efficient, transparent, and equitable, management of resources.
• Actions aimed to integrate the gender dimension in research and innovation content in order to increase the excellence in Research and Innovation and to avoid bias in research based on stereotypes and on the (falsely) neutral models, which are actually masculine models.
TU: TU refined the relevant GEAP actions in order to provide more focus, clarity and feasibility. The process of refinement of the GEAP involved discussion within the TU team, and more broadly with the Institutional Advisory Board, and senior staff from across the university, in order to engage people in the GEAP implementation process and to increase the awareness on the gender issues in academia. Key actions of TU Gender Equality Action Plan were: development of a social model of gender equality implementation in collaboration with UNIBRAD; gender equality in Recruitment, Progression and Research support; Career Development Plans [CDP]; raising awareness of gender equality in research and innovation; developing and disseminating a sound management approach implementing gender equality; and contributing to the improvement of working conditions for male and female researchers.
Work package Tasks at Consortium Level
WP 1 – Management of the GENOVATE Consortium [led by UNIBRAD]
Consortium management activities
The management structure as agreed in the Project Proposal has been implemented and all associated deliverables were delivered on target. There were no changes to the management of the GENOVATE consortium activities as detailed in the DOW. The levels of management remained:
i) the Project Coordinator [UNIBRAD] was responsible for the overall coordination of the project and reporting to the European Commission;
ii) the General Assembly was the main governing body responsible for scientific, technical and research issues.
iii) the Operations Group (OG) was responsible for supporting the GEN through day-to-day management of the project and ensuring that correct procedures were adopted and followed, and that all deadlines, milestones, Work Package deliverables and reports were met;
iv) the International Advisory Board provided scientific support to the GENOVATE project, the primary purpose of which was focused on directing GENOVATE to the achievement of its objectives;
v) GEAP Coordinator (UCC) provided an oversight for effective and efficient GEAP implementation in cooperation with the work package leaders, with responsibility for the management and harmonisation of the project activities within WPs 3, 4, and 5 assuring the regular communication between the contributors of the relevant actions;
vi) Institutional GEAP Management Boards (IGMB) managed GEAP implementation in each institution providing guidance and overseeing the direction, quality and efficiency of the project.
Project Co-ordination
The project coordinator provided an efficient project management for GENOVATE and its 6 partners. All project management tasks have been carried out successfully by the Project Coordinator, which is reflected by the excellent progress the project has made towards its objectives as well as by the results it has achieved with respect to dissemination. The Project Coordinator, GEAP Co-ordinator and Institutional Leads [Work package leaders] reported on a quarterly basis to the General Assembly and Operations Group addressing the progress of the GEAP implementation and Work Packages, necessary adjustments in the work plan and in resource allocation, and progress in the area of dissemination.
Main activities focused on ensuring efficient communication, data sharing and integration between the participants in the project, as well as to ensure full compliance with all legal and EC requirements. One important platform for this purpose, has been the user-friendly access restricted internal GENOVATE Community as well as consortium shared DropBox where documents and data are uploaded and shared among all partners of GENOVATE. Further instruments have included working documents, 4 institutional reports per year [106 reports in total] and annual WP progress reports [28 reports in total], 4 convention reports and 3 annual evaluation reports. There has also been extensive scientific contact within the consortium including partner meetings during conferences, Annual GENOVATE Conventions [March 2013 in Bradford; March 2014 in Trnava; March 2015 in Cork; and April 2016 in Amersfoort], smaller WP virtual meetings between partners. Project Coordinator had regular contacts with the GENOVATE team and maintained regular management/implementation support surgeries with partners.
The co-ordinator has facilitated the involvement of International Advisory Board (IAB) members to provide advice and assist the work of the project. Members of the IAB span across the majority of countries represented by GENOVATE partners. Members have contributed to GENOVATE project work and attended meetings both face to face and virtually including the annual conventions. They were actively involved in the international conference in Brussels, which took place on 2nd and 3rd November 2016. Members have also attended bi-annual meetings and contributed to the on-going dialogue on gender equality in academia. Throughout the duration of the project, the work plan was managed appropriately taking into account the nature of action research approach which underpins the GENOVATE project and several adjustments in timing as well as in the allocation of resources were carried out. The use of resources and the status of the work plan were continuously monitored by the project coordinator and reported on a quarterly basis to the General Assembly; if considered necessary, contingency measures were proposed. Quality of the deliverables was monitored and checked subsequently at 5 levels (Project Co-ordinator, GEAP Coordinator, WP Leader, Project Team, and General Assembly). Contingency measures (re-allocation of resources, adjustment work plan) were put in place.
Contact with the EC
Upon request of partners, the European Commission [through the project officer] was contacted on an ad hoc basis in addition to planned contact for any required aspect of the GENOVATE work. The GENOVATE project requested and obtained approval for an amendment to the grant agreement for a 6-month no-cost extension. This resulted in change to the project duration from 48 to 54 months.
WP2 Development of a social model of gender equality implementation [Led by TU and UNIBRAD]
The main objectives of WP 2 coordinated jointly by TU and UNIBRAD, were to develop a contemporary model of gender equality implementation iteratively guided by the Change Academy model and based on the process and outcomes of the GENOVATE project; to establish a standard consultation model that will enable the comparison of GEAP implementation at micro and macro institutional levels in each partner organisation; and to identify facilitators and barriers to model implementation from each partner in order to demonstrate a holistic and people-informed way of viewing gender equality implementation in research institutions across Europe.
To achieve the WP 2 objectives, two tasks were set:
• To create appropriate mechanisms through which institutions will feed in their respective GEAP implementation information
• To gather and analyse data on the processes and outcomes in order to iteratively create the model
Using the principles of the Change Academy model and the social equality approach, and the data collected and analysed throughout the GENOVATE project, WP2 developed a contextual model to explain and describe the process and outcomes of GEAP implementation in partner institutions.
The model of gender equality implementation was developed in a participative and inclusive way, and informed iteratively (throughout the lifetime of the project, and was fed back to project partners) by the GEAP institutions’ experiences and reflections of the process of change on-going in their individual settings. Since each partner institution had a unique context for gender equality in the organisational structures, the model was informed with varying experiences and reflections. The model was also informed by feedback from the evaluation team and input from GENOVATE International Advisory Board members and other key stakeholders.
The model of gender equality implementation was developed based on the processes and actions of the partners of the GENOVATE project:
- Strand 1: Consultation via the Guided Reflections (verbal discussions and written reflections), at micro and macro institutional levels. The Reflections helped to assess the narrative of change as described and experienced by the GEAP partner institutions. The reflections took place longitudinally in three rounds – in 2013, 2014 and 2015. For each round of written and verbal reflections a separate report was developed and submitted.
- Strand 2: Establishment of the GENOVATE Community: WP 2 task commenced with the creation of appropriate mechanisms through which institutions would feed in their respective GEAP implementation information. In cooperation with UNINA, GENOVATE Community (http://www.genovate.unina.it/community/) an online platform for meaningful knowledge exchange across the consortium was developed. Through the GENOVATE Community the institutions shared perceptions and modes of best practice in implementing the GEAPs and individual work packages. The Community also provided a channel for collecting written reflections.
- Strand 3: Contextualising institutional practices, analysis and synthesis of the findings of the GEAP implementation and Work package activities. In order to inform the social model with outcomes and findings from GEAP implementation, two actions were taken:
• An analysis of the institutional reports submitted by partners to know how the Change Academy Model is being applied. This data were complemented by the findings from the written and verbal reflections.
• On-going communication with the coordinator of the GEAP WPs (UCC) in order to plan and capture as many methods of reflections and evaluation in-built within the core GEAP WPs.
- Strand 4: Six Stop and Share Sessions – October and November 2013, November 2015 and December 2015
- Strand 5: WP2 presentations and Consortium discussions at four annual GENOVATE Conventions 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016
- Strand 6: Regular [from M3] and then Weekly Skype meetings [from M37] between Trnava University and University of Bradford to fine-tune the model
The final product is the GENOVATE Model for Gender Equality in Transforming Research and Innovation ). The GENOVATE model is based on the outcomes of the GENOVATE project processes and activities. The model aims to make a key contribution to holistic understanding of the issues, processes and outcomes of gender inequality in research within a diverse mix of universities and national contexts with four key features:
• draws from specific but diverse cases giving a whole institution perspective on the issues and activity of all work packages;
• reflects gender equality change in the GENOVATE institutions
• emerges from the ongoing documentation of the implementation process at ground level for each project team; and
• provides details of the process of implementation and the potential barriers and innovative responses that can be encountered during the process.
Central to the implementation of the GENOVATE Model is an overarching framework underpinned by the Change Academy Model [CAM]. CAM recognises that contemporary higher education institutions are highly complex social systems, which continually change (adapt/invent) in spontaneous and unpredictable ways through the everyday conversations and interactions of people. CAM was already embedded within the structural mechanisms of some partner institutions [e.g. UNIBRAD]; for others this was a novel idea at the beginning of the project. Across the partner institutions, however, adapting CAM to produce the Gender Equality Change Academy Framework, which emphasises the importance of creating a supportive environment for conversation, discussion and learning on gender equality was suitable for enabling the development of the GENOVATE Model.
The GENOVATE Gender Equality Framework [GECAF] recognises the specificity, different contextual realities, and uniqueness of each GENOVATE partner institution, whose structures, systems and cultures have evolved in different ways, and relate to the wider structures, systems and cultures of which they are a part. The framework embraces the synergies between top-down and bottom-up actors, actions and approaches, and which delivers innovative, locally/appropriate, structural, cultural and sustainable change for gender equality in research, innovation, and organisational cultures.
One of GENOVATE’s main goals and achievements is the implementation of strategies for the transformation of organisational structures towards more gender competent management. The implementation process was carried out in different institutions with the aim of developing a social model of gender equality that is locally relevant and contextually-specific. Several implementation tools have been developed by project teams with the aim of accomplishing robust, substantial and sustainable gender equality research systems to effectively reduce the policy-outcome gap.
Strong intra-consortium collaboration has been key for developing the framework, which draws from the shared experience and reflections of all partners. In this respect, all partners contributed with their strengths and expertise to the development of GECAF, which have been essential for the project and in particular, development of the GENOVATE model. In this respect, UNIBRAD brought into GENOVATE its expertise in developing and applying CAM to other institutional change programmes, thought leadership on integration of equality, diversity and inclusivity in research excellence and Equality Impact Assessment Analysis; UCC’s recognised expertise in Mentoring has been fundamental to support partners to build this into their institutional practices. LTU’s insight in setting gender targets was key at different stages of the project along with extensive experience of developing tools for integrating gender equality in Innovation Systems; AU has an expertise in designing distance learning courses, which was very much needed in setting the online infrastructure of GENOVATE e-learning package. UNINA has recognised expertise in knowledge exchange technologies, which supported and facilitated GENOVATE’s knowledge sharing and knowledge transfer processes; and UCM’s expertise on evaluation has been a powerful tool for supporting the evaluation of GEAP implementation.
WP3 Gender Equality in Recruitment, Progression and Research Support [Led by UCC]
Work Package 3 (like Work Packages 4 and 5) focused on GEAP implementation in the six core partner institutions, with the objectives of [a] Overcoming direct and indirect gender discrimination by positively strengthening selection processes relating to recruitment, promotion and progression of, and support for, researchers; [b] Strengthening the presence of women in academic/research leadership positions, senior academic research positions and senior positions in research bodies and councils; and [c] Supporting women in accessing opportunities for advancement in their research careers through positive-action initiatives
These objectives were achieved through three inter-related tasks:
§ Develop and implement institutional strategies for gender equality in academic recruitment, promotion and progression
§ Set gender targets for senior academic and research positions
§ Support female academic researchers in accessing opportunities for advancement in their careers
Task 3.1 Institutional strategies for gender equality in academic recruitment, promotion and progression
The primary task was for each partner to develop and implement an Institutional Recruitment, Progression and Research Support Strategy Document. This document sets out each partner’s strategy for GEAP implementation work in WP3.
In the first six months of Year 1, the WP Coordinator, UCC, with the input of all partners, developed a methodology, template and set of shared guidelines for the completion of this task. The task methodology was discussed at the first Annual GENOVATE Convention 2013 and the guidelines and template were finalised soon afterwards. All six core partners completed their WD3.1 in Year 1, and all six WD3.1 documents were available to all partners in the shared location for the duration of the project. The WP Coordinator also prepared a summary report of the six WD3.1 documents to facilitate strategic knowledge exchange between partners and to identify shared priorities.
There were three subtasks in this Task. The first subtask, to examine current procedures and practices in each core partner institution relation to gender equality in recruitment, promotion, progression and retention, was completed by all partners. This included a baseline analysis of data on staffing in the institution. Partners also put in place procedures for monitoring this data on an annual basis. The WP Coordinator also designed an Institutional Questionnaire for each partner institution to complete as an attachment to Strategy Document. This provided comparable data on policies and practices relating to gender equality in recruitment, progression, promotion and retention in each partner institution at the start-point of the project.
The second subtask for each core partner institution was to develop and implement a Strategy to address lack of policy, or gap between policy and practice, as appropriate to each institution. Partners drew on the examination of current practices and procedures in developing a Strategy which was appropriate to their own institutional context, incorporating identification of opportunities and barriers and establishing monitoring and evaluation procedures. Partners were supported by the WP Coordinator in implementing their Strategies, through regular support emails, and through workshops at the Annual GENOVATE Conventions.
The third subtask was to draw on best practice in partner institutions with experience of implementing such policies. The WP Coordinator facilitated this subtask by requesting all core partners to share details of best practice in the area of gender equality in recruitment, promotion, progression and retention from their own institution. Core partners submitted this information by April 2013 (Year 1). This information was collated and was made available to all partners so that it could be used in developing and implementing their own Strategies. The best practice examples were available to all partners via the shared DropBox folder for the duration of the project. The sharing of best practice was also facilitated through a number of workshops and ‘Stop-and-Shares’.
Progress on implementation of institutional strategies for gender equality in academic recruitment, promotion and progression
UNINA: A core activity for UNINA was the development of the first Gender Budget of the university. The First Gender Budget of the Ateneo Fridericiano was published by FedOAPress in June 2016 and is now available in open access on the FedOAPress webpage. The volume consists of a thorough analysis and detailed map of the current gender gap in the institution. In order to ensure the sustainability of gender actions at UNINA, and in particular, the continuity of gender data compilation and analysis, the Gender Observatory on university and research was established in UNINA in July 2016 by GENOVATE.
LTU: In LTU, the strategy focused on attracting more women researchers to ICT and ICT innovation systems at all levels at the university. This was implemented through internal and external stakeholder engagement, provision of support to the university’s Department of Human Resources in implementing a gender-aware and sustainable recruitment process, and a focus on the male-dominated School of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering as a test-bed for implementation. As a result, the university has seen an increase of women professors from 17 to 22% (2012-2015) and an increase of women academic staff at the School of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering from 11 to 21% (2013-2016).
UCC: UCC’s Institutional Strategy identified three principal proposed actions for the university, i.e. periodic gender equality audits, monitoring and training, each one supported by a set of resources and detailed proposals which were developed and promoted through an iterative process of investigation and stakeholder engagement. All three were approved by the University Management Team and have been included as committed actions in the university’s (Athena SWAN) GEAP for 2016-19. The university has now put in place systems for systematically gathering gender-disaggregated data and for gender equality monitoring and is introducing training on unconscious bias for staff.
UNIBRAD: The core activities for UNIBRAD focused on reviewing career structures to build a critical mass of more than 30% women in senior [research] posts, ensuring selection panels are 50% women and regular gender pay-gap analysis. These were progressed through data analysis, dissemination and faculty-specific projects, as well as a pay and rewards review, an academic trajectory analysis, a career break project and learning partnerships, and integration into Athena SWAN action plan. In addition, a number of activities focused on promotion of STEMM subjects to schoolgirls are on-going. UNIBRAD has carried out pipeline development work by involving nine interns [six from STEM disciplines and three from social sciences and humanities, with a 44 F /56 M gender split] on GENOVATE to support their understanding and development of gender equality initiatives and implementation.
In AU, the key achievements were: tracking gender distribution of academic personnel by faculty, academic title and position; ensuring gender balance in the allocation of research funds by the Scientific Research Unit; intervention in promotions process at institutional level by adding ‘promotion of gender equality’ as a criterion; review and systematisation of the evaluation process of the Scientific Research Unit at AU.
TU’s Strategy focused on the development of a Sustainable Staff Progression Policy – the introduction by GENOVATE of the Career Development Policy which drew from Institutional Recruitment, Progression and Research Support Strategy Document, (included in the EIGE GEAR toolbox) represents a very significant development in the TU context and part of the long-term strategy for development of a Sustainable Staff Progression Policy.
Task 3.2 Setting gender targets for senior academic and research positions
The development of a detailed Strategy and implementation plan for WP3 activities was viewed as a first step in progress towards achievement of Task 3.2. The task of setting gender targets became a focus of discussion at the Second Annual GENOVATE Convention in 2014, and the challenges faced by some universities in achieving this were discussed. The WP Coordinator worked with some partners to find context-appropriate ways of completing this task.
Institutional activities:
In both UCC and UNINA, a significant achievement has been the introduction of systematic gender monitoring and analysis; this is seen as a first step towards setting of realistic gender targets for senior positions in both universities. In UCC, already, the current UCC Athena SWAN Action Plan (2016-19) includes specific gender targets for Head of Department/School/Centre/Institute appointments (minimum 40% of each gender).
In line with its strategic goals on equality, inclusivity, and diversity, UNIBRAD, in collaboration with their HR Directorate, has refined GEAP targets for senior posts and selection panels within the Athena SWAN Action Plan, which involved setting targets for 3 years. University of Bradford’s Research and Knowledge Transfer Strategy has ambitious targets for tripling numbers to be submitted to REF2021 and closing the gender gap. To achieve these targets the University will monitor research activities for staff groupings and set clear expectations on delivery and quality. Currently data shows that fewer women are applying for academic roles, therefore UoB plans to increase job applications from academic women. This will be done by promoting family friendly and flexible working policies and practices promoted in job adverts and on the HR website.
For LTU, the development of a new model for setting targets has seen slow progress on the Swedish governmental level. The university is currently waiting for the government’s decision on what model to apply. LTU developed targets in 2016 for the recruitment of women professors from 2017 and onwards, based on the Swedish government’s coming model for recruitment and promotion. When this project was initiated by LTU’s HR department, the GENOVATE LTU team took an active part in the process of setting targets.
Setting gender targets for senior positions was not possible in AU due to the centralised nature of the appointments and promotions processes in Turkey. Instead, AU-GENOVATE focused on inter-institutional networking with a view to collaborative change, in addition to measures at the institutional level to address promotion criteria and to support women in career progression.
Task 3.3 Supporting female academic and researchers in accessing opportunities for advancement in their careers
The development of a detailed Strategy and implementation plan for WP3 activities was a first step in progress towards supporting female academic researchers in accessing opportunities for advancement in their careers. All core partners reviewed, as part of WP4 actions, their institutions’ structures and discussed their plans to support female academics and researchers in accessing opportunities for career advancement during the WP3 workshop at the Second Annual Convention 2014.
One of the subtasks of this task was to draw on best practice in partner institutions. The best practice examples collected as part of WP3 working document included examples of best practice in supporting female academics/researchers in accessing opportunities for career advancement.
Institutional activities to support female academics and researchers:
In order to support women in accessing opportunities for the advancement of their research careers, the UNINA team implemented a Pilot Mentoring Programme as one of the main actions of the UNINA GEAP. The main goal of the programme was to help young women to identify their own career goals and expertise needs, and to help them to focus on these objectives. This was the first women-only mentoring initiative in an Italian university. The Pilot Mentoring Programme has been evaluated and published in the book La dimensione di genere nelle carriere accademiche. Riflessività e cambiamento nel progetto pilota di GENOVATE@UNINA (Fedoa Press, Napoli, 2017). The evaluation results will contribute suggestions for a new mentoring scheme for women in Italian academia.
UNIBRAD is supporting female academics working up to Senior Lecturer level to take part in the AURORA programme. A total of 30 women [15 participants and 15 role models] have taken part in the programme since 2015. The AURORA programme aims to encourage a wide range of women in academic and professional roles to think of themselves as leaders, to develop leadership skills, and to help institutions to maximise the potential of these women. This programme has been integrated into the suite of gender equality initiatives led by the University’s Strategic Advisor for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. In addition, Faculty GeCATs have designed projects to promote career progression of academic staff through mentoring of early career female academics and post -doctoral researchers, learning partnerships between senior researchers [professors] and academic staff on probation to gain research experience, and between academic staff and PhD students with a view to building the pipeline of future academics.
At UCC, the GENOVATE project provided support to the Department of Human Resources in the initial stages of setting up UCC’s involvement in Aurora Leadership Programme. This has now become established on an annual basis, run by the Department of HR, with up to 20 female staff participating each year. In addition, the GENOVATE Scientific Coordinator provided advice and delivered training to UNINA staff on Mentoring Academic and Research Staff. The training was delivered in Naples in December 2014 and by webinar in January 2015.
The focus in LTU was on methods and tools for gender equality interventions targeting both women and men. This means that all actors involved in the recruitment and promotion processes participated in interactive and joint learning activities towards the goal of systematic and sustainable change.
GENOVATE in AU focused on support for women academics to apply for decision-making and leadership positions in the university. In addition, seminars were provided for young academics in different faculties to support them in securing research funding. Networking was strengthened through coordination between the women’s platform at AU and women’s studies centre members.
GENOVATE@TU introduced a new Career Development programme for female and male academics in their faculty. This involves personal development plans prepared by employees, which form the basis of career development discussions between the employee and their line manager, and which feed into departmental and faculty plans. This Career Development Plan is the first of its kind in the institution and forms the basis of the development of a long-term Sustainable Staff Progression Policy.
Deliverable 3.1:
The main output of WP3 is Deliverable 3.1 - Contextualised Guidelines on Implementation of Measures for Gender Equality in Recruitment, Promotion and Progression for Academics and Researchers. This draws together the main learning from WP3 implementation in the form of contextualised guidelines for other organisations. The deliverable was submitted to the EC in April 2016 and is available here. The submission has been approved by the EC Project Officer and requested for inclusion in the EIGE Online Tool.
Methodology: The WP Coordinator, with input from partners, developed a methodology and work plan for completion of Deliverable 3.1. Partners were invited to submit written reflections on their WP3 activities (in response to tailored questions) by October 2015 and this was followed by another round of follow-up reflections during Nov 2015 to January 2016. The written reflections were analysed by the WP Coordinating Team at UCC, alongside other useful sources such as Annual Progress Reports (WDs 3.2). A draft set of Contextualised Guidelines was circulated to partners for feedback. This was the focus for discussion at a Stop-and-Share in early 2016. Feedback was incorporated and a final draft was submitted to the EC in April 2016.
D3.1: Contextualised Guidelines: The document outlines a set of guidelines for universities and research organisations that are in the process of, or considering, implementing: measures for gender equality in selection processes relating to recruitment, promotion and progression of academics and researchers; measures aimed at strengthening the presence of women in leadership and senior positions, including gender targets; and measures to support women in accessing opportunities for career progression.
The Contextualised Guidelines draw on the experiences of implementation of measures in these areas among the six core GENOVATE partners. Further detail on GENOVATE partners’ experiences of GEAP implementation can be found in other project deliverables (such as for example, Deliverable 6.2 Report on Institutional Case-Studies, among others – see www.genovate.eu). The specific focus of Deliverable 3.1 is on the translation of partner experiences, specifically in the area of career transitions, into concrete and contextualised Guidelines for other institutions and projects.
Some of the Guidelines are intended to be useful in a generic sense, across all types of institutions. However, a unique aspect of the Contextualised Guidelines is that they are provided in a contextualised form, tailored to particular types of institutional contexts, in recognition of the multiplicity of historical, political, social and legislative contexts for gender equality implementation.
WP4 – Working Environment and Culture Change [Led by AU]
Work Package 4 (like Work Packages 3 and 5) focused on GEAP implementation in the six core partner institutions. WP4 was directed towards changing working culture and climate for gender equality in partner institutions with objectives of [a] Raising gender equality awareness in the academic research and scientific structures; [b] Fostering better working environments for female researchers and academic staff; and [c] Promoting sustainability of culture change to support gender equality and needs of women academics in the organisations setting. In order to achieve these objectives all 6 GEAP implementing partner institutions focused on two tasks under which they identified and completed varying subtasks.
Task 4.1: Conduct a gender climate assessment of partner institutions to assess working environments and cultures for female academic researchers [Led by AU]
Between July and September 2013, the 6 GEAP implementing institutions produced 6 Start Project Gender Culture and Working Climate Assessment Report 1 (Working Document [WD] 4.1). As a result of these climate assessment reports, institutions tailored their approaches to working environment based on their institutional contexts.
UNIBRAD’s Gender Climate Assessment was used to inform and mainstream strategies across the institution for achieving organisational transformation for gender equality in research and innovation. WP4 assessment has allowed the exploration of staff experiences and perceptions; the diversity commitment of senior management; and the overall tendency of the organisation toward inclusion of all employees. Following this initial assessment, UNIBRAD adopted a systematic approach to continuing gender climate assessment through numerous institutional and faculty GENOVATE Cafés. UNIBRAD was actively involved in promoting and embedding gender equality / diversity competence into large scale HR policy review and institutional corporate and supporting strategic development, including gender equality in research teams and gender balance in decision making. UNIBRAD has supported HR in developing policies and practices relating to the new shared parental leave legislation. Additionally, UNIBRAD worked with HR to carry out a comparative analysis of support provided to staff on career break [maternity, paternity and shared parental leave] in 13 benchmarked universities. This has led to a revision of maternity and parental leave policies. UNIBRAD has scoped a project for HR to undertake a trajectory analysis of professors who have worked at the university for over 10 years to inform promotion policy review as part of Athena SWAN actions.
In 2013, The UCC Institutional Gender Climate Assessment Report (WD4.1) mapped and analysed, as part of a broader gender equality impact assessment, a baseline of the institutional culture of the university in a number of areas, drawing on available institutional data and policy documents as well as a number of focus groups with staff. The areas of assessment included decision-making and leadership structures and work-life balance resources and led to the development of refined Actions and Action Areas. Analysis of the data collected through the assessment process combined with team discussion and input from IGMB members led to the identification of gender equality actions and action areas. WP4 GEAP actions identified were Action 6 ((i) Review the strengths and weaknesses of existing leave/flexible working practices and (ii) Support HR to develop strategies to support all stakeholders in understanding the system and being supported in it to maximise the benefits) and Action 9 (Support relevant departments/units/committees to introduce measures to increase opportunities for FAR staff to be involved in decision-making at every level).
The UCC GENOVATE team also conducted a qualitative survey of female academic and research staff in July and September 2014. The survey aimed for an informed understanding of the experiences of taking maternity leave at UCC. This led to the development of a set of Guidelines for Good Management of Maternity/Family leave in the institution, the establishment of a Cross-University Working Group on Good Management of Maternity/Family Leave, a general raising of awareness of the equality issues to be addressed and contributed to the incorporation of a range of measures into the UCC Athena SWAN Action Plan.
LTU’s baseline data, along with those of other partners, regarding gender climate and culture are available in the project internal repository. The assessment of the gender climate and culture change in an ICT innovation system involving a focus group, complimentary interviews and an interactive workshop using value exercises as a tool took place in October-November 2015. The results were compared to the baseline data from December 2012. The analysis of the data from the employee survey covering all academic staff of LTU was undertaken in 2016.
AU has carried out second round of monitoring on recruitment, promotion and distribution of research funds by gender, scientific fields and academic positions.
TU University online survey was done in June/July 2014 and evaluated in August 2014. The aim of the survey was to explore the perception of equality of opportunity between women and men in the area of research and innovation at the university directly from scientific-research and academics. The survey participants included academics and PhD students of all faculties of the University (FHSSW, Faculty of Law, Faculty of Education and Theological Faculty). In addition GENCafé was undertaken at key points during the project [March and November 2014; March and October 2015] at the FHSSW and at the Faculty of Education. GENCafé provided opportunity to disseminate the main ideas of GENOVATE project and to inform TU’s academic community about the results of the previous Café. A forum was created for all staff-academics, to receive feedback on the implementation of Career Development Plans. Through discussion and open dialogue TU discovered gaps in the Career Progression and Development documents. The discussions involved ideas, observations, and comments on career growth, from the perspectives of heads of departments and other colleagues. In November 2015 TU pilot tested questionnaires for academics and staff as a part of Career Development Plan and analysed with Heads of departments and colleagues from a the forum.
In 2013, UNINA’s baseline data was obtained from survey information collected from 273 staff [47% and 53% men] drawn from academic [83%], administrative [8%] and PhD students [9%]. The survey examined perceptions of career development, culture and climate. In addition, UNINA team examined GENOVATE project records and conducted a small-scale qualitative survey of some Faculty and Administration staff who are also members of the CII (Comitato di Indirizzo Istituzionale = Institutional Advisory Board of GENOVATE) in 2016. The qualitative survey of CII members focused on their views on gender issues at UNINA. Because the CII comprised both Faculty and Administration (male and female) senior staff from UNINA, their informed opinion on the subject contributed an interesting, though partial, account of perceptions of gender dynamics in the institution. This was a rewarding activity as CII members are all involved, although in different degrees, in gender-sensitive initiatives and/or programs on campus.
Task 4.2: Transform culture, perception and behaviours in academic organisations from the bottom up
Tailored institutional activities have been delivered in each of the six partner institutions throughout the project. Specific Institutional Examples are set out below:
UNIBRAD has raised the profile of gender equality/diversity to staff, students, and others associated with the university through on-going dissemination; developed and applied the Change Academy Model, including the innovative approach to delivery of the GENOVATE institutional and Faculty cafés; and set up GeCAT projects and Development workshops for GeCAT members. The digital approach to capturing staff views and feedback utilised in the GENOVATE Cafés [GENCafés] has been adopted by other institutional projects. Institutional GENCafés took place in October/November 2013; February 2015; April 2016 and March 2017 with a good turnout of staff from all over the University. Faculty specific GENCafés were carried out in April/May 2015 and February/March 2016 in order to make a comparison of findings across faculties, and to explore macro and micro findings. GENCafés have provided longitudinal data on the significance of GENOVATE in shifting perceptions on gender equality on campus. UNIBRAD has worked closely with TU to develop and deliver Guided reflections linked to the social model development. Guided reflections approach has continued to inform UNIBRAD’s gender equality work moving forward.
UNIBRAD have continued to collaborate with the Institutional Advisory Board, which has been instrumental in shaping the UNIBRAD project by providing strategic advice, supporting dissemination and has become the steering group for the Athena SWAN work. Athena SWAN submission for UNIBRAD has resulted in the Bronze Award and plans are underway to encourage faculties to apply for individual faculty awards. Other governance structures from the GENOVATE project have been adapted for the Athena SWAN@UNIBRAD. Two seminars to launch the cascade of GENOVATE goals, actions and results into Athena SWAN framework took place – [1] Senior Managers on 25 November 2016 and [2] for Athena SWAN Leads on 8 December 2016. UNIBRAD’s intersectional approach has resulted in institutional commitment and development of a Transgender Guide for the new academic year. UNIBRAD team have been actively involved in national and international science celebrations, for example the team took active part in British Science Festival and British Science Fringe events in September 2015; with the project coordinator contributing to a panel discussion on ‘women and the trouble with science; and another team member, Prof Nazira Karodia, leading an exciting demonstration on the Science of Curry with the World Curry Festival's top chefs.
A communications strategy Inform GENOVATE (and be informed about GENOVATE) was rolled out by UCC. As part of this strategy, UCC GENOVATE held a series of six Cafés at UCC in 2015. The aim of the series was to open space for colleagues to learn about, and contribute to, the GENOVATE@UCC project. Colleagues were invited, over coffee and light refreshments, to deliberate Café style the challenges to, and potential for, creating a more gender-sensitive UCC. Responses from café participants were formulated into word clouds and made available to participants and on the website. UCC GENOVATE team hosted an Open Day at UCC on 8th September 2015 with the aim of opening space for colleagues to: (a) reflect upon GENOVATE’s eight proposed gender equality actions; (b) consider word clouds of their colleagues’ views (gleaned from the GENOVATE Cafés); and (c) share their own views about the content, promotion and/or implementation of the action(s). Info-graphics and briefing notes of the action were shared at the Open Day and subsequently online. A series of Briefing Notes outlining and summarising GENOVATE’s eight proposals for gender equality actions in UCC were produced and printed for dissemination at and after the event. The Briefing Notes provide a strategic vehicle: (i) for engagement regarding proposed actions; and (ii) to progress implementation of GENOVATE’s proposed actions for UCC based on authoritative evidence of the contextual challenges regarding gender equality in UCC. There was on-going use of social media to promote GENOVATE project (GENOVATE-UCC website, Twitter and Facebook) and on-going use of digital signage promoting GENOVATE on UCC campus and a final GENOVATE Dissemination Day was held in December 2016 to encourage involvement of all stakeholders in progressing the agenda for change.
LTU have supported HR in its implementation of a gender-aware and sustainable recruitment processes at the university central level (more details in the WP3 section). LTU have been instrumental in enhancing equality perspective in the EARMA (European Association of Research Managers and Administrators) by improving a gender equality perspective in EARMA activities (more details in the WP5 section). LTU are embedding gender equality and diversity in the ICT innovation systems [more details are available in the WP5 section].
UNINA organised several events (seminars, workshop, GENOVATE Cafés, participation to conferences) aimed to increase gender awareness in science within the institution, and held a training course for women researchers about the Women’s Leadership in Science, on 17th and 18th September 2015, in collaboration with CUG of INFN and the International Training Centre of the ILO (ITCILO) (www.itcilo.org). UNINA Participated in the GENOVATE dissemination event of the framework of the Science Festival “Futuro Remoto”, held in Naples 15th and 16th October 2015 and 7-8-9 October 2016,, in collaboration with the Science Centre “Città della scienza”. UNINA have participated in a workshop at Padua on 11th December 2015, for fostering the knowledge exchange and collaboration among different Italian Sister projects on gender and science. Online resources were utilised in order to enhance and disseminate the gender dimension in academia, such as the establishment of the GENOVATE@UNINA blog (http://www.genovate.unina.it/) and the Gender Observatory of UNINA website (http://www.og.unina.it/)
TU have created institution-specific strategies for improving female academic researchers’ access to resources. TU also participated in incorporating work-life into CDP. TU has organised and successfully delivered GENOVATE World Café’s in March 2014 and November 2014.
AU have completed and submitted deliverable D4.1 [Online learning package on gender competent leadership and management]. This package is translated into Turkish and uploaded into the local web of the institution. AU’s third GENCafé was held in the Faculty of Health Sciences in November 2015. It was attended by 31 academics including Dean of the faculty.
Task 4.3: Transform culture, perception and behaviours in academic organisations from the top down
Tailored institutional activities have been delivered in each of the six partner institutions. Examples are set out below
UNIBRAD have integrated GENOVATE principles in their Cultural Understanding in Leadership and Management (CULM) programme through Faculty gender equality projects and worked closely with the Staff Development Unit to ensure principles of gender equality/diversity are addressed within institutional provision. UNIBRAD piloted the e-learning package for D4.1 with a member of the senior management team (Pro-Vice Chancellor for Learning, Teaching and Quality). The focus of the National Learning Circle was to receive feedback on how usable, useful and accessible the GENOVATE tools are, with a specific emphasis on the e-learning package. The pilots, both during the NLC and with the Pro-Vice Chancellor were successful. Some feedback during the National Learning Circle included suggestions to use language relevant to various contexts, such as businesses as well as HE institutions. Actions concerning intersections of gender and other aspects of diversity are well underway, e.g. the link between GENOVATE and the institutional work around other forms of gender identity. UNIBRAD team members have worked with the Equality and Diversity Unit on a Transgender guide with support from Transgender staff and students within the University and have ensured that GENOVATE principles are reflected within this activity.
UCC compiled a portfolio of evidence, good practice and recommendations on gender balance in decision-making structures (GEAP Action 6), with the aim of engaging with key institutional bodies on this task. The portfolio included an update of gender composition of key decision-making structures within UCC. This was presented to the Registrar/Senior Vice-President Academic of University College Cork on 9th December 2014, resulting in an invitation to present the recommendations to Academic Council. GENOVATE team members presented to Academic Council on 1st May 2015 three specific proposals to promote gender balance in Academic Council committee structures. The proposals were preceded by a request for Academic Council’s support to integrate gender equality into UCC’s next Strategic Plan. Academic Council endorsed all four proposals. Frequent meetings took place between GENOVATE team members and Academic Secretariat personnel, to progress implementation of the proposals. In June 2015, the UCC GENOVATE team was invited, by UCC’s Director of Strategy, to submit a one-line action for consideration at the Strategic Management Team’s (UMTS) annual strategic planning day on 10th September 2015. The one-line action aimed to raise awareness, seek support for and establish a periodic reporting mechanism to review the implementation of selected gender equality actions. On 17th September, during UCC’s presentation at the Strategic Management Committee (UMTS), a general commitment was given to GENOVATE’s eight gender equality proposals, with specific indication that each proposed action would be designated to a UMTS member with responsibility for its implementation. UCC GENOVATE team engaged with the newly appointed President of the university to advocate for the establishment of an Equality Office for the university. GENOVATE’s engagement with university management and decision-makers was supported throughout the project by the membership of the IGMB.
LTU have widened their advisory board with two new members to strengthen the innovation dimension of implementation activities. These include: Director of Regional Growth, Luleå Municipality; and the new CEO of Centre for Distance-Spanning Technology with industry background. In September and December 2014, LTU contributed to D4.1 with reading materials, references, slides and handouts, interviews and testimonials. In October 2014 LTU delivered a Stop and Share session on gender-competent leadership ‘Gender and leadership at LTU and academia’.
AU - Higher Education Institution in Turkey has published a policy document on gender mainstreaming in public and private universities in 2015. This document provides a general frame from top down for the first time to gender mainstreaming in Turkey. AU GENOVATE team has contributed written feedback to the preparation process of this document. Embedding GECATs in the faculties was a part of supporting implementation of WP4 goals at this point. The team have added a new faculty, Health Sciences Faculty, into the CAM and established GeCAT in the faculty for improving core WP’s goals at AU. Giving seminars to the academics on finding extra funds for their research was a part of WP4 activities as well as WP5. The team have given 2 seminars for academics on Horizon 2020 calls and research funds in 2015.
AU team, the Rectorate and In-service Training Coordinatorship delivered a training session to Senate members on Gender Competent Leadership and Management in March 2016.
Three new members have joined the Gender Equality Action Commission in 2015 from Faculty of Law and Health Sciences Faculty. AU Gender Equality Action Commission has nominated the Rectorate Equality Coordinatorship as the official unit to support sustainability of GEAP implementation activities in 2016.
UNINA had a strong collaboration with the institution management in order to implement GEAP actions: on-going meetings take place between GENOVATE team members and Rectors, Administrative Director, member of the Academic Senate, and the Institutional Advisory Board of GENOVATE@UNINA. UNINA presented the GENOVATE Gender Budget project during an event in December 2015, dedicated to transparency in academia.
TU - GENOVATE change process was supported by bi-monthly meetings of TU team with FHSSW dean and with TU rector on a quarterly basis. TU Institutional Advisory Board took place twice a year.
Task 4.4. Ensuring sustainability of culture changes in the workplace
Sustainability has remained a central principle of the GENOVATE@UNIBRAD project. All project actions have sought to effect institutional change maintained beyond the lifetime of the project and further progressed. UNIBRAD have ensured visibility of culture- climate change efforts, and achievements in transforming gendered organisational politics and practices and embedded transformative measures and GENOVATE actions into institutional structures. UNIBRAD have developed a composite gender equality plan drawn from all gender projects including Athena SWAN, GENOVATE, COMPACT and AURORA. UNIBRAD also carried out continuing review and focussed application of GENOVATE actions in relation to WP4, in collaboration with HR, Senior Management Team, and other key institutional stakeholders. Gender equality work continues to be embedded within the University’s committee structures, reporting into both the Research and Knowledge Transfer [RKT] committee [chaired by the Pro Vice Chancellor [RKT] and the Equality and Diversity Committee [chaired by the Vice Chancellor]. These two parent committee report into the Executive Board. Other actions to promote sustainability include:
• Continuing to offer safe spaces and support to the university community through GENCafés and GeCATs to ensure bottom-up action. GENOVATE cafés are now used as a barometer for checking perceptions around gender equality as well as raising the profile of gender in/equality both at institutional and disciplinary levels.
• Involvement, active participation, and commitment of senior management and institutional bodies/representative to gender equality sustainability.
• Cultivation and application of a “bottom-up-top-down” blended approach to organisational gender equality policy development and implementation.
• Constant monitoring, implementation, evaluation and reformulation (whenever necessary) of Gender equality actions, as strategic tools for long-term change realised through medium-term actions linked to Athena SWAN at both institutional and faculty levels.
• Alignment and effective mainstreaming of gender equality actions and plans with other institutional policies and programmes.
UNIBRAD have already identified and celebrated tangible outcomes, e.g. gender balanced appointment panel; Gender projects have been identified and implemented at faculty levels; UNIBRAD is seeing an increase in the number of women in leadership roles including the recent appointment of women as DVC (Academic), PVC (Learning, Teaching and Governance), Chair of Council and one of the UK’s leading business women, appointed as our new Chancellor.
UCC focused on ensuring sustainability and embedding of actions in university structures in a number of areas: (a) a specific focus on advocacy and engagement in relation to strategic planning and development in the university, alongside engaging with the new UCC President who commenced in February 2017; (b) Embedding and institutionalising the outcomes of the other GEAP Actions and promoting the use of the relevant Tools for each one; (c) Promoting the GENOVATE Hub widely across the university; (d) External dissemination of learning from GENOVATE; (e) Preparation of scholarly articles for publication; (f) Establishment of Post-GENOVATE group (Gender Equality Action Research Group); (g) involvement in Athena SWAN process in the university. GENOVATE team members are active members of Athena SWAN committee (UCC) and its thematic Working Groups (Career Transitions and Development; Flexible working and managing career breaks; Organisation and culture). The GENOVATE Scientific Coordinator represents UCC on the national Athena SWAN committee. GENOVATE-UCC actions have been incorporated into the Athena SWAN Gender Equality Action Plan, which was approved by University Management Team and submitted to the Equality Challenge Unit on 1st October 2015. At national level, at the invitation of the Expert Group established to review gender equality in higher education in Ireland, the GENOVATE UCC Scientific Coordinator and Project Coordinator presented proposals to the Group at a meeting in Dublin in November 2015. These included, for example, a proposal to establish a periodic reporting mechanism to review gender equality actions at national level.
In September 2015, UNINA met with the recently established CUG (Guarantee Committee for Equal Opportunities). UNINA has witnessed notable advances in terms of its gender culture and climate. Specifically, GENOVATE promoted top-management’s support of gender equality. The Gender Observatory was established as a direct result of the project. Thereafter, it has become easier to engage in cooperation and joint work with top managers, equal opportunities entities and other relevant stakeholders.
At LTU, the GENOVATE Advisory Board members were selected from among the university’s management to ensure a decisive impact at the institutional level. Moreover, close, continuous work with the university’s HR department has sought to promote structural change through the implementation of gender aware recruitment and promotion processes and a follow-up system. GENOVATE results at LTU will also be used in a national project initiated by the government to mainstream gender in Swedish Higher Education, an initiative that will cover all of Sweden’s universities and colleges. LTU team have produced 131 blog articles to share LTU’s activities regarding stakeholder involvement and participation and sustainable change.
TU’s implementation of GENOVATE project with regular information about project activities has already raised awareness of planned organizational changes. TU’s Career Development Plan is one of the most significant GENOVATE results at the university – seeks to advance the personal careers of faculty employees while improving equal opportunities in the institution’s academic environment.
Deliverables
D 4.1 – E-learning package on gender competent leadership and management
This deliverable is directed towards developing a gender competent leadership and management to enhance leadership capacity in higher education and research institutions. It is an online learning package (e-learning package), designed to provide a broad overview of issues on gender responsible leadership for senior leaders and managers and other academics in leadership and management positions as well as candidates for managerial positions in academia.
By contextualizing the significance of gender equality for academic leadership, the e-learning package is aiming to provide a better working environment for all researchers and academic staff. It displays why gender equality matters for good leadership and how to promote gender equality in academia. The package also informs users of the basic and vital principles of gender equality for leaders and managers.
Work package 4 is one of the three core packages of the GENOVATE project directed towards empowering academic working culture and climate in favour of gender equality. The learning package is a part of this empowerment in academic institutions, which also has a potential for sustainability of culture change. The package is included in the EIGE GEAR tool at http://eige.europa.eu/gender-mainstreaming/toolkits/gear/action-toolbox
Development process: The AU team, with the support of the project coordinator, led the development of the e-learning package with specialist input from GENOVATE institutions – AU developed a section on what is gender competent leadership; UCC developed the section on understanding why women are 'missing in leadership' in research; UNIBRAD developed a section on tackling unconscious bias in the workplace; and all partners provided individual case studies for the section on how to overcome barriers as follows:
• Cultural Understanding in Leadership and Management: UNIBRAD Case
• Through the Glass Ceiling: UCC Case
• New Approaches for Fixing the System: LTU Case
• Interview on "Why women leadership still matters": AU Case
• Overcoming Barriers Through Mentoring Programme: UNINA Case
• Gender Equality in Slovak Republic: TU Case
AU provided 2 Stop and Share sessions during the course of the e-learning development: one was facilitated by the AU team on the technicality of developing an e-learning package, and the other facilitated by the LTU team was to discuss the content and proposed contributions from partners to the package.
D4.2 - Gender Culture and Working Climate Assessment Change Report
The Change Report summarises the findings of the research undertaken by partner institutions close to the end of GENOVATE implementation. The report highlights the changes and/or continuities identified in each institution during the implementation of GEAPs designed and executed by institutional GENOVATE teams. For this, each partner institution utilised findings obtained in their baseline research at the first year of the project (WD 4.1) and compared this with the gender climate in their organisation with reference to policies, structures and practices for promoting gender equality in the final year of the project to identify the institutional changes and continuities over the period of project implementation.
Assessments enabled each GENOVATE team to better understand existing working culture and climate and identify where the needs are in transforming into more gender equal working cultures. For example, information on gender representation in key positions and roles in the institution i.e. data/evidence on the actual gender composition of key decision-making bodies as well as the distribution of resources and funds has been collected. Complementary to collection of quantitative data is qualitative information gathered on how academic staff perceive and experience gender culture and working climate via varied means of techniques that reflect richer information, for example, online/paper based surveys, focus groups, semi-structures interviews, value exercises and workshops. This change report also includes a review of the existing institutional policy and regulatory changes. The research questions focused on in the assessments correspond to the following five thematic areas: [1] Gender Parity in Numbers: provides a picture of the gendered structure of decision-making bodies in the institution through evidence-based data. [2] The Allocation of Resources: exposing how the resources and research funds are distributed according to genders and academic position in the institution through evidence based data. [3] Conditions in Relation to Work Life and Home Balance: exposing the patterns embedded within the working structures and practices which underpin decision making of academics that reinforce or challenge gender inequality in the institution. [4] Policy Documents to Strengthen Gender Equality in the Institution: exposing new policy documents and/or changes on the documents in favour of gender equality policies both at the institutional level and national level. [5] Awareness and attitudes: exploring changes and continuities in attitudes to gender inequality in the university community.
The Change assessments have identified both Quantitative and Qualitative Changes including Greater awareness of gender/diversity disparities within the GENOVATE institutions with a wider recognition of its structural and systemic dimensions rather than individual factors/perceptions; More visibility of gender equality issues and greater willingness among academics and other staff to discuss existing issues and greater involvement in gender equality actions; Greater awareness and higher commitment to gender equality and diversity issues by the top leadership via adoption of the GEAPs; Improved gender equality data monitoring and human resources system towards a more appropriate system for the analysis of gender disparities and intersectional analysis; Greater knowledge about gender equality issues among selection committees of recruitment; New support mechanisms for career development to ensure more women apply for, remain in, and progress towards academic roles; Higher number of initiatives or introduction of initiatives to promote gender equality in distribution of resources for research; Institutionalised initiatives introduced by GENOVATE that are supported and owned by the management of institutions; Strengthened gender networks, gender equality support mechanisms, new training tools and higher priority to gender equality work in terms of distribution of resources; Better monitoring systems to record requests and approvals of flexible working hours; and Improved working culture and climate, more positive reflections among academics.
Key Challenges and Continuities identified include Persistence of gender imbalances in decision-making structures; Despite some increases in women’s share in some academic positions, there is still underrepresentation at high levels of academic positions especially at the level of professorship; In terms of recruitment, promotion and retention, no significant change is recorded in the distribution of applicants for vacancies; Persistence of workload pressures and funding pressures.
The findings summarised in the Change Report have supported institutional GEAP teams in evaluating their actions and tasks completed throughout the project. They may also be of interest to the researchers and policy makers working within, or with universities and other higher education institutions and research organisations, to address gender inequalities in academic/research career transitions.
WP5 - Excellence in research and innovation through gender equality and diversity [Led by LTU until M48]
The leader of WP5 withdrew from the project in December 2016 [M48]. From this point onwards, institutional coordinators led WP5 – related activities as part of their GEAP implementation]
The overall goal of WP5 was to promote the benefits of gender and diversity perspectives and to strengthen research excellence frameworks and innovation systems through gender equality and diversity. WP5 Objectives were to promote the benefits of gender and diversity perspectives in enhancing excellence in research and innovation systems; to strengthen research excellence frameworks and policies for gender equality and diversity; and to strengthen innovation systems by promoting gender equality and diversity.
WP5 Tasks
• T5.1 Develop code of practice for embedding gender equality and diversity into research and innovation excellence standards (All partners: Lead UNIBRAD/UCC)
• T5.2 Developing tools and methods to integrate gender and diversity perspectives in innovation systems (All partners: Lead LTU)
All six core partners participated in WP5 on the basis of the actions identified in their GEAPs. Each partner delivered actions within their own institution to contribute to the overall WP objectives. The actions were tailored to each specific national and institutional context, but together contributed to the delivery of WP tasks, which resulted in 2 Deliverables D5.1 - Guiding Principles on Gender Equality and Diversity Competence in Research Excellence Standards in M22; and D5.2 – Gender and Diversity Toolkit to integrate gender and diversity perspectives in innovation systems in M 41. This toolkit is included in EIGE GEAR tool and also available on the Gender Contact Point homepage https://genovate.cdt.ltu.se/ both in English and Swedish
Task 5.1 Developing code of practice for embedding gender equality and diversity into research and innovation excellence standards (All partners: Lead UNIBRAD/UCC)
UNIBRAD and UCC [as joint task leader] supported the consortium in undertaking task 5.1 which sought to strengthen research and innovation excellence frameworks and policies in the context of gender equality. All partners utilised an Equality Impact Analysis (EIA) tool designed by UNIBRAD, to assess research excellence and innovation standards in each institution, alongside a review of national policy in the area. The EIA fed into the development of institutional Codes of Practice for Gender Equality in Research Excellence Standards. Draft Codes of Practice were further refined through a buddy system where partners were matched up to provide feedback on drafts to each other. The six institutional codes were synthesised into a set of Guiding Principles [Deliverable 5.1] to enhance research excellence through gender equality and diversity. The Guiding Principles are underpinned by themes of transparency, consistency, accountability and inclusivity.
Achieving meaningful and sustainable impact in this area was supported by the wider activity of the project in transforming the culture and values of universities into more gender-aware and gender- competent environments. Partners actively implemented the guiding principles within their institution as well as use as a strategy document and the partners’ own tailored codes as tools to strengthen the stakeholder engagement in avenues such as national learning circles.
Specific Institutional Examples
UNIBRAD: UNIBRAD contributed to the development of the University’s Research Concordats [research integrity and career development of researchers] in collaboration with key internal and external stakeholders. A review of Research Excellence Framework code of practice was undertaken in 2015 with a view to adapting key principles to inform the Research Activity Framework underpinned by key tenets of the Concordats.
An open consultation was held in November 2014 involving visiting scholars from Latvia, on the implementation of the Guiding Principles for gender equality and diversity competence in research excellence standards. It involved members of the Senior Management Team and a diagonal slice of staff and students across the institution. An initial evaluation of UNIBRAD’s preparedness for the implementation of the Guiding Principles was undertaken in January 2015. Through a range of methods, including consultation with internal and external stakeholders, a framework was developed to facilitate on-going assessment of the institution’s implementation of D5.1. Meetings have been held with Equality and Diversity Committee to explore how to implement recommendations from the institutional evaluation of D5.1. The Research and Knowledge Transfer Committee adopted plans to take forward implementation of the guiding principles and worked with HR on implementation.
In addition, UNIBRAD have developed a checklist on diversity / gender competent research cycle for Principal Investigators and Research Support Unit. This is utilised alongside surgeries on equality and diversity in research and innovation to staff and research students. UNIBRAD continues to deliver seminars on gender/diversity dimensions in research content for staff and post-graduate research students. This practice will continue post GENOVATE.
UCC: UCC investigated policy and practice in relation to research excellence assessments intra-university, domestically and internationally.
• (Gender) Equality Impact Analysis undertaken of intra-organisation policy on, and practice, of assessing research excellence.
• Literature review of domestic and international policy and practice on ‘Gender, Academia and Research Excellence (see N. Maxwell ‘Literature Review: Gender, Academia and ‘Research Excellence’ Working Paper 1 GENOVATE at University College Cork, Ireland, September 2016).
Informed by these investigations of policy and practice, UCC developed Guiding Principles on Gender Equality and Research Excellence Assessments to support the development of a University Code of Practice Gender Equality and Research Excellence Assessment to be developed by the university; Establishment of a university Code of Practice on Gender Equality and Research Excellence has been included as a success criterion in the university’s Athena SWAN Action Plan. UCC engaged with university stakeholders in the development and promotion of the Guiding Principles.
LTU: LTU produced and delivered a tailored Code of Practice based on the findings and conclusions of the analysis of the university’s assessment policies and excellence strategies. An implementation plan was designed together with LTU advisory board members from the university’s academic management and external stakeholders to implement LTU’s Code of Practice in the university’s processes for recruitment and commercialization, where members expected gender equality approaches would make a difference. The plan was later refined and resulted in putting effort on recruitment and collaboration with the university’s Human Resources department. The implementation of a gender-aware and sustainable recruitment and promotion process has been supported by the LTU team, which aim at increasing the share of women professors and changing structures at the University level. The male-dominated School of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering with about 200 employees has been used as a test-bed at the School level.
The major outcome is that the share of the women professors at the university has increased from 17 to 22% during the project period and the share of the women academic staff in the school of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering has increased from 11 to 21%. Another outcome is that staff at Computer Science is now taking over the ownership of the change process and creating own gender equality activities to attract female students to male-dominated undergraduate and graduate programs. Further, LTU’s Code of Practice has been presented and discussed in the national learning circles as well as regional, national and European workshops and conferences and strengthened the implementation of the university’s gender-aware and sustainable recruitment and promotion process. LTU’s implementation activities are shared on the GENOVATE on-line community on a regular basis.
AU - GENOVATE@AU contributed to the preparations of Code of Practice and Guidelines with Scientific Research and Project Unit with input from the GENCafe teams of both Faculty of Educational Science and Veterinary Faculty. The draft Code of Practice of AU for Research Excellence Framework was submitted and approved by the top management in 2014. Genovate@AU and AU Technology Transfer Office held a joint training session for researchers on Horizon 2020 for the academics in Faculty of Humanities. Collaboration activities with the Technology Transfer Office helped organise participatory research workshops to support junior and senior academics in the research process.
UNINA - The UNINA team has produced a Code of Practice for embedding gender equality and diversity into research and innovation excellence standards, which was submitted to the attention of the Rector in February 2015. The Code of Practice provides clear indications and instruments to emphasize the value of the gender dimension in research and prevent gender stereotypes and biases in research, in recruitment and career advancement in academia. Several stakeholders contributed to the event to disseminate the Code of Practice, among which the aforementioned CUG (Comitato Unico di Garanzia = Equal Opportunities Committee), and representatives of ANVUR (Agenzia Nazionale di Valutazione del Sistema Universitario e della Ricerca = National Agency for the Evaluation of University and Research). The Code of Practice was also shared in Italian Universities. In addition, The UNINA team organised one world cafè as well as other meetings with the main GENOVATE stakeholders (CII, GECATs, Women in Science Group in Naples) to discuss the UNINA Code of Practice. Roberto Torrini, ex-director of ANVUR (Agenzia Nazionale di Valutazione del Sistema Universitario e della Ricerca = National Agency for the Evaluation of University and Research) also participated in a meeting held in Rome. This meeting aimed to introduce the Code of Practice for Gender and Diversity Competent Research Excellence Standard to ANVUR director and invite ANVUR to introduce incentives supporting policies and practices suggested by the Code of Practice in evaluation procedures
TU - Equality Impact Assessment Analysis of institutional research and innovation standards of selected TU documents and documents of Faculty of Health Sciences and Social Work was carried out during the last reporting period. This led to the development of the Code of Practice for embedding gender equality into research and innovation excellence standards which was discussed with TU rector and FHSSW team. The main elements of TU’s Code of Practice was the development of the system of further education of employees; processing standards for individual positions with transparent criteria for recruitment; systematization of human resources planning in relation to key processes and career development of employees; incentives for employees with regard to the quality of professional growth; career development of employees and the importance of career objectives; and monitoring of implementation of career development plan continuing education needs of the employees
Task 5.2 Developing tools and methods to integrate gender and diversity perspectives in innovation systems (All partners: Lead LTU)
The goal of this task was to develop tools and methods to integrate gender and diversity perspectives in innovation systems and to create relevant tools and methods for internal stakeholders, companies and society. Initially the task was designed to be jointly led by LTU and UCC, but later a decision was taken for Task 5.2 to be led by LTU, as the WP5 coordinator. The other decision taken was to use the partners’ equality analyses and codes of practice from Task 5.1 as a baseline for further effective integration of gender and diversity in research and innovation. This decision made more Task 5.2 resources available for the joint development of D5.2 Toolkit and the concrete integration activities at partner institutions. D5.2 Toolkit is built on learning, results and experiences of both tasks of WP5, the two other core workpackages - WP3 and WP4 as well as the evaluation workpackage - WP7. The deliverable D5.2 feeds into GEAP implementation of partner institutions.
The cornerstones of innovation systems are stakeholder participation and interaction between actors of innovation systems. In this task the GENOVATE project is regarded as an innovation system aimed at promoting joint learning processes as well as interaction between consortium partners and between partners and stakeholders. To strengthen the joint work and interaction a toolkit development process was established and a set of tools was selected to support the process. The first step was to schedule monthly WP5 meetings at a set and recurrent time each month to ensure the availability of the contributing consortium members. Skype was chosen as a collaboration platform for the monthly meetings. The content of the monthly meetings differed depending on the phases and progress of the work in Task 5.2. The Blackboard Collaboration tool was used to record the three WP5 Stop and Share sessions: Innovation and Gender, Inclusive Innovation and Persona Method, engaging both project internal and external speakers and facilitators. Face-to-face meetings at the annual GENOVATE conventions were used as opportunities to brainstorm, discuss and further develop the toolkit.
Google docs was used in the beginning of the process to enable the joint design of the toolkit and to make it easy for partners to edit, modify and comment texts and continuously provide input to the toolkit. To ensure an open and transparent process the GENOVATE on-line WP forum was used to share the agendas and minutes of the WP5 meetings with the consortium partners. To support the process, highlight good examples, share implementation activities and increase creativity and co-creation the GENOVATE community blog was used to reach out to the partners and stakeholders when developing the toolkit. More than 50 public blog posts on innovation and gender have been produced since the beginning of the project.
One important feature of an innovation process is the engagement of stakeholders early in the process and throughout the whole process. Task 5.2 has put extra effort on discussing innovation and stakeholder interaction as innovation is a novel concept for some of the partners and partners are in different “places” regarding stakeholder involvement. Partners have carried out usability tests at partner institutions by engaging team members as well as internal and external stakeholders. Feedback from tests have been discussed and reflected on in monthly WP5 meetings. Feedback on the toolkit’s usability, relevance and layout has also been collected through toolkit and project presentations, demonstrations and benchmarking as well as by using tools in interactive workshops and focus groups. Promotion of the usage of the toolkit has been carried out at a local, national and European level and is on-going.
The toolkit entitled Promoting Sustainable Change collects and organises the tools that have been further developed and tested by partner institutions. The process and methods illustrate how academic institutions, social innovators, funding agencies, knowledge transfer partnerships, and intermediaries can use gender equality and diversity tools. They also illustrate how the toolkit can promote sustainable change. The toolkit is organized in three main chapters: Process, Methods and tools, and Stories.
The toolkit is available as an on-line book, as pdf file and as hard copy. The toolkit has been widely disseminated through existing networks and channels like websites, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. The toolkit has been submitted to the databases of GenPORT and EIGE as well as to funding bodies, European research institutions and companies on demand. Also, hard copies were available at the final GENOVATE conference. All partners’ dissemination activities are recorded on the Toolkit Dissemination Log available for the consortium partners on Dropbox. Dissemination and promotion of the toolkit will be carried out beyond the project.
Specific Institutional Examples
UNIBRAD have customised the toolkit to ensure a nuanced application within its knowledge transfer innovation partnerships e.g. Digital Health Zone, Catapult and China Bridges. This contextualised approach has played to the University’s strengths in promoting diversity competence and intersectionality between gender and other legally protected characteristics [UK Equality Act 2010]. UNIBRAD have adapted the toolkit to different target groups and utilised established and effective methods, which have been developed and used throughout the project such as GENOVATE café, consensus workshops and [Gender] Equality Impact Assessment. The UNIBRAD team are continuing their work on integrating gender equality and diversity in research and innovation across the University. They are intensifying efforts in supporting leaders of their innovation systems to apply these principles in their knowledge transfer work in the UK and internationally. UNIBRAD are working closely with Students Union and senior leaders to promote gender equality in entrepreneurship work
UCC - The UCC team developed a ‘Quick Guide to Gender Proofing’ for research projects in consultation with PrimeUCC and Office of Vice-President for Research and Innovation at UCC. They also provided technical expertise and guidance to the cross European ODIN Project at University College Cork to integrate gender equality into the research project including the development of a monitoring and reporting and monitoring mechanism. They developed structural, process and outcome gender equality indicators (adapted from methodology for developing human rights indicators) for supporting gender equality monitoring in research and innovation centres including a Gender Equality Indicators monitoring tool for use by research centres and units. They designed and developed THE GENOVATE Hub, an online resource platform to showcase and disseminate GENOVATE at UCC’s research, gender equality actions, and tools.
LTU - At the university level the LTU team and advisory board members are implementing a gender perspective in a process carried out by the university’s management on its pronouncement on the Swedish government’s bill on national future research policy, e.g. a model for the allocation of financial resources to the universities. Further, the university has started collecting data by gender regarding applicants and successful applicants for different positions. The same has been discussed for the gender ratio of internal research awards, internal funding, scholarships and prizes. The university also discusses the importance of collecting data by gender regarding submitted research funding application and approved applications. At the school level the main outcome of implementation activities is a design of gender approach in more than 30 research funding proposals in the field of ICT with participants from academia, industry and public organisations. There is on-going implementation of gender dimension in the core operations of the five ICT projects that have so far been approved funding from Horizon2020 and national funding bodies. Integration of gender dimension and demand of tailored gender tasks for research funding proposals and project partnerships is now spreading to other schools of LTU and has gained external attention from universities in Sweden and Europe.
At the European level a major outcome is the development of a gender course module in the new certificate program of EARMA – European Association of Research Managers and Administrators. This module [Gender and Diversity in Research Management] will be delivered for the first time in April 2018. The research managers who join the certificate programme are key actors in spreading gender equality knowledge at European research institutions. Gender mainstreaming is now also further promoted by EARMA in annual conferences with about 800 participants and through establishment of a new EARMA working group on cultures and diversity. At LTU GENOVATE results will be utilized in a national project initiated by the government with aim at mainstreaming gender in Swedish Higher Education covering all Swedish universities and colleges. GENOVATE results will be utilised and further developed also in the Gender Contact Point initiative. Gender Contact Point aims to support regional companies becoming competitive by making the university’s knowledge resources in gender approaches and initiatives available and easy to access.
To ensure sustainability, by benchmarking and raising interest in gender mainstreaming, tools and methods, workshops, seminars and meetings with engineering students, doctoral students, professors, academic supervisors and co-workers at the university have been prioritised activities. Equally important has been benchmarking with external stakeholders: innovation and business promoters, networks, funding agencies, municipalities, IT companies, EARMA and other ongoing gender projects. LTU’s implementation activities are shared on the GENOVATE on-line community on a regular basis.
AU - Genovate@AU converted the Gender and Diversity Tool into AU context. The tool translated in Turkish is submitted to the Scientific Research and Project Unit and Technology Transfer Office (TTO) at AU. This version is made available on the website of the AU TTO for increasing access and raising interest for gender and diversity toolkit.
UNINA - The UNINA team has actively participated in WP5 activities including Toolkit testing questionnaire prepared by the UNINA team sent to the mentees of the Pilot Mentoring Program and to individual stakeholders; and In addition to submitting several contributions to the final version of D5.2 Toolkit, UNINA promoted the toolkit at the UNINA Gender Observatory booth during Futuro Remoto Science festival in Naples.
In order to ensure the sustainability of GENOVATE project at UNINA, the Gender Observatory on university and research has been established in the institution. The Gender Observatory consists of four research areas, two of which (areas 1 and 2) are related to this task - Gender Studies in Science and Technology; Gender and research evaluation; Gender Budgeting and statistics; Women’s career in university and research
Further, the UNINA team designed case studies aimed at introducing gender perspectives in Advanced Robotics. These studies intend to develop new participatory methodologies in Science & Technology research, aiming at the full integration of gender perspectives and other related dimensions (such as ethical, legal and social issues). UNINA sustained the development of gender dimension in science participating to scientific conferences within the institution with seminars and dissemination materials. These contributions aimed to increase the gender dimension in specific scientific areas encouraging to use gender analysis to enhance excellence and responsibility in Research and Innovation avoiding gender biases due to the used of male models in research designs.
TU’s involvement in the application of Gender and diversity toolkit has ranged from pilot testing of the Gender and diversity toolkit at FHSSW; feedback on the application of the Promoting and Sustainable Toolkit at our faculty; and the introduction of toolkit to all academics at university, and to students as well as during the World Café 4. In June 2016 – organised a national learning circle attended by invited guests from University of Applied Sciences Landshut, Germany, Dr. Barbara HOLUBOVÁ – Institute for Labour and Family Research under the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family, Bratislava, Slovakia. Dr. HOLUBOVÁ confirmed she will use some of the tools from the toolkit in her daily work. This action had the following main goals: Exchanging the experience in the field of gender equality area from different perspectives, establishing the relationship for further work in the future and presenting the results of the GENOVATE project.
WP6 Knowledge exchange and institutional case studies [Led by UNINA]
The GENOVATE consortium consists of seven partner institutions that brought to the partnership unique expertise and varying needs in relation to gender issues. This diversity of strengths and interests provides an opportunity to exchange information across the partners and to learn from each other’s skills and experiences in support of the implementation of the GEAPs. To capitalise on this community of practice, WP6 had two main objectives: [a] To create a ‘buddy’ system whereby each consortium member is matched with one or two other partners so as to share and exchange information, and to seek or receive guidance and advice in particular areas of interest; and [b] To develop case studies that are focused on the GEAPs implemented in each institution partner within a general framework coordinated and shared with the rest of the consortium.
Project outcomes from this work package were to agree and develop case studies focused on the implemented actions and to exchange case study findings within the consortium; provide effective strategies and networking activities for knowledge exchange among partners; design and develop the tools (virtual and face to face) needed to meet the identified needs.
WP6 deliverables
• D6.1. Virtual collaboration platform for knowledge exchange and benchlearning
• D6.2. A portfolio of institutional case studies from each consortium partner
Task 6.1 Tools for effective shared learning
UNINA developed the GENOVATE Community, an online platform (with chat, WP forum, Institutional blog, online archive, online calendar) designed to facilitate meaningful knowledge exchange and reflections across the Community at local, national and international levels in each of the partner institutions’ countries, both at the European and at the global scale (http://www.genovate.unina.it/community/). There are four different categories of registered users (partner, IAB, stakeholder, public) with different privileges and levels of access to the community. A non-registered user is only able to access public posts available on the right box (Blog latest news) and the GEAPs implementation menu on the home page of the Community.
UNINA has regularly maintained and updated the Community on the basis of requests coming from Consortium partners. At the moment, the enabled users of the GENOVATE Community are 69, which forms a basis for strong community of gender equality practice with the following statistics on its use until 31-7-2017:
• 409 posts in the WPs Forum with 1278 replies
• 264 total articles in the Institutional Blog with 84778 total hits for the 184 public articles
The WP Forum has been used to coordinate work packages' work. For example, the slides and links to the Stop & Share sessions recorded on Blackboard were made available and easy to access through the WP Forum. All partner institutions have used the blog to highlight GEAP implementation activities and joint learning processes with internal and external stakeholders. In particular, some partners (like LTU) used the blog to support their status reporting and reflection process and promoted the blog with team members, advisory board members and internal and external stakeholders to spread project activities.
Task 6.2 Knowledge Exchange
During the project a great amount of work has involved identifying, building upon and where necessary bridging any expertise gaps within the consortium. A self-evaluation of partners’ expertise levels in specific areas was undertaken at the early stage of the project and repeated after a year. An expertise matrix was created based on the findings. The following criteria were adopted in scheduling the knowledge exchange within the consortium: each session focused on the needs for the GEAPs implementation; the dates were planned taking into account the schedule of the GEAPs implementation; each session gave suggestions and examples (more on practical than on theoretical basis); partners that had more expertise gave more than one lecture; speakers defined the contents of their presentation with other partners with similar expertise; and partners were invited to share all the resources and material useful to the GEAPs implementation on the GENOVATE Community.
During the project, UNINA worked in collaboration with other partners, to organise training sessions for knowledge sharing. In particular, UNINA coordinated 21 Stop and Share sessions; 20 of the sessions were virtual; topics included Change Academy Model, Equality Impact Assessment, Mentoring, Gender targets, development of e-learning, Gender and Leadership, the development of the social model, GEAP evaluation, etc. One face to face Stop and Share session was held during the GENOVATE Cork Convention in March 2015. The focus of the Stop & Share was on GEAP implementation and enabling or disabling factors. This provided an opportunity for partners, at the beginning of the Convention, to open a discussion about progress in GEAP implementation.
UNINA produced four GENOVATE Annual Convention Reports in consultation with partners.
Task 6.3 GENOVATE Case Studies
Deliverable D6.2 of the GENOVATE project concerns a portfolio of institutional case studies from the Consortium partners. The case studies focus on the GEAP actions implemented by each partner institution and report the successful strategies but also the challenges facing the GEAP implementation in partner institutions.
An online portfolio of the GENOVATE case studies was posted on the GENOVATE Community, in the section GEAP Implementation Roadmap .
The GEAP Implementation Roadmap has been built during the third year of the GENOVATE project in order to collect contributions concerning the different aspects of the GEAP implementation from the Work Packages WP2, WP6, WP7:
1. Reflections on Change Academy Model (CAM) implementation: reflections from GENOVATE partners related to the CAM implementation and the Social Model to be developed by WP2 (WP2, co-led by Trnava University, TU and University of Bradford, UNIBRAD).
2. Case studies on the GEAP implementation: posts focusing on the implementation of the GEAP in each institution (WP6, led by University of Naples Federico II, UNINA).
3. ePortfolio for the evaluation: pictorial material (photos, pictures, graphics, charts, etc) about advances, mechanisms/activities and resistances related to the GEAP implementation (WP7, led by Universidad Complutense de Madrid, UCM).
UNINA led on the development of Deliverable D6.2 (A portfolio of institutional case studies from each consortium partner) which was submitted in December 2015 (M36). Producing the case studies has involved reflection and analysis by the different GENOVATE teams on the process of GEAP implementation in relation to the three challenges and the specificity of the institutional context.
WP7 - Evaluation [Led by UCM]
WP7 has been working in two different areas: the evaluation of the GENOVATE as a whole and the support to partner institutions in the evaluation of their own GEAPs. Below, a summary of the different activities is provided, following the tasks as described in the Description of Work.
Task 7.1 Preparing and delivering evaluation seminars at the GENOVATE annual Conventions, which will fulfil different purposes
Design of the evaluation workshops for GENOVATE Conventions: Different Evaluation Workshops were designed and delivered during the GENOVATE annual conventions. This was the starting point for training partners in evaluation and for supporting them in their GEAP evaluation process. The training was carried through different kinds of activities and tools. First, four different evaluation workshops were held during the annual GENOVATE conventions. Two specific “Stop & Share” sessions were also delivered as a form of webinar focused on indicators and on the evaluation of gender change. Second, three different “Evaluation Step by Step” toolkits were developed and shared with partners. Specific evaluation workshops with each partner institution were also carried out during the UCM team’s on-site visits. Additionally, each partner was provided with on-going support by the evaluation team. All of these actions have contributed to sustained work with partners throughout the course of the project, while helping to elaborate the final guidelines and to propose a list of “GEAP quality criteria”.
Task 7.2 Onsite visits and virtual reflections
On-site visits - The UCM team undertook on-site visits to all GENOVATE partners. The goal of these visits was two-fold. Firstly, and regarding the GENOVATE evaluation, the UCM sought to obtain first-hand information about the different WPs implementation and its relation with the GEAPs. Secondly, through different working sessions and evaluation workshops, these visits sought to foster further internal knowledge and self-reflection of partners about their activities, processes and outputs as a key point for their GEAP’s evaluation practices. Additionally, the visits provided key information about institutional practice, helped to orient support to partners in their evaluation practices as well as were very important input for designing the D7.1. Guidelines for Evaluating GEAPs.
Several tools were developed for promoting virtual reflections, formed the basis for on-going evaluation of the GENOVATE project as a whole and informed the design of the Guidelines for Evaluating GEAPS.
On-going evaluation reports (OER) -prepared annually by the WP7 team for the purpose of formative evaluation. These reports were based on partners’ feedbacks and contributions throughout questionnaires, interviews and participation in workshops. The reports highlighted the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges of GENOVATE project regarding process, outputs and outcomes. The report also included findings from an Evaluation Questionnaire completed by Institutional Advisory Board [IAB] members on two occasions during the project.
Evaluation Recommendations Action Plan (ERAP] presented the main recommendations, which emerged from the OER to improve current implementation of GENOVATE project.
Rapid evaluation feedback (REF) aimed to open a rapid discussion on some points related to the general project performance that can be improved with simple measures.
The ePortfolio on GEAP implementation: Partner institutions uploaded images exemplifying key moments captioned with specific references to Work Packages 3, 4, 5 representing achievements and challenges in their GEAP implementation process since the beginning of the project. Based on the analysis of the pictures submitted by partners between July 2015 and May 2016 relating to years 1 to 4 of the GENOVATE project. The eportfolio provided opportunity to share ideas about GEAP implementation and helped institutions rethink together about their main advances and pitfalls. Deliverable 7.2. Report from ePortfolio was produced from the analysis of GEAP pictures.
Task 7.3 Developing guidelines for evaluating GEAPs within partner institutions, which will include quality criteria
These guidelines synthesise the main ideas and steps to take into account when evaluating GEAPs, with concrete examples and tips drawn from the practices of GENOVATE partners and the findings of the evaluation training process, on site evaluation visits, evaluation toolkits and workshops, reflections and other support provided by the evaluation team. These Guidelines were developed following extensive reviews of existing literature on evaluation from a gender perspective and evaluation of gender change. All of these actions have contributed to sustained work with partners throughout the course of the project. These actions formed the basis for the design of the Deliverable 7.1. Guidelines for Evaluating GEAPs.
WP8 Dissemination and sustainability strategy [Led by UNIBRAD]
The goal of WP8 was to disseminate findings of the project to the various target groups [policy makers in EC, member states and other international audience, decision makers in higher education, research and equality institutions, and other end users, specifically: [a] To maintain a website with information about the project, latest news, document databases [updated at least 4 times per year] for both internal consortium communication and others; [b] To organise in-country Learning Circles involving gender networks, and one end point International Conference for the project; [c] To develop and implement media, publication and sustainability strategy; and [d] To produce Gender Equality Delivery Guides for other interested institutions and disseminating best practices to the broader academic community at regional, national and/or international level.
Task 8.1 GENOVATE website
The project website www.genovate.eu was developed during the first months of the project. It has been made accessible for mobile devices and optimized for search engine use in order to secure maximum traffic. The website has been used as prime online communication channels to give official identity and visibility to the GENOVATE initiative toward the broadest possible audience. It is also used to disseminate useful information on the project activities and objectives, and share related news with target stakeholders. Partners have been actively contributing to communication and dissemination efforts by supplying information on project advancement and related news posted on the website.
The website is regularly updated and refined with extensive content derived from the project outputs. It has been used as a repository of practical information and resources/tools developed by the project. The information on the GENOVATE website is currently up to date and the University of Bradford team will continue to maintain the website after the project. The website is attracting numerous viewers with an average hit of over 1565 per month as evidenced by Google analytics.
Task 8.2 Development and implementation of media, publication and sustainability strategy
The Dissemination and Publication Strategy developed by UNIBRAD (deliverable 8.2) has been an evolving document and has responded to the needs and requirements of the project. This has helped to ensure that the project has maximised the potential for dissemination and publication opportunities beyond the life of the project. The strategy was reviewed in September 2015 to support the development of an open access approach to GENOVATE, which has resulted in the production of 11 resources/tools. Dissemination of GENOVATE work has taken place at local institutional level and at conferences across Europe and globally. GENOVATE work has also yielded several publications in both academic and professional journals and books.
Specific Institutional Examples
UNIBRAD has disseminated GENOVATE materials at institutional conferences, events and workshops as well as during participation at external meetings, conferences, events and workshops in Africa [South Africa and Nigeria], UK, Europe [Estonia, Madrid, Lithuania, Brussels, Paris, Turkey, Vienna etc], Japan, Mexico and USA; Contributed keynote, workshops, oral and poster presentations at high level conferences including Making Diversity Interventions Count Annual International Conference Bradford in 2013; 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017; Estonia - Shared Identities in Diverse Communities: the Role of Culture, Media and Civil Society Conference; Prague; the British Science Festival; EU gender equality in HE Conferences in Vienna and Paris; African Women in Leadership Conferences both in Africa and USA; Gender Summits in Africa, Europe, Mexico and Japan; oral presentations at events including contributing to panel discussion regarding women’s contribution at AU; presented GENOVATE at JPOC Editorial Board Meeting; dissemination in the USA; and media publicity, etc); been involved in a workshop organised by EC Research and Innovation on evaluation of gender equality action plans; implemented plans to increase UNIBRAD’s participation in the online community; Co-led with WP2, a consortium paper on guided reflections; published an institutional journal article on gender equality, and are developing additional papers for submission within the next few months; presented several keynote addresses for varied audiences which cut across scientific communities, policy makers, media, politicians, etc – for example provided a keynote address at the NHS Employers Strategic Forum meeting in London; disseminated GENOVATE at the Science in Society Conference in Rome; and attended the Women in STEM conference [Inside Government] in London; GENOVATE International Workshop took place in Nigeria in June 2017. These varied dissemination activities have earned the GENOVATE team the Vice Chancellor’s Outstanding Award for 2017. In addition to the extensive international dissemination, UNIBRAD team have shared its work with UK Universities and other sectors e.g. University of Essex; University of Reading have opted to pilot our resources, etc.
UCC team members have disseminated findings at various events both internally and externally. For example, UCC presented on the GENOVATE-UCC project at a conference entitled ‘Transforming STEM Realities: Gender Equality’ hosted by the FESTA project in University of Limerick on 10 November 2015.
UCC team also presented their work: at the 9th European Conference on Gender Equality in Higher Education (and Research) conference in Paris on 12 - 14 September 2016; during Gender Equality Initiatives in Irish Higher Education, a knowledge exchange symposium at Maynooth University, 22 February 2017; at the AIB Bank Diversity event, Cork, 6 March 2017. UCC contributed to the WP2 consortium paper published in 2016 and is leading the preparation of a consortium paper based on WP3; an institutional paper on maternity leave research is to be submitted to an international journal. Along with these activities, the UCC team published a GENOVATE newsletter, maintained an active local website (www.ucc.ie/en/iss21/genovate) and set up and maintained an active Twitter account @GENOVATE_UCC. GENOVATE-UCC Twitter account had 389 followers with 100s of profile visits and 1000s of ‘impressions’ each month. The GENOVATE HUB@UCC was complete in 2016 and makes available GENOVATE@UCC's resources for promoting gender equality on a single platform. At the end of the project, a professionally designed GENOVATE postcard highlighting the GENOVATE Hub and resources was sent to every member of staff in the university.
Press coverage of GENOVATE-UCC’s work included: full page feature article in local newspaper Evening Echo on 11/1/2017; article in the national newspaper Irish Times 1/2/2017 and coverage on websites including Ninth Level Ireland and Career Guidance Ireland.
GENOVATE-UCC successfully engaged the HEA’s Expert Group on Gender Equality in their National Review of Irish Higher Education Institutions by recommending actions and sharing resources for effecting change for gender equality: GENOVATE is referred to thirty-eight times in the Report of the Expert Group.
LTU have continued raising the project profile, generating awareness, and contacting stakeholders by posting news on the LTE website, CDT website, CDT Facebook and on Twitter @genovateLTU. The LTU team have also promoted gender mainstreaming benefits in several events. In June 2015 LTU presented in the EARMA annual conference in Leiden, and in September 2015 LTU presented at the Vienna conference. The LTU team have faced a key challenge in achieving sustainability and have recognised that stakeholder participation and promotion of the ownership of a change process are key success factors, however they require the legitimacy of management to achieve sustainable change of the culture and structures of the institution. The strategy for LTU is to attract more women researchers to ICT and ICT innovation systems on all level at the institution, which will include challenging and transforming workplace cultures and structures.
AU distributed the Gender Equality Climate and Culture Report to the Technology Transfer Office Management in August 2014; published on Gender Equality in Academic Leadership and Management in the AU bulletin, issue 175; given a speech on ‘An innovative example on Gender Equality Action Plan Implementation through GENOVATE’ at The International Symposium on Gender Equality in Academia in Sabanci University, Istanbul; and participated in the EGERA.eu workshop on gender equality in Turkey in November 2014. AU has also formed a local collaboration with gender mainstreaming METU EU project, with discussions around enabling and hindering factors in mainstreaming gender equality in Turkish universities. Currently AU has been working on identifying strategies to improve visibility of GENOVATE nationally.
UNINA team have participated in the 8th European Conference on Gender Equality in Higher Education, in Vienna in September 2014 and the 9th European Conference on Gender Equality in Higher Education, in Paris in September 2016, the Gender Equality and institutions conference in Naples, in October 2014; and the conference ‘Scienza, genere e società: a che punto siamo? Prospettive di genere in una scienza che si evolve’ in November 2014; the XIX Congresso nazionale Associazione Italiana di Valutazione, in Rome (Italy) in April 2016; in the Conference Donne in 3-D: diritto allo studio, democrazia dei Saperi, donne nella scienza in Naples in May 2016; the 6th STS Italia Conference Sociotechnical Environments in Trento (Italy) in November 2016; in Conference Formazione, Ricerca e Carriere in Pisa (Italy) December 2016; in Gender Equality in Academia Conference in December 2016 in Padua (Italy); the national Conference “Saperi di genere” in Trento (Italy) in January 2017, in Conference Scienza tra ricerca e innovazione in April 2017 in Pisa (Italy), In the Gender in Physics Day in May 2017, Rome (Italy), in National Conference Per una rete mediterranea delle ricercatrici in Naples in 6 May 2017. The UNINA team have also disseminated GENOVATE to the national newspaper and the UNINA website. UNINA has continued to maintain Facebook and Twitter accounts; provide periodic feedback on the GENOVATE website; promote the Mentoring programme in UNINA; disseminate on social networks, via flyers and posters, by email, word of mouth and media (Interview on the national Radio – ‘Radio 24’, including a related article submission on the website of Radio24; article in the national newspaper; article in UNINA’s local university journal; article in the national journal on the Italian Physical Society; news on the website of Italian Society of Physics ‘Prima Pagina’); participated in communication activities during conferences (presentation of a paper at the ESA conference in Athens in April 2015; and in the European Sociological Association Conference in Prague in August 2015); and prepared GENOVATE’s dissemination event in the framework of the Science Festival Futuro Remoto that was held in Naples in October 2015, in collaboration with the Science Centre ‘Città della scienza’.
The TU team have established a Facebook page and are regularly contributing to this page to share information about GENOVATE TU activities; regularly published project information in FHSSW journal; regularly posted GENOVATE updates on the FHSSW website; presented a poster at the 8th European Conference on Gender Equality in Higher Education in Vienna, titled ‘Gender Equality Strategy at Trnava University’, in September 2014.
UCM has disseminated GENOVATE projects at several international conferences in Europe, America (Canada, Colombia and USA) and Asia (Nepal). This partner specifically participated in the 3rd ‘Equal is not enough’ Conference (Belgium, 2015) and the 11th European Evaluation Society Biennial Conference (Ireland, 2014). Moreover, UCM disseminated GENOVATE evaluation work in the Canadian Evaluation Society Conference (Canada, 2015), the American Evaluation Association Annual Meeting (USA, 2015), the Encuentro Internacional de Evaluación y políticas públicas (Colombia, 2014), the Evaluation Conclave – Community of Evaluators South Asia (Nepal, 2015). In 6th Congreso Red Española de Políticas Sociales. Seville, Spain.16th and 17th February, 2017. ‘Gender, Institutions and Change: Feminist Institutionalism after 10 years’. International Conference. University of Manchester. Manchester, United Kingdom, 3-4th April, 2017; III EvalPartners Global Evaluation Forum. Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. 26th to 28th April, 2017.
5th European Conference on Politics and Gender. European Consortium for Political Research. Standing Group on Gender and Politics. Lausanne, Switzerland. 8th to 10th June, 2017. Additionally, UCM has presented and discussed GENOVATE evaluation work in different national workshops in Madrid (Complutense University of Madrid) and Seville (Pablo de Olavide University and Loyola University – Andalucía). The most important ideas from UCM’s on-site visits to partner institutions were also disseminated by Twitter when it was considered relevant.
The WP7 guidelines, ‘Evaluating Gender Structural Change. Guidelines for Evaluating Gender Equality Action Plans’, has been disseminated on different social networks. Mainly, it has been disseminated on Twitter and Facebook as well as in the Newsletter of EvalGender+ (http://createsend.com/t/d-8553D2B20972B8D2).
Moreover, this Guidelines has been shared by email to following international and national institutions and organizations:
• United Nations Evaluation Group.
• Evaluation Office of UN Women.
• United Nations Development Programme.
• ‘Gender &Evaluation’ Thematic Working Group of the European Evaluation Society.
• ‘Gender Mainstreaming’ Working Group of the DeGEval (Evaluation Society, Gesellschaft für Evaluation e.V.).
• Feminist Evaluation Group of APROEVAL (Spanish and Portuguese Association of Evaluation Professionals).
• Africa Gender and Development Evaluators Network (AGDEN).
• Gender and Evaluation, Institute of Social Studies Trust (India).
• ‘Feminist Issues in Evaluation’ Topical Interest Group, American Evaluation Association (AEA).
• Working group in evaluation, gender and human rights, RELAC (Monitoring, Evaluation and Systematization in Latin America and the Caribbean Network).
• The Tavistock Institute.
• PRIGEPP, Regional Training Programme on Gender and Politics of FLACSO-Argentina.
• IAEN, National Institute of Social Science of Ecuador.
• CIDE, Center of Research and Training on Economics. Mexico.
• Gender and Politics Group of AECPA (Spanish Association of Political Science).
• Different Spanish, European and Latinoamerican NGOs, public administrations, Universities and gender consultants.
Information about GENOVATE are available on websites of collaborators e.g. EARMA, GENPort, TRIGGER, etc. Social networks have been utilised effectively to maximise dissemination for GENOVATE work
GENOVATE publications, press releases, media coverage and other dissemination activities are provided on the website - http://www.genovate.eu/dissemination/publications/
Project social media activities
In addition to consortium website, partners have maintained lively institutional websites. The objective has been to further increase the visibility of the project both at institutional and consortium levels.
Tweets on common topics of interest for the project have been regularly posted on the project Twitter account @GENOVATE_EU. A specific hashtag, #genovate, is used to indicate when tweets are providing information specifically related to the GENOVATE project. Institutional Twitter accounts include @genovatecafe, @GENOVATE_AU, @GenovateLTU, @GenovateUnina @GENOVATE-UCC.
The GENOVATE website is linked to the project social media channels to facilitate public access, and to guarantee that up-to-date and live information is optimally shared between the consortium and the stakeholder community.
Partners maintain Facebook pages to publicise their activities linked to GEAP implementation. For example: https://www.facebook.com/genovatecafe/ [UNIBRAD]; http://on.fb.me/20U3K8f [UCC]; https://www.facebook.com/genovatetu?fref=ts [TU]; https://www.facebook.com/Genovate-Unina-1386871078211001/ [UNINA].
Task 8.3 Learning circles and international conference
Learning Circles
All partners arranged National Learning Circles [NLCs], to provide a forum to engage in dialogue with relevant stakeholders in their own countries and beyond, with the aims of bringing together key stakeholders to develop a vision for gender equality in research and innovation within research institutions in GENOVATE countries; and developing a greater understanding of work already being undertaken in this area and providing the opportunity to learn from each other. It also sought to explore areas of potential joint working across the country and beyond, linked to the development of a sustainability strategy. The themes for NLCs were to celebrate gender equality implementation at faculty, institution, and country levels, and to ensure sustainability of gender equality actions beyond the life of the GENOVATE project.
There was wide participation in NLCs from private and public organisations including senior staff from HE and FE institutions, such as: researchers, lecturers, senior lecturers, professors, diversity specialists/equality officers, HR staff, journal editors, publishers, research councils, higher education authorities, funding agencies, senior industrial relations officers, gender project managers, programme managers, managing directors of private organisations, Athena SWAN project officers, developmental officers, and NHS employees.
Each of the six core partners organised and delivered NLCs, providing a forum to engage in dialogue with relevant stakeholders in their own countries. The learning circles offer a safe and respectful context for sharing ideas, views, and experiences. For GENOVATE, National Learning Circles (NLCs) represent participative and collaborative opportunities where GENOVATE partners and stakeholders share experiences, knowledge and learning on the effective transformation of gender organisational cultures in higher education. NLCs are instrumental in disseminating context-specific and institutional issues that emerge in both partners and stakeholders’ country and organisational contexts.
The NLCs provided opportunities to discuss GENOVATE’s issues and concerns, partners’ progress, challenges encountered, good practice on gender equality policy-making, project achievements and end-project goals. In addition, the GENOVATE NLCs also offer a collaborative “sharing and learning” experience in which consortium partners’ present examples of local and focal institutional action, identifying and exploring powerful synergies and transversal collaborations in a top-down and a bottom-up fashion, not only within their own organisations but also with other relevant institutional bodies and actors, key in decision making process in HE and gender equality issues. Bearing this in mind, Deliverable 8.4. [Synthesis Report of National Learning Circles] analyses the main themes, actions, reflections and outcomes emerging from these fruitful encounters, which ultimately bring to light the concern and importance of a solid and long-term sustainability strategy and cross-institutional agenda to ensure the growth and support of gender equality in HE and other research institutions, and therefore, its advancement in society by and large.
Institutional examples:
UNIBRAD NLCs (2015, 2016) explored localised, context-specific, and national implementation of GENOVATE in HE, together with targeted organisational interventions to transform gender cultures and organisations effectively. The first NLC focused on GENOVATE learning and tools, whilst the second one was part of the UNIBRAD Conference “Making Diversity Interventions Count” and provided an avenue for international learning involving partners from UCC and AU. UNIBRAD NLCs discussed GENOVATE implementation by looking at specific examples of contextualised approach to implementing gender equality action plans with case studies from AU, UNIBRAD and Reading Universities; together with the applicability of GENOVATE tools to academic and non-academic contexts. Other important NLC themes were a) the need and opportunities to identify spaces with potential for organisational change; b) review, monitoring, and updating of existing gender equality policies (i.e. GEAPs, career progression for women academics), and finally, collaborations with specific institutional departments (i.e. human resources) and organisations from other sectors such as the National Health Service, Trades Unions, Research Institutes and Professional Societies.
UCC: With the objective of ‘Promoting Gender Equality in Higher Education in Ireland’, UCC’s NLC covered and reflected on the achievements and challenges realised and encountered in such a process so far. Framed by the momentum towards promoting gender equality in higher education in Ireland, the invited participants from nine organisations identified multiple achievements that varied in nature, but with significant commonalities in their realisation at institutional level. These included: Evidenced based research including data collection and analysis; the development of gender equality actions plans; and Support from senior management and broad based engagement of all.
In addition to this, the NLC highlighted the importance of national legal frameworks that support and uphold gender equality in higher education (i.e. the positive obligation to integrate gender equality into strategic planning processes under section 42 of Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014, the decision of the Higher Education Authority to establish a review; and the extension of the Athena SWAN to Ireland)
The participants also identified commonalities in the challenges experienced in promoting gender equality at institutional level, such as lack of senior management involvement; slow pace of cultural change; and resistance to gender equality.
LTU organised two National Learning Circles (June 2015 and 2016) which focused on a) developing and promoting gender-aware and sustainable recruitment processes and practices; and b) integrating a gender and diversity perspective into innovation systems. In so doing, the NLCs opened an opportunity to discuss and examine LTU Code of Practice, which is a set of recommendations to embed gender equality and diversity into research and innovation. How to implement this code factually, effectively and efficiently were main aspects of the debate, which also covered other important questions such as recruitment and commercialisation strategies, LTU GEAP implementation, actors’ involvement in the LTU Code development and implementation, and LTU Code’s contribution to sustainable structural and cultural change.
UNINA, TU and AU focused their National Learning Circles on the development and evaluation of their gender mainstreaming policy. In the case of UNINA, NLCs focused on gender mainstreaming in STEM fields; gender budgeting; UNINA's code of practice for a gender dimension in research evaluation (as it was the case with LTU); UNINA's mentoring program; and GEAP sustainability and dissemination strategies. TU's NLCs delved into GEAP implementation; recruitment, progression and promotion strategies; and their gender climate assessment. Attendees also celebrated TU’s presentation of GENOVATE tools (i.e. GENOVATE Toolkit), which were welcomed as useful and efficient implementation instruments.
In a similar fashion, AU’s NLCs also focused on organisational gender mainstreaming issues (i.e. GEAP, curricula development), and reflected on their Gender Equality Climate and Culture Report, and AU’s Equality Impact Assessment. NLCs offered a great opportunity for knowledge exchange and for sharing AU’s experiences of GEAP implementation through GENOVATE. In addition, UNINA, TU, and AU used their NLCs as opportunities to assess and strengthen their recruitment, promotion and retention policies to support women in their professional development in HE through mentoring programmes (UNINA); devising career development plans (TU), and advancing particular promotion policies (AU). Ensuring and reinforcing internal and external stakeholder collaboration with respect to their gender equality agenda was also a shared goal of partners’ NLCs. The foundation of specific monitoring institutional bodies such as a gender observatory (UNINA), and the Equality Coordination Unit (AU), together with the feasibility of promoting a national HE gender policy were also powerful themes among partners
GENOVATE International Conference
GENOVATE international conference took place in Brussels on 2nd [pre-conference event] and 3rd November 2016 [full day conference]. The conference has produced different tools - digital stories, and conference videos. Adopting a collaborative approach, the conference promoted the EC’s attempts to form alliances between projects for a more holistic dissemination and sustainability. The overall conference theme was: ‘Towards 2020: Learning from GENOVATE’s implementation of Organisational Change for Gender Equality in research and innovation’. This theme reflected the ethos of the GENOVATE project and brought together different elements and contributions from partner institutions. It also provided a platform to examine issues beyond state of the art gender equality policies and practices. Keynotes and other key speakers were drawn from a pool of gender experts, representation from the European Commission, senior managers/leaders of HE and Research Institutes, politicians, and academics.
The conference consisted of three sessions. In the first session was a welcome and opening plenary session that included the chair’s opening remarks, welcome address and the keynote address. The second session was about the lessons learned from the GENOVATE Action Plans that included presentations from GENOVATE GEAP implementing partners in different parallel sessions, feedback on main outcomes from the action plans and a ‘learning market’ during lunch break. The third session focused on GENOVATE output including recommendations and suggestions from the GENOVATE Project including presentations on the GENOVATE evaluation, GENOVATE model, intersectionality and the GEAR tool. The conference ended with a roundtable discussion on ‘Integrating gender and diversity in cultural change in research and innovation as a sustainable policy effort’ and closing remarks. 102 participants representing a wide range of roles and sectors including public authorities, employers, equality bodies, education institutions and health services, attended the conference.
Task 8.4 Producing Gender Equality Delivery Guide
The Gender Equality Delivery Guide [D8.5] provides a useful set of guidelines for Human Resources (HR) managers and policy making professionals, institutional units, and departments in Higher Education (HE) to embed, and effectively mainstream gender equality into institutional policy frameworks. The Guide represents a valuable, research action-based “roadmap” which offers support on gender competent policy-making, implementation, monitoring and deep organisational change in line with international, regional and domestic legislation; and institutional and context-specific gender equality and diversity backgrounds. The guidelines stem from the overall GENOVATE project, and translate the mainstays of the GENOVATE Model into the more action-oriented, result-driven, and hands-on dynamics of the human resources field in the context of promoting gender competent research and innovation.
Potential Impact:
GENOVATE has brought about tangible and measurable results in terms of attracting, recruiting, and advancing women in research at all levels of seniority among project participants. Progress on the achievement of this goal is evident in all aspects of the project, in particular through WP3, supported by rigorous evaluation of success through WP7.
It has also enhanced understanding of the benefit to create a work/life responsive workplace and of improving the culture and organisational structures of research organisations and universities. Progress on the achievement of this goal is evident in all aspects of the project, in particular through WP4, WP5, and WP6 supported by iterative evaluation through WP7.
The project has had significant impact across Europe and has contributed to generating public debate and raising awareness on the institutional issues hindering gender equality in research and innovation. There has been intense knowledge exchange within the consortium (WP6) and with key stakeholders throughout the project and dissemination of outcomes has occurred widely, as outlined in WP8, thus contributing to public debate and awareness-raising.
GENOVATE has produced new knowledge of value to the research and innovation enterprise across the EU. Through the process of implementing tailored GEAPs in different institution types in different national contexts, and carefully documenting, monitoring and analysing the implementation process, an innovative contextualised model of gender equality implementation has been produced and disseminated in a variety of formats tailored to key audiences (WP2, WP8). This has served as a methodological framework, or roadmap, for other European research organisations and universities in developing and implementing strategies to encourage a more gender-competent management. As part of this process, new grounded empirical knowledge has been gained on the strategies necessary to implement a sustainable and substantial GEAP in European universities, the barriers and facilitators, as well as increased awareness of the challenges faced in academic research at all levels, clearer understanding of the factors and processes that influence both the working environment, culture and experiences of female academic researchers and also the steps involved in transforming the culture, policies and practices of the organisation and the wider research sector within Europe. The availability of the numerous resources has had significant wider benefits across European and national Higher Education Institutions – e-learning Package on Gender Competent Leadership and Management [WP 4]; Contextualised Guidelines for Universities and Research Organisations [WP 3]; Guiding principles for Excellence in Research Standards [WP 5]; GENOVATE Gender and Diversity Toolkit [WP 5]; Report on Institutional Case Studies [WP 6]; Guidelines for Evaluating GEAPs [WP 7]; GENOVATE Model for Gender Equality in Transforming Research and Innovation [WP2]; Synthesis Report of National Learning Circle [WP 8]; Report on ePortfolio [WP 2]; Gender Equality Guides [WP 8]; and Gender Culture and Working Climate Assessment Report [WP 4].
This new knowledge has been embedded in the relevant policies and structures at the level of each partner institution to ensure sustainability of learning, and, through strategic collaboration with key stakeholders, into other universities and research organisations. It has contributed to the development of sustainable gender equality and diversity frameworks within the European academic research sector by transforming organisational cultures and structures to ensure that excellence in research and innovation access, assessment, advancement, management and output is open to all academic researchers, women and men, and, that the maximum potential of research activity is realised from the diversity of the research pool.
The implementation activity and the knowledge exchange involved has been collated from all six consortium partners to develop not only learning packages for a wider higher education and research audience but also a social model of gender equality that will contribute a concrete grounded framework for understanding and addressing the socio-cultural, rather than individual, dimensions of gendering within academic research.
All partner institutions have benefited from the intense knowledge exchange activities built into the GENOVATE project structure. Partners have learnt from others with more experience of implementing gender equality programmes as evidence in the result related to GEAP implementation and application of WP resources.
From the beginning of the project, GENOVATE has actively interacted with related gender equality projects.
Institutionalisation
The implementation of the GENOVATE project has generated important outputs by the partner universities, specifically concerning institutionalisation. The most outstanding result was the design and implementation of GEAP in each of the six implementing partner institutions. These GEAPs also facilitated the inclusion of gender equality issues in other strategic planning documents in most partner universities, including AU, LTU, UCC, UNINA and UNIBRAD.
GENOVATE has also contributed to increasing the numbers of staff and the budgets allocated for gender equality issues at universities, as well as to institutional practice and research in this field. In terms of institutional practice, the Gender Equality Change Academy Teams were crucial for promoting gender issues within most partner universities. In some cases, specific commissions for implementing the GEAPs were created and will continue to promote gender equality after the conclusion of the GENOVATE project. In the same vein, the creation of the “Gender Observatory” at UNINA reveals clear commitment to gender equality and the sustainability of GENOVATE’s results.
In terms of research on gender equality, GENOVATE reports – such as the Gender Equality Climate and Culture reports – have helped to make top managers more gender-responsive. Due to their varied backgrounds in gender and diversity issues, most partner institutions focused their work on gender issues. Only one of the six partners, which had previous experience of diversity issues (UNIBRAD), systematically adopted a dual approach combining diversity and gender equality issues.
Gender equality and diversity issues are interconnected. Thus, it is not only important to pay attention to gender inequalities, but also to how gender inequality intersects with other kinds of inequalities. However, the GENOVATE experience reveals that combining gender and diversity approaches is not always an easy task. Successfully adopting a dual approach in the institutionalisation process is tied to each university’s starting point in both spheres. Universities with more limited institutional backgrounds in the spheres of gender and diversity issues faced greater difficulties in promoting a dual approach. A markedly different situation, meanwhile, was experienced by partners with more institutional experience in these areas. Hence, to promote more gender- and diversity-responsive universities, it is necessary to look at their different contexts – paying special attention to specific change needs – and accordingly to design specific strategic actions to facilitate a dual approach. Additionally, since gender inequality pervades all other forms of inequalities – i.e. it is not merely “another” factor of inequality – it is important to define specific actions to tackle gender inequality. This is essential to avoid gender issues from evaporating within approaches that promote diversity.
Recruitment, Progression and Retention - A core aim of GENOVATE was to strengthen the presence of women at all levels of seniority in research in partner institutions. This was achieved in particular through Work package 3, Gender Equality in Recruitment, Progression and Research Support. As a result of tasks undertaken as part of WP3, tangible results have been achieved in all partner institutions.
Gender Culture and Climate - The GENOVATE project achieved important results with respect to gender culture and climate (WP4). According to data from the questionnaires, the most important result concerns the analysis of specific gender needs. Over the past four years, four partners now engage in some regular practices in this regard. Progress has also been made in terms of gender-balanced representation in key decision making positions, gender-balanced distribution within academic positions and the gender- balanced allocation of resources. In all these areas, two partner institutions have engaged in related practices. However, little substantial change are apparent with respect to the gender-balanced distribution of management positions. Both in 2013 and 2016, only two partner universities engaged in any regular practice in this regard.
Excellence in Research and Innovation
Prior to the GENOVATE project, only two of the partner institutions had explicit experience in the sphere of promoting gender equality and diversity competence when assessing excellence in research and innovation. LTU’s practices in this area concerned gender equality in leadership and academic supervisory training programmes; gender-balanced promotion and recruitment committees; and gender-balanced grading committees. The University of Bradford had experience linked to the Research Excellence Framework Code of Practice, and specifically introducing principles of “diversity competence”. The remaining partners (AU, TU, UCC and UNINA) did not have explicit experience.
A range of activities were promoted in partner institutions since the beginning of the GENOVATE project. At the Consortium-level and linked to deliverable 5.1. – Guiding Principles for gender and diversity competent research excellence standards – the Equality Impact Analysis (EIA) was promoted as the basis for developing this Code of Practice. The Toolkit devised as deliverable 5.2. – Gender and Diversity Toolkit to integrate gender and diversity perspective in innovation systems – was tested in most partner institutions and a number of online meetings were held to discuss it.
Overall, GENOVATE’s experiences reveal the usefulness of the Code of Practice for gender and diversity competent research excellence standards. Thus, it stands to be a useful tool that can be adopted by and adapted to future gender and structural change projects. The Gender and Diversity Toolkit to integrate gender and diversity perspective in innovation systems has been translated into the languages used by different partner institutions. Internal and external stakeholders participated to different degrees and via different types of activities at partner institutions. In addition, according to half of the partners, the Toolkit still needs to be adapted to their local contexts.
Enabling and Disabling Factors
GENOVATE project is marked by a range of different starting points and backgrounds on gender issues among its partner institutions. Thus, local work on the GEAPs has varied significantly between each partner institution. This has been one of the project’s most enriching features. The evaluation team helped to identify drivers and bottlenecks in each of three change areas – ideas, structures and people, in order to share learning about the GEAPs’ implementation and thereby inform future projects focused on structural gender change. Furthermore, this exercise seeks to contribute to the different sustainability strategies of GENOVATE’s partners. This is especially important as gender change takes time, and it is therefore necessary to take advantage of strengths and to address resistances.
These enabling and disabling factors reveal that promoting structural gender change is not an easy task. Rather, it demands that we pay attention to three levels – the level connected to ideas (how institutions think); the level related to their structures and mechanisms (how institutions work); and the level that concerns their people (how central gender equality is to their staff). In this regard, the GENOVATE experience (encapsulated in the GENOVATE Model) could contribute to the design and development of other projects in this field and, according to the partner institutions involved, this will define their next steps in terms of promoting gender and diversity change.
Sustainability
Sustainability is a core principle of the GENOVATE project, and a main concern across intra-consortium participants and stakeholders. All project actions have sought to effect institutional change, which will be maintained beyond the lifetime of the project and further progressed by an enhanced gender perspective in the wider research sector. In this respect, ensuring sustainability of Gender Equality Action Plans and GENOVATE core values and roadmaps beyond the lifetime of the project is a GENOVATE goal in itself. In so doing, a solid, coherent, feasible and adaptable sustainability strategy is seminal not only to safeguard the positive actions taken so far in advancing gender equality, but also in ensuring that further steps will be taken until gender equality is a fact for women and men. To this end, GENOVATE has identified critical intervention areas that need to be closely monitored, evaluated and further developed.
UNIBRAD: GENOVATE Cafés (GENCafés) at both the faculty- and institutional-levels provided a safe space for discussing gender equality issues at UNIBRAD. The continuation of GENCafés will provide a regular opportunity to view progress on gender equality, while supporting consistency in UNIBRAD’s messaging post- GENOVATE. This will also help to clarify the goal of promoting equal opportunities for both men and women, so as to enhance the involvement of male colleagues as allies in gender equality work. In parallel, UNIBRAD has promoted student involvement within its faculties to ensure the sustainability of gender equality change programmes. At present, the project has enabled them to participate in gender equality change activities. Collaboration with the student’s union has ensured their continual support towards maintaining the pipeline.
At the institutional level, the UNIBRAD team worked to translate GENOVATE’s processes, governance and actions into the Athena SWAN framework for the University of Bradford. The team also sought to maintain support for Gender ambassadors, Deans of academic faculties and Directors of the professional services unit. They have joined all gender equality initiatives under the portfolio of the Strategic Advisor for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, while working closely with HR to promote the use of GENOVATE’s key tools.
UCC: UCC’s sustainability strategy boasts a number of strands. GENOVATE-UCC contributed to the national initiative that successfully brought the Athena SWAN Charter to Ireland. It also contributed to UCC’s successful application for the Athena SWAN Institutional Bronze Award, which commits the university to a new, detailed 3-year GEAP (2016-19). ENOVATE team members will continue to contribute to the university’s Athena SWAN activities. Selected gender equality actions are now reviewed annually as part of UCC’s annual strategic planning, on the recommendation of GENOVATE. Gender equality goals are to be included in the university’s next 5-year Strategic Plan (2017-2022). A post- GENOVATE group of staff has committed to promoting action and research for gender equality in the university by engaging and supporting senior management to translate gender equality commitments into effective actions. To support the university community in promoting gender equality, the GENOVATE HUB has been developed (a collation of GENOVATE@UCC's resources for promoting gender equality on a single platform). The HUB includes tools to support the implementation of selected actions. A public relations professional has been engaged to enhance the profile and visibility of GENOVATE’s work during the final project phase.
At LTU, the GENOVATE Advisory Board members were selected from among the university’s management to ensure a decisive impact at the institutional level. Moreover, close, continuous work with the university’s HR department has sought to promote structural change through the implementation of gender- aware recruitment and promotion processes and a follow-up system. GENOVATE results at LTU will also be used in a national project initiated by the government to mainstream gender in Swedish Higher Education, an initiative that will cover all of Sweden’s universities and colleges.
The integration of a gender dimension in research funding proposals at LTU gained significant of internal and external attention. This trend is now spreading to other schools of LTU, as well as to other universities in Sweden and Europe. At the European-level, gender mainstreaming is being further promoted by EARMA at annual conferences convening some 800 participants, as well as through the establishment of a new EARMA working group on cultures and diversity. The founding members of the new working group are based at Bologna University, LTU and the University of Southern Denmark.
At AU, sustainability has been bolstered through the creation of a Permanent Commission for its Gender Equality Action Plan – as part of its top management; the election of an Equality Coordinator; and the establishment of GECATs in three faculties (Health Science, Educational Science and Veterinary Faculties). In the same vein, AU has sought to ensure the sustainability of gender change by involving stakeholders and networking with other universities. Incorporating “gender equality studies” as a criterion for academic promotion within the AU Promotion and Progress Directive aims to support the centrality of gender equality at the university.
At UNINA, the recently established Gender Observatory is the key element for ensuring the sustainability of gender and diversity change. It focuses on implementing those GEAP activities that have proven especially effective for increasing gender equality in the spheres of academia and research. The Observatory spans four areas: Women’s studies in science and technology; gender and research evaluation; gender budgeting and statistics; and women’s careers in universities and research. Key among these are studies in gender issues in science and technology; the promotion of diversity in scientific excellence; activities for raising awareness of a gender perspective in research; building of academic and scientific networks attune to gender issues in science; and affirmative action to support women’s careers in academia. Sustained efforts will be made to continue updating UNINA’s gender budgeting statistics and to launch a new mentoring programme for women.
TU: Different activities have been carried out at TU to disseminate GENOVATE’s results and ensure their sustainability. For example, to promote the design and development of the Career Development Plan – one of GENOVATE’s main results at TU – the university has engaged in national learning circles; regularly meetings with the Rector and the Institutional Advisory Board; GENOVATE Cafés; and focus groups with stakeholders. However, sustainability has been threatened by the organisation itself. There has been little room for a systematic approach for gender change, and limited space for change in general.
In conclusion, although the kinds of activities engaged in varied according to the partners, all of GENOVATE’s partner institutions boosted stakeholder engagement and effectively networked with other projects and gender experts. These activities are crucial for ensuring ownership of the project and its continued sustainability. Furthermore, most partners promoted or established a structure or mechanism for supporting, revising and/or disseminating their gender equality work. For example, the Permanent Commission for the Gender Equality Action Plan at AU; LTU’s Gender Contact Point; UCC’s annual periodic reporting mechanism; the Gender Observatory at UNINA; and the role of the Strategic Advisor for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and of senior leaders as champions providing leadership for gender equality at UNIBRAD. These structures are also poised to ensure that GENOVATE’s work will be taken forward.
Cooperation with other projects
Throughout the duration of the project, GENOVATE has continued to enjoy active interaction and collaboration with other gender equality projects including participation in the European Gender Summit and other dissemination platforms both in-country and internationally. GENOVATE has participated in the EU project coordinators and evaluators high-level meetings, participated in Workshops organised by the European Commission for FP7/Horizon2020 structural gender projects such as the STAGES final conference, TRIGGER workshop in Rome, Madrid, Brussels and London. Additionally, whilst GENOVATE intention to run a joint final conference sister projects - FESTA and GARCIA did not come to fruition, the attendance and participation at each other’s conference was significant in promoting future partnerships. GENOVATE has contributed to the final guidelines of the TRIGGER project.
There are also interactions at in-country level such as:
UNIBRAD actively contributed to EU PROGRESS programme project on gender equality in economic decision-making. Working in collaboration with the Society Integration Foundation in Latvia, this cooperation involved UNIBRAD hosting a study visit for 9 academics and students from Latvian higher education institutions in November 2014. UNIBRAD is working with the University of Reading, UK, to act as a test bed for all GENOVATE tools in 2016. This will be evaluated and lessons learnt will be incorporated within our institutional learning processes. UNIBRAD presented at the Gender Summit 5 in South Africa; UNIBRAD provides academic support to the African Women in Leadership; UNIBRAD presented a keynote paper at the workshop on Gender Mainstreaming at the Czech Academy of Sciences in Brno in the Czech Republic. This has led to a further invitation to provide a workshop as part of the Cost Action genderSTE (gender, science, technology and environment) in Vilnius, Lithuania in April 2016.
UCC attended the end-project event of the INTEGER project in Dublin in June 2015, and participated in the FESTA Conference on Transforming STEM Realities in November 2015. UCC also collaborates with members of FESTA and INTEGER through the national Ireland Athena SWAN Committee, and through the National Learning Circle.
LTU team’s cooperation with other projects are as follows Demo of D5.2 Toolkit in the OPTi F2F meeting in Stuttgart, Germany in December 2015; FUI Data centres project kick-off in Luleå, Sweden, November 2015; EARMA working group on cultures and diversity kick-off, November 2015; GENOVATE, OPTi and gender mainstreaming tools presented in ICT2015 EC conference in Lisbon, Portugal in October 2015; EARMA AC in Leiden, the Netherlands, demo of LTU Code of Practice in June 2015; VIT project workshop in May 2015; OPTi kick-off in Luleå, Sweden in April 2015; VIT project workshop in December 2014 and Swedish SiS workshop in December 2014. In addition, LTU team have held monthly meetings with EARMA on the integration of gender perspective in the training programme of EARMA (European Association for Research Managers and Administrators) and 4 meetings with SENJA (Swedish EU Network for Gender Equality in Academia).
AU has had several meetings with EGERA Project in METU and AU. Both projects are exchanging their experiences on gender mainstreaming activities. They are preparing a working document for the Directive for Scientific Research Project Units of all public universities and have extended recommendations to HEI of Turkey.
GENOVATE partners have built lasting relationships and a community of practice, which has led to continuing and sustained partnerships. For example UCC [Nursing team] and UNIBRAD [health team including GENOVATE international director] have jointly won an Erasmus grant to undertake a project to promote diversity-competent simulation based learning in health care curriculum; UCC [GENOVATE and Ocean research team] and UNIBRAD [GENOVATE team] are in consortium which have submitted 2 proposals for SWAFs 8 and 14 respectively, and RRING Responsible Research and Innovation Networked Globally [SWAFs 14] involving 23 partners has successfully been awarded ; there is on-going collaboration between UCC and UNINA around mentoring which led to a UNINA GENOVATE team member’s recent 3-month research visit to UCC to develop a comparative analysis; the UNINA team recently hosted the AU Scientific Coordinator to speak at an international conference “For a Mediterranean network of women researchers” in Naples; GENOVATE partners also continue to work together in writing a number of collaborative articles, drawing on the GENOVATE learning, for submission to international journals '
List of Websites:
Project Website
www.genovate.eu
Project Contact Names
International Director
Uduak Archibong [u.e.archibong@bradford.ac.uk]
UNIBRAD Team
Main contacts: Uduak Archibong [u.e.archibong@bradford.ac.uk] and Kellie Barnes [genovate@bradford.ac.uk]
Other team members: Nazira Karodia, Crina Oltean-Dumbrava, Anita Sargeant, Peter Hopkinson, Jeremy Bulmer, Saima Rifet, Aishih Webhe-Hererra, Nayyara Tabassum, Angela Srivastava, Juliet Maynard, Julie Smith
Interns: Sean Whiley, Jake Indriks, Jonathan Stoker, Zahraa Nazir, Maadiya Khan, Dragos Pascu, Eleni Elezi, Sadia Younas, Sabo Dagona
UCC Team
Main contact: Caitriona Ni Laoire
Other team members: Nicola Maxwell, Sarah M Field, Geraldine Boylan, Linda Connolly, Siobhan Cusack, Louise Kenny, Carol Linehan, Irene Lynch-Fannon, Siobhan Mullally, Aifric O Grada, Siobhan O’Brien, Christine Looney
LTU Team
Main contacts: Paula Wennberg and Ylva Faltholm
Other team members: Mikael Börjeson, Jan-Olov Johansson, Michael Nilsson, Annika Sallstrom, Maria Udén, Carina Mattsson, Eva Gunnarsson
AU Team
Main contact: Çiler Dursun
Other team members: Emel Memişoğlu, Ruken Öztürk, Güzin Evliyaoğlu, Bedriye Poyraz, Sema Becerikli, Murat Çınar, Yelda Usupbeyli; Mustafa Sever
UNINA Team
Main contact: Ofelia Pisanti
Other team members: Ilenia Picardi, Antonella Liccardo, Maria Carmela Agodi, Francesca Dall’Acqua, Giuliana Fiorillo, Guglielmo Tamburrini, Emilio Balzano, Anna Merinio, Giorgia Borrelli.
TU Team
Main contact: Alexandra Brazinova,
Other team members: Daniela Kallayova, Andrej Kallay, Miriam Slana, Michaela Hromkova, Zuzana Polakovičová, Monica O’Mullane
UCM Team
Main contact: Maria Bustelo
Other team members: Julia Espinosa, Maria Velasco
GENOVATE is an action-research project involving 7 European universities based on the implementation of Gender Equality Action Plans (GEAPs) in six universities [University of Bradford, UK, University College Cork, Ireland, Lulea University of Technology, Sweden, Università degli Studi di Napoli, Italy, Ankara University, Turkey, Trnava University in Trnava, Slovakia] supported by on-going participatory evaluation undertaken by University of Madrid (Universidad Complutense de Madrid), Spain. It brought together a consortium with diverse experience with gender equality mainstreaming approaches, varying institutional and disciplinary backgrounds and located in different national contexts. GENOVATE covers three common areas for intervention: recruitment, progression, and research support; Working environment, work-life balance, and institutional culture; and Standards and diversity in research excellence and innovation. Each partner addressed these areas through their individually tailored GEAPs that built on existing structures and policies where relevant, or develop new systems and practices where appropriate. This contextualised approach was supported by an on-going knowledge exchange system and shared learning for all partners.
GENOVATE project involved the development of two overlapping and interlinked processes – (1) at the micro/institutional level linked to the implementation of GEAP in the six implementing partner institutions (with the exception of UCM which led Work Package [WP] 7 and supported the GEAPs’ evaluation), and (2) at the macro/Consortium level linked to the development of eight different Work Packages (WPs). Both were conceived of as crucial processes for developing the GENOVATE model of gender equality in transforming research and innovation - underpinned by the social model of equality, which recognises that society is the main contributory factor to inequality and therefore that equality can only be achieved through structural or systemic change. The project, therefore, prioritised actions on structural and cultural change within the partner institutions and in their wider networks, while individual-level actions aimed at women researchers were also seen as necessary in order to facilitate adaptation to changing environments and to encourage leadership for structural and cultural change.
In all institutions, GENOVATE has contributed significantly to institutional strategic objectives, as well as specific gender equality change programmes, including definition of policies, gender equality units and structures, institutional practices, and research. There is evidence of institutionalisation and improvement towards sustainability of gender equality change; emphasis has been placed on intersectionality, with strong evidence of utilisation of a combined top-down and bottom-up approach.
Some important progress have been made towards gender equality and diversity changes in recruitment, progression and retention, such as improving practice of gathering, and availability of gender and diversity monitoring data; evident increased inclusion of gender equality and diversity component within professional development programmes; increased provision of specific positive action and/or mentoring programmes to support women or people who suffer discrimination on grounds of race, gender, sexual orientation etc.
Evidence of advances in partners’ practices to ensure satisfying gender culture and climate for diversity has been visible. All partner institutions have successfully instituted practices to promote gender equality and diversity competence in assessing excellence in research such as undertaking equality impact analysis of their research practices; developing institutional code of practice; supporting the development processes and structures for gender-balanced research excellence; and integration of gender perspectives in processes of research knowledge production, knowledge transfer and innovation systems.
Partners have clearly identified enabling and addressed disabling factors linked to institutional policies and strategies, structures and mechanisms and people.
Sustainability remained a central principle in the project. All project actions sought to effect institutional change, which would be maintained beyond the lifetime of the project and further progressed by an enhanced gender perspective in the wider research sector. The involvement in the GENOVATE team of personnel from senior levels in the partner organisations facilitated this. Sustainability planning was incorporated from the outset as partners sought to embed project actions within the partner institutions. The Gender Change Academy model emphasised the factors necessary for sustainable institutional change in its focus on incremental institutional change rather than single unrelated innovations.
The GENOVATE project lasted 54 months [January 2013 to June 2017] with one partner [Lulea University of Technology] withdrawing at month 48.
Project Context and Objectives:
GENOVATE, an action-research project involving seven European universities (University of Bradford, UK [UNIBRAD], University College Cork, Ireland [UCC], Lulea University of Technology, Sweden [LTU], Università degli Studi di Napoli, Italy [UNINA], Ankara University, Turkey [AU], Trnava University in Trnava, Slovakia [TU] and University of Madrid (Universidad Complutense de Madrid) [UCM]) was based on the implementation of Gender Equality Action Plans (GEAPs) in six universities supported by on-going participatory evaluation undertaken by one university. It brought together a consortium with diverse experience with gender equality mainstreaming approaches, varying institutional and disciplinary backgrounds and located in different national contexts. GENOVATE covered three common areas for intervention: i) recruitment, progression, and research support; ii) Working environment, work-life balance, and institutional culture; and iii) Standards and diversity in research excellence and innovation. Each partner addressed these areas through their individually tailored GEAPs that built on existing structures and policies where relevant, or developed new systems and practices where appropriate. This contextualised approach was supported by an on-going knowledge-exchange system and shared learning for all partners.
Despite the general advancement of equality principles and policies in Europe, an examination of the career paths of academic researchers highlights a persistence of career patterns and outcomes that differ for men and women. Attention to the issue in Europe has been given a new impetus since the Lisbon Agenda in 2000. The creation of the European Research Area and the recognition of the contribution it can make to Europe’s knowledge economy has encouraged a new awareness of the strategic value of gender equality. When looking at the area of research and innovation gender equality is strategically valuable because it is now recognised that research excellence requires accessibility, resources and advancement opportunities for the best researchers, irrespective of gender; and innovation demands the diversity of perspective and input that is possible from a truly diverse research.
Numerous reports and projects in recent years (for example Helsinki Group, 2002; ETAN 2000, Expert Group on Structural Change, 2011; PRAGES 2009, genSET, 2010; GENDERA, 2010) had recognised the gap that continues to exist between principle, policy and practice: despite a gender equality agenda, gender inequality persists in selection, experience and outcome across disciplines, levels and countries. International academic literature on the policy/outcome gap supports the findings of these European reports: (for example, see Doherty and Manfredi, 2010 ; Özkanlı et al, 2009 ; Bagilhole and White, 2008 ; O’Connor, 2011 ).
Explanations of gender inequalities have evolved over time, but have centred on the role of three key elements: individual factors, organisational structures and institutional cultures. Early gender mainstreaming approaches include legislative prohibition of explicit discrimination and positive action measures for individual women. Such policies suggest that different outcomes may be explained by individual choice, behaviour and ambition in the expected absence of direct discrimination. Aside from on-going debates about whether or not explicit discrimination is actually banished by such legislation, understandings on the ways that gender influences academic and research careers have progressed. There is increased recognition of the complex interplay of individual and organisational factors that influence different outcomes and that, most importantly, produce and reproduce structures and systems that cumulatively disadvantage women throughout the process. This shift in focus from outcomes to the importance of structural and cultural gendering processes in the workplace and throughout the career is more recently being concentrated even further on the very nature of academia and the research enterprise themselves.
Greater diversity and equality of opportunity are crucial to enhancing excellence in research and innovation. The higher education sector is a key axis of the European research sector: Universities are the foundation of researcher development and a focal point for original research and innovation. The project’s emphasis on research in the academic sector is a strategy that targets the heart of the research and innovation enterprise as a whole. Policies for gender equality have had limited success, and there is a need to address the policy-outcome gap through more contextualised approaches. The importance of addressing the policy/outcome gap is reflected in recent calls for strategies that can actually be implemented, that will be implemented and that will achieve real outcomes to promote gender equality in the research and innovation sector. GENOVATE sought to bridge the gaps between policies and outcomes through the production of an accessible body of knowledge on the actual process of implementing locally-appropriate gender equality strategies in a range of academic organisations in different historical and political contexts with a view to transforming organisational structures towards more gender-competent management and further the achievement of robust, substantial and sustainable gender equality research systems. It sought to do this through a process that documents the implementation process in different institutions, with the aim of developing a social model of gender equality implementation that is locally and contextually-specific. The GENOVATE social model of gender equality implementation is underpinned by Jackson’s (2004) Change Academy Model, the social equality approach, and informed by data collected and analysed throughout the GENOVATE project. The model aimed to provide a set of guidelines for implementation that is highly contextualised and of relevance to institutions across Europe. The Change Academy model is based on the complexity thinking approaches of Stacey (2000) and of Plsek, Lindberg and Zimmerman (1997) . Jackson (2004) has applied the model to HE institutions, recognising that contemporary HE institutions are highly complex social systems, which continually change (adapt/invent) in spontaneous and unpredictable ways through the everyday conversations and interactions of people. As a result, complex, adaptive and flexible ways of thinking are required in order to create change.
This means that it is necessary to include both push and pull approaches internally in relation to behaviours and attitudes as well as externally in terms of organisational movement. If change for gender equality in each partner institution, and in the wider research environment, is seen in terms of a complex adaptive system needing to transform, then simply changing policies will never work. Previous experience has shown us, as outlined above, that there is frequently a wide gap between policy and practice in attempting to effect change for gender equality in research. Thus, GENOVATE will focus on influencing attitudinal as well as behaviour change, whilst trying to ensure that the change is not seen as directly imposed or as having predominantly negative personal effects thus creating barriers and greater reluctance.
The Gender Change Academy Model also recognises that each system, organisation or institution, is unique. Therefore there cannot be a standard replicable strategy for introducing more gender-competent management in research organisations in Europe. What is needed is a change strategy, which recognises that the structures, systems and cultures of organisations have evolved in different ways and at different paces, while also recognising the wider structures, systems and cultures of which they are a part. Strategies for change therefore need to adapt to their environments. GENOVATE has drawn on the change models and resources of the HEA Change Academy to construct a local model of change within consortium institutions and their partners involving both top-down and bottom-up approaches.
GENOVATE’s core goal was to ensure equal opportunities for women and men by encouraging a more gender-competent management in research, innovation and scientific decision-making bodies, with a particular focus on universities. The aims were
• To implement innovative and sustainable strategies for change in universities and research organisations to better support gender diversity and equal opportunities
• To promote the ways in which gender equality and diversity benefit excellence in research and innovation
• To facilitate meaningful knowledge exchange between European universities with very different levels of experience
• To develop and widely disseminate a sound management approach for abolishing gender inequalities and contributing to the improvement of working conditions for male and female researchers
GENOVATE recognised at the outset that the six core partner institutions (UNIBRAD, UCC, LTU, UNINA, AU, and TU) were in different ‘places’ in terms of their institutional approaches to gender equality, research and innovation, their needs and their organisational cultures. Therefore, the GENOVATE project was based on the implementation of Gender Equality Action Plans (GEAPs) in the six core partner institutions, which are unique to each partner institution, and are shaped by the local needs and readiness of those institutions. GENOVATE’s uniqueness was in its institutional and cross-disciplinary focus - recognising the different challenges faced by STEM, social sciences/humanities, medicine/health and other disciplines while also acknowledging the role of institution-wide factors. At the same time, it recognised the gendered nature of the wider structures, systems and cultures of which the institutions are a part, and together seeking to address this through both recognition of the wider research system itself and also through the shared aims, combined actions and knowledge exchange activities of the project.
The inherent potential for inequality in the research system is addressed in the project’s concern with enhancing research and innovation excellence, in recognition of the close connection between diversity and excellence. By improving gender equality in research and innovation, the standards of European research and the research-innovation nexus will be improved. GENOVATE therefore sought to develop a code of practice for embedding gender equality and diversity into research and innovation excellence standards based on the principles of transparency, consistency, accountability and inclusivity.
In addition, the shared learning between partner universities through the implementation process allowed GENOVATE to develop, iteratively, a social model of gender equality implementation, which is highly contextualised. This involved documenting and monitoring the implementation process, identifying facilitators and barriers to GEAP implementation in each partner institution, in the context of the institution’s particular social, political and historical characteristics, and documenting the knowledge exchange and learning achieved in each organisation, among their stakeholders and in the consortium as a whole. An evaluation process was integrated into each step of the project to monitor success and to facilitate learning from practice throughout the project. The outcome has been a holistic, top-down and bottom-up, contextualised and people-informed way of effecting gender equality implementation in research institutions across Europe.
An on-going evaluation process was built into the project involving both formative and summative assessments at different levels of the project, fulfilling the functions of (a) improvement - informing learning from practice and improving the GENOVATE project, (b) accountability - towards the EC - and (c) enlightenment - supporting sustainability and learning beyond the GENOVATE project and for contributing to the transformation of organisational cultures towards gender equality. The evaluation provided opportunities to foresee what else can and should be done in this realm after the project concludes. The evaluation contributed to two different, but complementary, purposes – to facilitate the decision-making processes within and beyond the GENOVATE project and to facilitate organisational learning and transformation of institutional culture towards gender equality. This means that the evaluation was embedded and integrated in each partner institution and each GEAP, and used participatory, empowerment, learning and capacity-building tools.
The evaluation was not an ‘external’ task to the Consortium. Although the evaluator (UCM) was responsible for the evaluation work package, an integrated evaluation required the participation of all partners: not only for facilitating the systematic information-gathering needed for the evaluation accomplishment, but for the generation and analysis of site-specific data at all levels of the project and the development of recommendations. Therefore, evaluation capacity-building took place throughout the process.
Project approach - Activities were organised in three Strands and eight work packages which facilitated delivery and monitoring of progress. GENOVATE Consortium management was provided through WP1 (Lead UNIBRAD); Strand 1: Model Development (WP 2 Lead TU and UNIBRAD); Strand 2: GEAP Implementation Roadmap (WP3 Lead UCC; WP 4 Lead AU; WP 5 Lead LTU with UCC providing overall coordination for Strand 2); and Strand 3: Evaluation, Reflections and Outputs (WP 6 Lead UNINA, WP 7 Lead UCM, WP 8 Lead UNIBRAD).
Project Results:
GENOVATE project involved the development of two overlapping and interlinked processes – (1) at the micro/institutional level linked to the implementation of GEAPs in the six implementing partner institutions (with the exception of UCM which led WP7 and supported the GEAPs’ evaluation), and (2) at the macro/Consortium level linked to the development of eight different Work Packages. Both were conceived of as crucial processes for developing the GENOVATE model of gender equality in research and innovation.
GEAP Implementation at institutional level
GEAP implementation at institutional level has involved the application of WP tasks within partner organisations utilising the GENOVATE Action Research Cycle and Process [GARCP], which constitutes 5 overlapping stages - review and refine current GEAP; Map actions; Take actions; Evaluate/Reflect on Actions; Specify Learning. The GARCP has guided the overall project delivery and GEAP implementation at an institutional level to produce both action outcomes and research outcomes. Implementation activities have helped to embed gender equality into institutional structures with impact across all institutions. The GARCP remained cyclic, participative, qualitative, reflective, responsive and emergent throughout the project. It responded effectively to the emerging needs of partners based on their individual contexts.
Reviewing and refining institutional Gender Equality Action Plans
This happened early on in the project with partners reviewing their institutional GEAPs against those that were submitted at proposal stage and made slight revisions to reflect changing institutional contexts. For example, due to significant changes within the institution, UNIBRAD mainstreamed GENOVATE activities across the University generic change programme, such as wellbeing programme, Bradford:Leader , wholesale Human Resources [HR] policy review and development, and Bradford Excellence Programme, and aligned Athena SWAN actions with its GEAP and governance structures, so as to achieve sustainability and institutionalisation of gender equality. GENOVATE@UCC contributed to the Athena SWAN process at University College Cork and influenced the Athena SWAN Gender Equality Action Plan for the university. Lulea University of Technology [LTU] extended plans to develop targets in 2016 for the recruitment of women professors from 2017 onwards, due to the slow progress on the Swedish Governmental level. LTU also changed the order of activities in relation to task 4.1 and the analysis of the employee survey was postponed to 2016. Trnava University [TU] amended their GEAP including additional activities for WP5 and based on a baseline review of institutional practices, clarified actions for WP3 and WP4. Ankara University [AU] revised their GEAP to include a new objective and related actions to ‘empower institutional resources for academics on the basis of gender equality’. TU refined the relevant GEAP actions to provide more focus, clarity and feasibility. The process of refinement of the GEAP involved discussion within the TU team, and more broadly with the Institutional Advisory Board, and senior staff from across the university, in order to engage people in the GEAP implementation process and to increase the awareness on the gender issues in academia. During the first meeting with the Institutional Advisory Board of GENOVATE@UNINA, University of Naples Federico II [UNINA] decided to extend the GEAP implementation to all departments in the 2 phases (Phase 1 involved implementation within the Division of Science and Technology and Phase 2 extending into 2 more divisions - Division of Human and Social Science and Division of Life Science).
Mapping actions
Partners identified areas for additional action within their institutions. For example: UNIBRAD identified a new action around the need to link intersections of gender with other areas of diversity. An action was set to work with the internal Equality and Diversity Unit [EDU] to embed GENOVATE principles into a support guide for Transgender staff and students. TU repeated surveys on recruitment and career progression and on gender climate on 2 occasions, the results informed further implementation of GEAP. A new action was added to the GEAP to develop a gender equality course for Master of Public Health academic year 2014/2015. UCC re-organised and refined their GEAP actions into 8 core actions for the university.
Taking action
Implementation of WP activities took place across all institutions to embed gender equality into institutional structures. Sample [non-exhaustive] activities include: National Learning Circles; contextualised governance institutional and consortium committees; regular mutual exchange ‘Stop and Share’ sessions; GENOVATE Cafés; GENOVATE open days; Development of GENOVATE Change Academy Teams (GeCATs); Tailored engagement with internal and external stakeholders; Development of implementation strategies; Positive Action activities; Culture change programmes; application of WP guidelines and principles; Feedback and contribution towards deliverables and tasks; Gender Climate Assessments; Guided and written reflections; E-portfolio development; Development and dissemination of GENOVATE resources and tools.
Evaluating and reflecting on actions
In addition to regular guided and written reflections undertaken, partners worked with the evaluation team, UCM, to utilise a range of quantitative and qualitative evaluative tools for ongoing developmental evaluation. Specifically, a set of tools were used during different phases of the project: documentary analysis; participatory observation; evaluation workshops at annual GENOVATE conventions; on-site visits; interviews with individuals in charge of WPs; and a series of questionnaires. These included a questionnaire to determine expectations and understandings; questionnaires for project processes and outputs; a mid-term review of the project on diversity and gender equality change; and on implementation and institutional changes, and two evaluation questionnaires at two distinct periods for members of the International Advisory Board. Moreover, the UCM team carried out an analysis of the GENOVATE project’s visual production with respect to notable successes and challenges from an e-Portfolio, which formed as part of the GEAP Implementation Roadmap within the GENOVATE online platform.
Specifying learning
Each institution took part in knowledge exchange activities to share the issues that emerged in their specific institutional and country context with both partners and stakeholders. Knowledge exchange activities involving the sharing of implementation experiences, challenges and opportunities took place as part of the Annual GENOVATE Conventions and through virtual Stop-and-Share sessions. In addition, specific knowledge sharing activities were arranged to share partners’ expertise in different areas. For example, UNIBRAD has recognised expertise in diversity, Equality Impact Assessment Analysis (EIAA) and the Change Academy Model (CAM), and worked with partners to develop the Social Model for Gender Equality Implementation; UCC has recognised expertise in Mentoring and supported partners to build this into their institutional practices. LTU has a recognised expertise in setting gender targets; AU has an expertise in designing distance learning courses and supported the online infrastructure for gender competent leadership package [D4.1]; Università degli Studi di Napoli [UNINA] has recognised expertise in knowledge exchange technologies and Universidad Complutense de Madrid [UCM] has recognised expertise in evaluation; providing workshops and supporting partners in their GEAP evaluation practice.
Throughout the project, the consortium shared this expertise through the use of Stop and Share sessions .
In addition to activities linked to the actual implementation, institutions have undertaken dissemination activities that are explained under WP8.
Summary of institutional GEAP implementation
UNIBRAD: UNIBRAD’s continued development of its model of gender equality implementation using the Gender Change Academy Model [CAM] has realised institutional successful outcomes. This has enabled comparison of GEAP implementation at institutional and Faculty levels, and continues to identify facilitators and barriers to implementation. GENOVATE has supported the University to implement structures and processes to support its equality and diversity policies and dissemination of information. These structures have in turn played a part in the GEAP implementation. The University is renowned amongst the UK HEI sector for its leading role in research on equality and diversity and continues to build strategic networks with key stakeholders within and external to the sector. These networks are extensively being explored in creating strategic collaborations with respect to GENOVATE project implementation, sustainability, and knowledge exchange. The University is guided by both sector-wide and institutional policy frameworks, which form the primary foundation to set out actions as envisioned in the GEAP implementation document.
Organisational challenges were anticipated in regards to the progression of such a complex institutional change programme. The issues of aligning GENOVATE to other institutional activities were overcome by working with HR and Senior Management Team, and providing individual support tailored specific to each Faculty. Resistance was expected by some staff members to the GEAP activities, however as people are already in a change culture due to university wide transformation programmes taking place, resistance was minimal. In selecting GEAP actions UNIBRAD was mindful of the University's institutional values and vision, and of the diverse national context in which the University is based. It is important that equality and diversity is reflected throughout all faculties and roles within the University. Hence, as per the CAM model, cross-functional change academy teams were set up at institutional and Faculty level to provide strategic support and information to facilitate the required transition – structures, processes and behaviours.
UNIBRAD’s holistic approach to addressing gender equality within the institution ensures that gender initiatives such as Athena SWAN, AURORA, COMPACT and the health and wellbeing initiatives are closely aligned with GENOVATE. GENOVATE@UNIBRAD have worked with HR and the Equality and Diversity Unit to develop a composite gender equality plan drawn from 3 gender projects. They have identified and celebrated some quick wins, e.g. gender balanced appointment panel; Gender projects have been identified and implemented at faculty levels; GENOVATE cafés are now used as a barometer for checking perceptions around gender equality as well as raising the profile of gender equality both at institutional and disciplinary levels; Institutional Athena SWAN Bronze Award, increase in the number of women in leadership roles including recent appointments of Deputy Vice Chancellor (Academic), Pro Vice Chancellor (Learning, Teaching and Quality), Chair of Council and one of the UK’s leading business women, appointed as UNIBRAD’s Chancellor. A summary of achievements in UNIBRAD include:
• Gender equality work has gained momentum
• Resources for gender networks and gender equality support systems have been given higher priority and strengthened
• Institutionalisation of gender equality in different institutional structures, resources, working methods and approaches
• Attempts to integrate gender equality into the university’s core functions, activities and priority areas are being received positively.
UCC: UCC team have achieved their objectives in GEAP implementation. In Year 1, concrete task-based activities were identified and developed. In Year 2, as the GENOVATE project moved into the implementation phase, UCC established positive working relationships with key stakeholders and consolidated the GEAP activities into eight core action areas. In Year 3 they increased GEAP implementation and engagement activities as the Stakeholder Engagement Strategy was rolled out. In Year three, UCC engaged with institutional stakeholders through a series of Cafés, an Open Day and multi-media platforms and presentations to strategic institutional decision-making bodies such as Academic Council and UCC’s Strategic University Management Team. In Year 4 and Year 4 Extension, GENOVATE@UCC deepened its internal engagement in implementation of the 8 core GEAP actions, with particular emphasis on the university strategic planning processes and sustainability.
Overall their activities and achievements have included: (a) conducted institutional research to investigate policy, practice and outcomes, including a project on experiences of maternity leave; (b) development of a Briefing Note series to highlight identified challenge), focus attention on the proposed actions to redress challenges and pathways to implementation and provide a strategic vehicle for engagement and implementation regarding proposed actions; (c) catalysed visibility of, and conversations about, gender in/equality, through the Stakeholder Engagement Strategy; (d) raised awareness of equality issues in the management of maternity leave in the institution, produced a set of guidelines to support good management of leave and led to the establishment of a Cross-University Working Group on Good Management of Maternity/Family Leave; (e) produced a set of six Tools to support implementation of actions; (f) successfully engaged Academic Council to commit to strengthening gender balance in decision-making; (g) successfully engaged the University Management Team to establish periodic reporting on the implementation of gender equality actions as part of its Annual Operational Plan; (h) successfully engaged the University Management Team to commit to implementing all eight of GENOVATE’s gender equality actions; (i) launched The GENOVATE Hub including multiple resources to support implementation of GENOVATE’s gender equality actions; (j) participated in a successful national initiative (led by Trinity College Dublin) to extend the Athena SWAN initiative to Ireland and subsequently engaged with, and inputted into, UCC’s Athena SWAN work resulting in an increased profile and commitment to gender equality actions within the institution; (k) advocated for the establishment of a multi-dimensional Equality Office for the university which would have oversight, policy development, research and advisory functions (subsequently, a new Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Unit for the university has been announced). Overall, GENOVATE has contributed to a growing momentum for change in the university, in particular in terms of visibility of gender issues and in institutional commitment
LTU: LTU team recognised two types of gender gaps: vertical segregation of gender (few women hold professorships) and a horizontal segregation between fields of research and education (extremely few women in ICT and some areas of engineering). The main features of their activities were gender equality implementation, promotion of gender mainstreaming benefits in ICT innovation systems and decision-making bodies, support of and collaboration with LTU’s ongoing gender initiatives, and further development of gender equality tools and methods in close collaboration with internal and external stakeholders. LTU has maintained a focus on implementation throughout the project. Engagement of both internal and external stakeholders has been organised by the needs and drivers of stakeholders, with the aim of contributing to more creative and inclusive innovation systems.
LTU’s gender-balanced Advisory Board has been key in promoting structural change at the institution. LTU team members have selected high profile board members because of their knowledge and expertise in ensuring involvement of management in promotion of gender-aware structures and culture at the institution. In 2015 the LTU advisory board was widened with two new members to strengthen the innovation dimension of implementation activities. Their strategy has been to attract more women researchers to ICT and ICT innovation systems on all levels at the university, as such, challenging and transforming workplace culture and structures. LTU has involved internal and external stakeholders as partners in gender equality initiative, in order to enable interaction and to promote joint learning processes. The aim was to understand stakeholder individuals’ needs and drivers and to inspire stakeholders to promote a more gender-aware environment and structures in research, innovation and decision-making bodies as well as to promote a more sustainable change. Stakeholder participation and promotion of the ownership of a change process has been a key success factor for LTU.
AU: GENOVATE team targeted four main intervention activities for gender equality at AU: [a] Networking with the significant platforms of AU (Equality Coordinatorship, Women’s Platform, Women Studies Centre); [b] Close collaborations established with the central units of AU (Technology Transfer Office, Scientific Research Project Unit and Distance Learning Centre); [c] Monitoring selected gender indicators using the data provided by AU research units and sharing the changes and identified challenges with the related Unit; [d] Reviewing and revising fundamental directories and structural policy documents of AU and sharing reports with the top management; and [e] Networking activities with stakeholders and community engagement. When GENOVATE Project started in 2013, there was no policy document of the Higher Education Institution (HEI) on gender mainstreaming, which is the supreme organisation that determines higher education policies in Turkey. On top of the commitments at the institutional level, GENOVATE AU team took the responsibility to contribute preparations of gender equality action plans as for the inner and outer stakeholders of the Project as HEI.
At AU, key advances include the incorporation of gender equality as a core managerial principle by top managers. Another notable result was increasing gender awareness within the university’s more active faculties. AU has successfully included a diversity competent leadership package within in-service training in order to transform leadership and decision-making processes. AU have also improved networking as external stakeholders are sharing an interest in GENOVATE, and inviting the AU GENOVATE team to attend external activities.
UNINA: The UNINA GEAP was implemented taking into account some modification with respect to the initial proposal. UNINA team identified the priorities of the GEAP implementation and grouped together similar GEAP actions in few main projects; it was decided not to limit the sphere of action of GENOVATE to the Division of Science and Technology, which is the biggest of the UNINA Divisions, but to cover also the other three UNINA Divisions, in such a way to properly take into account the needs of all the institution.
In this process, UNINA team continued to identify the challenges that impede the realization of positive action, searching for the best way to overcome the barriers. In particular, prior to GENOVATE project, several initiatives had promoted and supported gender equality at UNINA: the Gender Studies Graduate Programme, the Equal Opportunities Committee, the Neapolitan Women in Science group, the Academic Senate. Yet GENOVATE has enhanced these initiatives and has led to a more coordinated activities and created the safe space to discuss common objectives, and actions eventually. In addition to the Gender Observatory on university and research established in the institution, other positive results of GENOVATE in UNINA are:
• Approval of the rules for the elections of the members of the Guarantee Act Committee for equal opportunities and promotion of well-being in the workplace, against any form of employee discrimination by the Academic Senate. In addition, a clear institutional vision and mission related to coordinating gender equality implementation at UNINA has been established.
• Actions directed to involve top-management and varied university stakeholders have been successful for the most part, which may indicate that, however slowly, gender awareness is progressing in the institution. With the help of the steady support of top management it is conceivable that challenges, such as low student involvement in gender equality initiatives as well as low involvement of male colleagues in GeCAT teams, could be overcome.
• The necessity of guaranteeing sustainability to the processes catalysed by the GENOVATE project, challenged by, for instance, the small number of people actively involved in the process, or the difficulty to motivate certain target groups such as students and male colleagues, can be secured by the support of top management.
• The implementation of the first mentoring programme for women in science in the Italian academia. The implemented mentoring model was object of study by the Gender Studies Graduate Programme of UNINA aimed to design a mentoring model for gender equality in academia suited to Italian academic context.
• The realisation of the First Gender Budget of the Ateneo Fridericiano, a strategic tool that provides an assessment of the political-economic and financial decisions of the administration from a gender-sensitive perspective, aimed to support a more efficient, transparent, and equitable, management of resources.
• Actions aimed to integrate the gender dimension in research and innovation content in order to increase the excellence in Research and Innovation and to avoid bias in research based on stereotypes and on the (falsely) neutral models, which are actually masculine models.
TU: TU refined the relevant GEAP actions in order to provide more focus, clarity and feasibility. The process of refinement of the GEAP involved discussion within the TU team, and more broadly with the Institutional Advisory Board, and senior staff from across the university, in order to engage people in the GEAP implementation process and to increase the awareness on the gender issues in academia. Key actions of TU Gender Equality Action Plan were: development of a social model of gender equality implementation in collaboration with UNIBRAD; gender equality in Recruitment, Progression and Research support; Career Development Plans [CDP]; raising awareness of gender equality in research and innovation; developing and disseminating a sound management approach implementing gender equality; and contributing to the improvement of working conditions for male and female researchers.
Work package Tasks at Consortium Level
WP 1 – Management of the GENOVATE Consortium [led by UNIBRAD]
Consortium management activities
The management structure as agreed in the Project Proposal has been implemented and all associated deliverables were delivered on target. There were no changes to the management of the GENOVATE consortium activities as detailed in the DOW. The levels of management remained:
i) the Project Coordinator [UNIBRAD] was responsible for the overall coordination of the project and reporting to the European Commission;
ii) the General Assembly was the main governing body responsible for scientific, technical and research issues.
iii) the Operations Group (OG) was responsible for supporting the GEN through day-to-day management of the project and ensuring that correct procedures were adopted and followed, and that all deadlines, milestones, Work Package deliverables and reports were met;
iv) the International Advisory Board provided scientific support to the GENOVATE project, the primary purpose of which was focused on directing GENOVATE to the achievement of its objectives;
v) GEAP Coordinator (UCC) provided an oversight for effective and efficient GEAP implementation in cooperation with the work package leaders, with responsibility for the management and harmonisation of the project activities within WPs 3, 4, and 5 assuring the regular communication between the contributors of the relevant actions;
vi) Institutional GEAP Management Boards (IGMB) managed GEAP implementation in each institution providing guidance and overseeing the direction, quality and efficiency of the project.
Project Co-ordination
The project coordinator provided an efficient project management for GENOVATE and its 6 partners. All project management tasks have been carried out successfully by the Project Coordinator, which is reflected by the excellent progress the project has made towards its objectives as well as by the results it has achieved with respect to dissemination. The Project Coordinator, GEAP Co-ordinator and Institutional Leads [Work package leaders] reported on a quarterly basis to the General Assembly and Operations Group addressing the progress of the GEAP implementation and Work Packages, necessary adjustments in the work plan and in resource allocation, and progress in the area of dissemination.
Main activities focused on ensuring efficient communication, data sharing and integration between the participants in the project, as well as to ensure full compliance with all legal and EC requirements. One important platform for this purpose, has been the user-friendly access restricted internal GENOVATE Community as well as consortium shared DropBox where documents and data are uploaded and shared among all partners of GENOVATE. Further instruments have included working documents, 4 institutional reports per year [106 reports in total] and annual WP progress reports [28 reports in total], 4 convention reports and 3 annual evaluation reports. There has also been extensive scientific contact within the consortium including partner meetings during conferences, Annual GENOVATE Conventions [March 2013 in Bradford; March 2014 in Trnava; March 2015 in Cork; and April 2016 in Amersfoort], smaller WP virtual meetings between partners. Project Coordinator had regular contacts with the GENOVATE team and maintained regular management/implementation support surgeries with partners.
The co-ordinator has facilitated the involvement of International Advisory Board (IAB) members to provide advice and assist the work of the project. Members of the IAB span across the majority of countries represented by GENOVATE partners. Members have contributed to GENOVATE project work and attended meetings both face to face and virtually including the annual conventions. They were actively involved in the international conference in Brussels, which took place on 2nd and 3rd November 2016. Members have also attended bi-annual meetings and contributed to the on-going dialogue on gender equality in academia. Throughout the duration of the project, the work plan was managed appropriately taking into account the nature of action research approach which underpins the GENOVATE project and several adjustments in timing as well as in the allocation of resources were carried out. The use of resources and the status of the work plan were continuously monitored by the project coordinator and reported on a quarterly basis to the General Assembly; if considered necessary, contingency measures were proposed. Quality of the deliverables was monitored and checked subsequently at 5 levels (Project Co-ordinator, GEAP Coordinator, WP Leader, Project Team, and General Assembly). Contingency measures (re-allocation of resources, adjustment work plan) were put in place.
Contact with the EC
Upon request of partners, the European Commission [through the project officer] was contacted on an ad hoc basis in addition to planned contact for any required aspect of the GENOVATE work. The GENOVATE project requested and obtained approval for an amendment to the grant agreement for a 6-month no-cost extension. This resulted in change to the project duration from 48 to 54 months.
WP2 Development of a social model of gender equality implementation [Led by TU and UNIBRAD]
The main objectives of WP 2 coordinated jointly by TU and UNIBRAD, were to develop a contemporary model of gender equality implementation iteratively guided by the Change Academy model and based on the process and outcomes of the GENOVATE project; to establish a standard consultation model that will enable the comparison of GEAP implementation at micro and macro institutional levels in each partner organisation; and to identify facilitators and barriers to model implementation from each partner in order to demonstrate a holistic and people-informed way of viewing gender equality implementation in research institutions across Europe.
To achieve the WP 2 objectives, two tasks were set:
• To create appropriate mechanisms through which institutions will feed in their respective GEAP implementation information
• To gather and analyse data on the processes and outcomes in order to iteratively create the model
Using the principles of the Change Academy model and the social equality approach, and the data collected and analysed throughout the GENOVATE project, WP2 developed a contextual model to explain and describe the process and outcomes of GEAP implementation in partner institutions.
The model of gender equality implementation was developed in a participative and inclusive way, and informed iteratively (throughout the lifetime of the project, and was fed back to project partners) by the GEAP institutions’ experiences and reflections of the process of change on-going in their individual settings. Since each partner institution had a unique context for gender equality in the organisational structures, the model was informed with varying experiences and reflections. The model was also informed by feedback from the evaluation team and input from GENOVATE International Advisory Board members and other key stakeholders.
The model of gender equality implementation was developed based on the processes and actions of the partners of the GENOVATE project:
- Strand 1: Consultation via the Guided Reflections (verbal discussions and written reflections), at micro and macro institutional levels. The Reflections helped to assess the narrative of change as described and experienced by the GEAP partner institutions. The reflections took place longitudinally in three rounds – in 2013, 2014 and 2015. For each round of written and verbal reflections a separate report was developed and submitted.
- Strand 2: Establishment of the GENOVATE Community: WP 2 task commenced with the creation of appropriate mechanisms through which institutions would feed in their respective GEAP implementation information. In cooperation with UNINA, GENOVATE Community (http://www.genovate.unina.it/community/) an online platform for meaningful knowledge exchange across the consortium was developed. Through the GENOVATE Community the institutions shared perceptions and modes of best practice in implementing the GEAPs and individual work packages. The Community also provided a channel for collecting written reflections.
- Strand 3: Contextualising institutional practices, analysis and synthesis of the findings of the GEAP implementation and Work package activities. In order to inform the social model with outcomes and findings from GEAP implementation, two actions were taken:
• An analysis of the institutional reports submitted by partners to know how the Change Academy Model is being applied. This data were complemented by the findings from the written and verbal reflections.
• On-going communication with the coordinator of the GEAP WPs (UCC) in order to plan and capture as many methods of reflections and evaluation in-built within the core GEAP WPs.
- Strand 4: Six Stop and Share Sessions – October and November 2013, November 2015 and December 2015
- Strand 5: WP2 presentations and Consortium discussions at four annual GENOVATE Conventions 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016
- Strand 6: Regular [from M3] and then Weekly Skype meetings [from M37] between Trnava University and University of Bradford to fine-tune the model
The final product is the GENOVATE Model for Gender Equality in Transforming Research and Innovation ). The GENOVATE model is based on the outcomes of the GENOVATE project processes and activities. The model aims to make a key contribution to holistic understanding of the issues, processes and outcomes of gender inequality in research within a diverse mix of universities and national contexts with four key features:
• draws from specific but diverse cases giving a whole institution perspective on the issues and activity of all work packages;
• reflects gender equality change in the GENOVATE institutions
• emerges from the ongoing documentation of the implementation process at ground level for each project team; and
• provides details of the process of implementation and the potential barriers and innovative responses that can be encountered during the process.
Central to the implementation of the GENOVATE Model is an overarching framework underpinned by the Change Academy Model [CAM]. CAM recognises that contemporary higher education institutions are highly complex social systems, which continually change (adapt/invent) in spontaneous and unpredictable ways through the everyday conversations and interactions of people. CAM was already embedded within the structural mechanisms of some partner institutions [e.g. UNIBRAD]; for others this was a novel idea at the beginning of the project. Across the partner institutions, however, adapting CAM to produce the Gender Equality Change Academy Framework, which emphasises the importance of creating a supportive environment for conversation, discussion and learning on gender equality was suitable for enabling the development of the GENOVATE Model.
The GENOVATE Gender Equality Framework [GECAF] recognises the specificity, different contextual realities, and uniqueness of each GENOVATE partner institution, whose structures, systems and cultures have evolved in different ways, and relate to the wider structures, systems and cultures of which they are a part. The framework embraces the synergies between top-down and bottom-up actors, actions and approaches, and which delivers innovative, locally/appropriate, structural, cultural and sustainable change for gender equality in research, innovation, and organisational cultures.
One of GENOVATE’s main goals and achievements is the implementation of strategies for the transformation of organisational structures towards more gender competent management. The implementation process was carried out in different institutions with the aim of developing a social model of gender equality that is locally relevant and contextually-specific. Several implementation tools have been developed by project teams with the aim of accomplishing robust, substantial and sustainable gender equality research systems to effectively reduce the policy-outcome gap.
Strong intra-consortium collaboration has been key for developing the framework, which draws from the shared experience and reflections of all partners. In this respect, all partners contributed with their strengths and expertise to the development of GECAF, which have been essential for the project and in particular, development of the GENOVATE model. In this respect, UNIBRAD brought into GENOVATE its expertise in developing and applying CAM to other institutional change programmes, thought leadership on integration of equality, diversity and inclusivity in research excellence and Equality Impact Assessment Analysis; UCC’s recognised expertise in Mentoring has been fundamental to support partners to build this into their institutional practices. LTU’s insight in setting gender targets was key at different stages of the project along with extensive experience of developing tools for integrating gender equality in Innovation Systems; AU has an expertise in designing distance learning courses, which was very much needed in setting the online infrastructure of GENOVATE e-learning package. UNINA has recognised expertise in knowledge exchange technologies, which supported and facilitated GENOVATE’s knowledge sharing and knowledge transfer processes; and UCM’s expertise on evaluation has been a powerful tool for supporting the evaluation of GEAP implementation.
WP3 Gender Equality in Recruitment, Progression and Research Support [Led by UCC]
Work Package 3 (like Work Packages 4 and 5) focused on GEAP implementation in the six core partner institutions, with the objectives of [a] Overcoming direct and indirect gender discrimination by positively strengthening selection processes relating to recruitment, promotion and progression of, and support for, researchers; [b] Strengthening the presence of women in academic/research leadership positions, senior academic research positions and senior positions in research bodies and councils; and [c] Supporting women in accessing opportunities for advancement in their research careers through positive-action initiatives
These objectives were achieved through three inter-related tasks:
§ Develop and implement institutional strategies for gender equality in academic recruitment, promotion and progression
§ Set gender targets for senior academic and research positions
§ Support female academic researchers in accessing opportunities for advancement in their careers
Task 3.1 Institutional strategies for gender equality in academic recruitment, promotion and progression
The primary task was for each partner to develop and implement an Institutional Recruitment, Progression and Research Support Strategy Document. This document sets out each partner’s strategy for GEAP implementation work in WP3.
In the first six months of Year 1, the WP Coordinator, UCC, with the input of all partners, developed a methodology, template and set of shared guidelines for the completion of this task. The task methodology was discussed at the first Annual GENOVATE Convention 2013 and the guidelines and template were finalised soon afterwards. All six core partners completed their WD3.1 in Year 1, and all six WD3.1 documents were available to all partners in the shared location for the duration of the project. The WP Coordinator also prepared a summary report of the six WD3.1 documents to facilitate strategic knowledge exchange between partners and to identify shared priorities.
There were three subtasks in this Task. The first subtask, to examine current procedures and practices in each core partner institution relation to gender equality in recruitment, promotion, progression and retention, was completed by all partners. This included a baseline analysis of data on staffing in the institution. Partners also put in place procedures for monitoring this data on an annual basis. The WP Coordinator also designed an Institutional Questionnaire for each partner institution to complete as an attachment to Strategy Document. This provided comparable data on policies and practices relating to gender equality in recruitment, progression, promotion and retention in each partner institution at the start-point of the project.
The second subtask for each core partner institution was to develop and implement a Strategy to address lack of policy, or gap between policy and practice, as appropriate to each institution. Partners drew on the examination of current practices and procedures in developing a Strategy which was appropriate to their own institutional context, incorporating identification of opportunities and barriers and establishing monitoring and evaluation procedures. Partners were supported by the WP Coordinator in implementing their Strategies, through regular support emails, and through workshops at the Annual GENOVATE Conventions.
The third subtask was to draw on best practice in partner institutions with experience of implementing such policies. The WP Coordinator facilitated this subtask by requesting all core partners to share details of best practice in the area of gender equality in recruitment, promotion, progression and retention from their own institution. Core partners submitted this information by April 2013 (Year 1). This information was collated and was made available to all partners so that it could be used in developing and implementing their own Strategies. The best practice examples were available to all partners via the shared DropBox folder for the duration of the project. The sharing of best practice was also facilitated through a number of workshops and ‘Stop-and-Shares’.
Progress on implementation of institutional strategies for gender equality in academic recruitment, promotion and progression
UNINA: A core activity for UNINA was the development of the first Gender Budget of the university. The First Gender Budget of the Ateneo Fridericiano was published by FedOAPress in June 2016 and is now available in open access on the FedOAPress webpage. The volume consists of a thorough analysis and detailed map of the current gender gap in the institution. In order to ensure the sustainability of gender actions at UNINA, and in particular, the continuity of gender data compilation and analysis, the Gender Observatory on university and research was established in UNINA in July 2016 by GENOVATE.
LTU: In LTU, the strategy focused on attracting more women researchers to ICT and ICT innovation systems at all levels at the university. This was implemented through internal and external stakeholder engagement, provision of support to the university’s Department of Human Resources in implementing a gender-aware and sustainable recruitment process, and a focus on the male-dominated School of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering as a test-bed for implementation. As a result, the university has seen an increase of women professors from 17 to 22% (2012-2015) and an increase of women academic staff at the School of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering from 11 to 21% (2013-2016).
UCC: UCC’s Institutional Strategy identified three principal proposed actions for the university, i.e. periodic gender equality audits, monitoring and training, each one supported by a set of resources and detailed proposals which were developed and promoted through an iterative process of investigation and stakeholder engagement. All three were approved by the University Management Team and have been included as committed actions in the university’s (Athena SWAN) GEAP for 2016-19. The university has now put in place systems for systematically gathering gender-disaggregated data and for gender equality monitoring and is introducing training on unconscious bias for staff.
UNIBRAD: The core activities for UNIBRAD focused on reviewing career structures to build a critical mass of more than 30% women in senior [research] posts, ensuring selection panels are 50% women and regular gender pay-gap analysis. These were progressed through data analysis, dissemination and faculty-specific projects, as well as a pay and rewards review, an academic trajectory analysis, a career break project and learning partnerships, and integration into Athena SWAN action plan. In addition, a number of activities focused on promotion of STEMM subjects to schoolgirls are on-going. UNIBRAD has carried out pipeline development work by involving nine interns [six from STEM disciplines and three from social sciences and humanities, with a 44 F /56 M gender split] on GENOVATE to support their understanding and development of gender equality initiatives and implementation.
In AU, the key achievements were: tracking gender distribution of academic personnel by faculty, academic title and position; ensuring gender balance in the allocation of research funds by the Scientific Research Unit; intervention in promotions process at institutional level by adding ‘promotion of gender equality’ as a criterion; review and systematisation of the evaluation process of the Scientific Research Unit at AU.
TU’s Strategy focused on the development of a Sustainable Staff Progression Policy – the introduction by GENOVATE of the Career Development Policy which drew from Institutional Recruitment, Progression and Research Support Strategy Document, (included in the EIGE GEAR toolbox) represents a very significant development in the TU context and part of the long-term strategy for development of a Sustainable Staff Progression Policy.
Task 3.2 Setting gender targets for senior academic and research positions
The development of a detailed Strategy and implementation plan for WP3 activities was viewed as a first step in progress towards achievement of Task 3.2. The task of setting gender targets became a focus of discussion at the Second Annual GENOVATE Convention in 2014, and the challenges faced by some universities in achieving this were discussed. The WP Coordinator worked with some partners to find context-appropriate ways of completing this task.
Institutional activities:
In both UCC and UNINA, a significant achievement has been the introduction of systematic gender monitoring and analysis; this is seen as a first step towards setting of realistic gender targets for senior positions in both universities. In UCC, already, the current UCC Athena SWAN Action Plan (2016-19) includes specific gender targets for Head of Department/School/Centre/Institute appointments (minimum 40% of each gender).
In line with its strategic goals on equality, inclusivity, and diversity, UNIBRAD, in collaboration with their HR Directorate, has refined GEAP targets for senior posts and selection panels within the Athena SWAN Action Plan, which involved setting targets for 3 years. University of Bradford’s Research and Knowledge Transfer Strategy has ambitious targets for tripling numbers to be submitted to REF2021 and closing the gender gap. To achieve these targets the University will monitor research activities for staff groupings and set clear expectations on delivery and quality. Currently data shows that fewer women are applying for academic roles, therefore UoB plans to increase job applications from academic women. This will be done by promoting family friendly and flexible working policies and practices promoted in job adverts and on the HR website.
For LTU, the development of a new model for setting targets has seen slow progress on the Swedish governmental level. The university is currently waiting for the government’s decision on what model to apply. LTU developed targets in 2016 for the recruitment of women professors from 2017 and onwards, based on the Swedish government’s coming model for recruitment and promotion. When this project was initiated by LTU’s HR department, the GENOVATE LTU team took an active part in the process of setting targets.
Setting gender targets for senior positions was not possible in AU due to the centralised nature of the appointments and promotions processes in Turkey. Instead, AU-GENOVATE focused on inter-institutional networking with a view to collaborative change, in addition to measures at the institutional level to address promotion criteria and to support women in career progression.
Task 3.3 Supporting female academic and researchers in accessing opportunities for advancement in their careers
The development of a detailed Strategy and implementation plan for WP3 activities was a first step in progress towards supporting female academic researchers in accessing opportunities for advancement in their careers. All core partners reviewed, as part of WP4 actions, their institutions’ structures and discussed their plans to support female academics and researchers in accessing opportunities for career advancement during the WP3 workshop at the Second Annual Convention 2014.
One of the subtasks of this task was to draw on best practice in partner institutions. The best practice examples collected as part of WP3 working document included examples of best practice in supporting female academics/researchers in accessing opportunities for career advancement.
Institutional activities to support female academics and researchers:
In order to support women in accessing opportunities for the advancement of their research careers, the UNINA team implemented a Pilot Mentoring Programme as one of the main actions of the UNINA GEAP. The main goal of the programme was to help young women to identify their own career goals and expertise needs, and to help them to focus on these objectives. This was the first women-only mentoring initiative in an Italian university. The Pilot Mentoring Programme has been evaluated and published in the book La dimensione di genere nelle carriere accademiche. Riflessività e cambiamento nel progetto pilota di GENOVATE@UNINA (Fedoa Press, Napoli, 2017). The evaluation results will contribute suggestions for a new mentoring scheme for women in Italian academia.
UNIBRAD is supporting female academics working up to Senior Lecturer level to take part in the AURORA programme. A total of 30 women [15 participants and 15 role models] have taken part in the programme since 2015. The AURORA programme aims to encourage a wide range of women in academic and professional roles to think of themselves as leaders, to develop leadership skills, and to help institutions to maximise the potential of these women. This programme has been integrated into the suite of gender equality initiatives led by the University’s Strategic Advisor for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. In addition, Faculty GeCATs have designed projects to promote career progression of academic staff through mentoring of early career female academics and post -doctoral researchers, learning partnerships between senior researchers [professors] and academic staff on probation to gain research experience, and between academic staff and PhD students with a view to building the pipeline of future academics.
At UCC, the GENOVATE project provided support to the Department of Human Resources in the initial stages of setting up UCC’s involvement in Aurora Leadership Programme. This has now become established on an annual basis, run by the Department of HR, with up to 20 female staff participating each year. In addition, the GENOVATE Scientific Coordinator provided advice and delivered training to UNINA staff on Mentoring Academic and Research Staff. The training was delivered in Naples in December 2014 and by webinar in January 2015.
The focus in LTU was on methods and tools for gender equality interventions targeting both women and men. This means that all actors involved in the recruitment and promotion processes participated in interactive and joint learning activities towards the goal of systematic and sustainable change.
GENOVATE in AU focused on support for women academics to apply for decision-making and leadership positions in the university. In addition, seminars were provided for young academics in different faculties to support them in securing research funding. Networking was strengthened through coordination between the women’s platform at AU and women’s studies centre members.
GENOVATE@TU introduced a new Career Development programme for female and male academics in their faculty. This involves personal development plans prepared by employees, which form the basis of career development discussions between the employee and their line manager, and which feed into departmental and faculty plans. This Career Development Plan is the first of its kind in the institution and forms the basis of the development of a long-term Sustainable Staff Progression Policy.
Deliverable 3.1:
The main output of WP3 is Deliverable 3.1 - Contextualised Guidelines on Implementation of Measures for Gender Equality in Recruitment, Promotion and Progression for Academics and Researchers. This draws together the main learning from WP3 implementation in the form of contextualised guidelines for other organisations. The deliverable was submitted to the EC in April 2016 and is available here. The submission has been approved by the EC Project Officer and requested for inclusion in the EIGE Online Tool.
Methodology: The WP Coordinator, with input from partners, developed a methodology and work plan for completion of Deliverable 3.1. Partners were invited to submit written reflections on their WP3 activities (in response to tailored questions) by October 2015 and this was followed by another round of follow-up reflections during Nov 2015 to January 2016. The written reflections were analysed by the WP Coordinating Team at UCC, alongside other useful sources such as Annual Progress Reports (WDs 3.2). A draft set of Contextualised Guidelines was circulated to partners for feedback. This was the focus for discussion at a Stop-and-Share in early 2016. Feedback was incorporated and a final draft was submitted to the EC in April 2016.
D3.1: Contextualised Guidelines: The document outlines a set of guidelines for universities and research organisations that are in the process of, or considering, implementing: measures for gender equality in selection processes relating to recruitment, promotion and progression of academics and researchers; measures aimed at strengthening the presence of women in leadership and senior positions, including gender targets; and measures to support women in accessing opportunities for career progression.
The Contextualised Guidelines draw on the experiences of implementation of measures in these areas among the six core GENOVATE partners. Further detail on GENOVATE partners’ experiences of GEAP implementation can be found in other project deliverables (such as for example, Deliverable 6.2 Report on Institutional Case-Studies, among others – see www.genovate.eu). The specific focus of Deliverable 3.1 is on the translation of partner experiences, specifically in the area of career transitions, into concrete and contextualised Guidelines for other institutions and projects.
Some of the Guidelines are intended to be useful in a generic sense, across all types of institutions. However, a unique aspect of the Contextualised Guidelines is that they are provided in a contextualised form, tailored to particular types of institutional contexts, in recognition of the multiplicity of historical, political, social and legislative contexts for gender equality implementation.
WP4 – Working Environment and Culture Change [Led by AU]
Work Package 4 (like Work Packages 3 and 5) focused on GEAP implementation in the six core partner institutions. WP4 was directed towards changing working culture and climate for gender equality in partner institutions with objectives of [a] Raising gender equality awareness in the academic research and scientific structures; [b] Fostering better working environments for female researchers and academic staff; and [c] Promoting sustainability of culture change to support gender equality and needs of women academics in the organisations setting. In order to achieve these objectives all 6 GEAP implementing partner institutions focused on two tasks under which they identified and completed varying subtasks.
Task 4.1: Conduct a gender climate assessment of partner institutions to assess working environments and cultures for female academic researchers [Led by AU]
Between July and September 2013, the 6 GEAP implementing institutions produced 6 Start Project Gender Culture and Working Climate Assessment Report 1 (Working Document [WD] 4.1). As a result of these climate assessment reports, institutions tailored their approaches to working environment based on their institutional contexts.
UNIBRAD’s Gender Climate Assessment was used to inform and mainstream strategies across the institution for achieving organisational transformation for gender equality in research and innovation. WP4 assessment has allowed the exploration of staff experiences and perceptions; the diversity commitment of senior management; and the overall tendency of the organisation toward inclusion of all employees. Following this initial assessment, UNIBRAD adopted a systematic approach to continuing gender climate assessment through numerous institutional and faculty GENOVATE Cafés. UNIBRAD was actively involved in promoting and embedding gender equality / diversity competence into large scale HR policy review and institutional corporate and supporting strategic development, including gender equality in research teams and gender balance in decision making. UNIBRAD has supported HR in developing policies and practices relating to the new shared parental leave legislation. Additionally, UNIBRAD worked with HR to carry out a comparative analysis of support provided to staff on career break [maternity, paternity and shared parental leave] in 13 benchmarked universities. This has led to a revision of maternity and parental leave policies. UNIBRAD has scoped a project for HR to undertake a trajectory analysis of professors who have worked at the university for over 10 years to inform promotion policy review as part of Athena SWAN actions.
In 2013, The UCC Institutional Gender Climate Assessment Report (WD4.1) mapped and analysed, as part of a broader gender equality impact assessment, a baseline of the institutional culture of the university in a number of areas, drawing on available institutional data and policy documents as well as a number of focus groups with staff. The areas of assessment included decision-making and leadership structures and work-life balance resources and led to the development of refined Actions and Action Areas. Analysis of the data collected through the assessment process combined with team discussion and input from IGMB members led to the identification of gender equality actions and action areas. WP4 GEAP actions identified were Action 6 ((i) Review the strengths and weaknesses of existing leave/flexible working practices and (ii) Support HR to develop strategies to support all stakeholders in understanding the system and being supported in it to maximise the benefits) and Action 9 (Support relevant departments/units/committees to introduce measures to increase opportunities for FAR staff to be involved in decision-making at every level).
The UCC GENOVATE team also conducted a qualitative survey of female academic and research staff in July and September 2014. The survey aimed for an informed understanding of the experiences of taking maternity leave at UCC. This led to the development of a set of Guidelines for Good Management of Maternity/Family leave in the institution, the establishment of a Cross-University Working Group on Good Management of Maternity/Family Leave, a general raising of awareness of the equality issues to be addressed and contributed to the incorporation of a range of measures into the UCC Athena SWAN Action Plan.
LTU’s baseline data, along with those of other partners, regarding gender climate and culture are available in the project internal repository. The assessment of the gender climate and culture change in an ICT innovation system involving a focus group, complimentary interviews and an interactive workshop using value exercises as a tool took place in October-November 2015. The results were compared to the baseline data from December 2012. The analysis of the data from the employee survey covering all academic staff of LTU was undertaken in 2016.
AU has carried out second round of monitoring on recruitment, promotion and distribution of research funds by gender, scientific fields and academic positions.
TU University online survey was done in June/July 2014 and evaluated in August 2014. The aim of the survey was to explore the perception of equality of opportunity between women and men in the area of research and innovation at the university directly from scientific-research and academics. The survey participants included academics and PhD students of all faculties of the University (FHSSW, Faculty of Law, Faculty of Education and Theological Faculty). In addition GENCafé was undertaken at key points during the project [March and November 2014; March and October 2015] at the FHSSW and at the Faculty of Education. GENCafé provided opportunity to disseminate the main ideas of GENOVATE project and to inform TU’s academic community about the results of the previous Café. A forum was created for all staff-academics, to receive feedback on the implementation of Career Development Plans. Through discussion and open dialogue TU discovered gaps in the Career Progression and Development documents. The discussions involved ideas, observations, and comments on career growth, from the perspectives of heads of departments and other colleagues. In November 2015 TU pilot tested questionnaires for academics and staff as a part of Career Development Plan and analysed with Heads of departments and colleagues from a the forum.
In 2013, UNINA’s baseline data was obtained from survey information collected from 273 staff [47% and 53% men] drawn from academic [83%], administrative [8%] and PhD students [9%]. The survey examined perceptions of career development, culture and climate. In addition, UNINA team examined GENOVATE project records and conducted a small-scale qualitative survey of some Faculty and Administration staff who are also members of the CII (Comitato di Indirizzo Istituzionale = Institutional Advisory Board of GENOVATE) in 2016. The qualitative survey of CII members focused on their views on gender issues at UNINA. Because the CII comprised both Faculty and Administration (male and female) senior staff from UNINA, their informed opinion on the subject contributed an interesting, though partial, account of perceptions of gender dynamics in the institution. This was a rewarding activity as CII members are all involved, although in different degrees, in gender-sensitive initiatives and/or programs on campus.
Task 4.2: Transform culture, perception and behaviours in academic organisations from the bottom up
Tailored institutional activities have been delivered in each of the six partner institutions throughout the project. Specific Institutional Examples are set out below:
UNIBRAD has raised the profile of gender equality/diversity to staff, students, and others associated with the university through on-going dissemination; developed and applied the Change Academy Model, including the innovative approach to delivery of the GENOVATE institutional and Faculty cafés; and set up GeCAT projects and Development workshops for GeCAT members. The digital approach to capturing staff views and feedback utilised in the GENOVATE Cafés [GENCafés] has been adopted by other institutional projects. Institutional GENCafés took place in October/November 2013; February 2015; April 2016 and March 2017 with a good turnout of staff from all over the University. Faculty specific GENCafés were carried out in April/May 2015 and February/March 2016 in order to make a comparison of findings across faculties, and to explore macro and micro findings. GENCafés have provided longitudinal data on the significance of GENOVATE in shifting perceptions on gender equality on campus. UNIBRAD has worked closely with TU to develop and deliver Guided reflections linked to the social model development. Guided reflections approach has continued to inform UNIBRAD’s gender equality work moving forward.
UNIBRAD have continued to collaborate with the Institutional Advisory Board, which has been instrumental in shaping the UNIBRAD project by providing strategic advice, supporting dissemination and has become the steering group for the Athena SWAN work. Athena SWAN submission for UNIBRAD has resulted in the Bronze Award and plans are underway to encourage faculties to apply for individual faculty awards. Other governance structures from the GENOVATE project have been adapted for the Athena SWAN@UNIBRAD. Two seminars to launch the cascade of GENOVATE goals, actions and results into Athena SWAN framework took place – [1] Senior Managers on 25 November 2016 and [2] for Athena SWAN Leads on 8 December 2016. UNIBRAD’s intersectional approach has resulted in institutional commitment and development of a Transgender Guide for the new academic year. UNIBRAD team have been actively involved in national and international science celebrations, for example the team took active part in British Science Festival and British Science Fringe events in September 2015; with the project coordinator contributing to a panel discussion on ‘women and the trouble with science; and another team member, Prof Nazira Karodia, leading an exciting demonstration on the Science of Curry with the World Curry Festival's top chefs.
A communications strategy Inform GENOVATE (and be informed about GENOVATE) was rolled out by UCC. As part of this strategy, UCC GENOVATE held a series of six Cafés at UCC in 2015. The aim of the series was to open space for colleagues to learn about, and contribute to, the GENOVATE@UCC project. Colleagues were invited, over coffee and light refreshments, to deliberate Café style the challenges to, and potential for, creating a more gender-sensitive UCC. Responses from café participants were formulated into word clouds and made available to participants and on the website. UCC GENOVATE team hosted an Open Day at UCC on 8th September 2015 with the aim of opening space for colleagues to: (a) reflect upon GENOVATE’s eight proposed gender equality actions; (b) consider word clouds of their colleagues’ views (gleaned from the GENOVATE Cafés); and (c) share their own views about the content, promotion and/or implementation of the action(s). Info-graphics and briefing notes of the action were shared at the Open Day and subsequently online. A series of Briefing Notes outlining and summarising GENOVATE’s eight proposals for gender equality actions in UCC were produced and printed for dissemination at and after the event. The Briefing Notes provide a strategic vehicle: (i) for engagement regarding proposed actions; and (ii) to progress implementation of GENOVATE’s proposed actions for UCC based on authoritative evidence of the contextual challenges regarding gender equality in UCC. There was on-going use of social media to promote GENOVATE project (GENOVATE-UCC website, Twitter and Facebook) and on-going use of digital signage promoting GENOVATE on UCC campus and a final GENOVATE Dissemination Day was held in December 2016 to encourage involvement of all stakeholders in progressing the agenda for change.
LTU have supported HR in its implementation of a gender-aware and sustainable recruitment processes at the university central level (more details in the WP3 section). LTU have been instrumental in enhancing equality perspective in the EARMA (European Association of Research Managers and Administrators) by improving a gender equality perspective in EARMA activities (more details in the WP5 section). LTU are embedding gender equality and diversity in the ICT innovation systems [more details are available in the WP5 section].
UNINA organised several events (seminars, workshop, GENOVATE Cafés, participation to conferences) aimed to increase gender awareness in science within the institution, and held a training course for women researchers about the Women’s Leadership in Science, on 17th and 18th September 2015, in collaboration with CUG of INFN and the International Training Centre of the ILO (ITCILO) (www.itcilo.org). UNINA Participated in the GENOVATE dissemination event of the framework of the Science Festival “Futuro Remoto”, held in Naples 15th and 16th October 2015 and 7-8-9 October 2016,, in collaboration with the Science Centre “Città della scienza”. UNINA have participated in a workshop at Padua on 11th December 2015, for fostering the knowledge exchange and collaboration among different Italian Sister projects on gender and science. Online resources were utilised in order to enhance and disseminate the gender dimension in academia, such as the establishment of the GENOVATE@UNINA blog (http://www.genovate.unina.it/) and the Gender Observatory of UNINA website (http://www.og.unina.it/)
TU have created institution-specific strategies for improving female academic researchers’ access to resources. TU also participated in incorporating work-life into CDP. TU has organised and successfully delivered GENOVATE World Café’s in March 2014 and November 2014.
AU have completed and submitted deliverable D4.1 [Online learning package on gender competent leadership and management]. This package is translated into Turkish and uploaded into the local web of the institution. AU’s third GENCafé was held in the Faculty of Health Sciences in November 2015. It was attended by 31 academics including Dean of the faculty.
Task 4.3: Transform culture, perception and behaviours in academic organisations from the top down
Tailored institutional activities have been delivered in each of the six partner institutions. Examples are set out below
UNIBRAD have integrated GENOVATE principles in their Cultural Understanding in Leadership and Management (CULM) programme through Faculty gender equality projects and worked closely with the Staff Development Unit to ensure principles of gender equality/diversity are addressed within institutional provision. UNIBRAD piloted the e-learning package for D4.1 with a member of the senior management team (Pro-Vice Chancellor for Learning, Teaching and Quality). The focus of the National Learning Circle was to receive feedback on how usable, useful and accessible the GENOVATE tools are, with a specific emphasis on the e-learning package. The pilots, both during the NLC and with the Pro-Vice Chancellor were successful. Some feedback during the National Learning Circle included suggestions to use language relevant to various contexts, such as businesses as well as HE institutions. Actions concerning intersections of gender and other aspects of diversity are well underway, e.g. the link between GENOVATE and the institutional work around other forms of gender identity. UNIBRAD team members have worked with the Equality and Diversity Unit on a Transgender guide with support from Transgender staff and students within the University and have ensured that GENOVATE principles are reflected within this activity.
UCC compiled a portfolio of evidence, good practice and recommendations on gender balance in decision-making structures (GEAP Action 6), with the aim of engaging with key institutional bodies on this task. The portfolio included an update of gender composition of key decision-making structures within UCC. This was presented to the Registrar/Senior Vice-President Academic of University College Cork on 9th December 2014, resulting in an invitation to present the recommendations to Academic Council. GENOVATE team members presented to Academic Council on 1st May 2015 three specific proposals to promote gender balance in Academic Council committee structures. The proposals were preceded by a request for Academic Council’s support to integrate gender equality into UCC’s next Strategic Plan. Academic Council endorsed all four proposals. Frequent meetings took place between GENOVATE team members and Academic Secretariat personnel, to progress implementation of the proposals. In June 2015, the UCC GENOVATE team was invited, by UCC’s Director of Strategy, to submit a one-line action for consideration at the Strategic Management Team’s (UMTS) annual strategic planning day on 10th September 2015. The one-line action aimed to raise awareness, seek support for and establish a periodic reporting mechanism to review the implementation of selected gender equality actions. On 17th September, during UCC’s presentation at the Strategic Management Committee (UMTS), a general commitment was given to GENOVATE’s eight gender equality proposals, with specific indication that each proposed action would be designated to a UMTS member with responsibility for its implementation. UCC GENOVATE team engaged with the newly appointed President of the university to advocate for the establishment of an Equality Office for the university. GENOVATE’s engagement with university management and decision-makers was supported throughout the project by the membership of the IGMB.
LTU have widened their advisory board with two new members to strengthen the innovation dimension of implementation activities. These include: Director of Regional Growth, Luleå Municipality; and the new CEO of Centre for Distance-Spanning Technology with industry background. In September and December 2014, LTU contributed to D4.1 with reading materials, references, slides and handouts, interviews and testimonials. In October 2014 LTU delivered a Stop and Share session on gender-competent leadership ‘Gender and leadership at LTU and academia’.
AU - Higher Education Institution in Turkey has published a policy document on gender mainstreaming in public and private universities in 2015. This document provides a general frame from top down for the first time to gender mainstreaming in Turkey. AU GENOVATE team has contributed written feedback to the preparation process of this document. Embedding GECATs in the faculties was a part of supporting implementation of WP4 goals at this point. The team have added a new faculty, Health Sciences Faculty, into the CAM and established GeCAT in the faculty for improving core WP’s goals at AU. Giving seminars to the academics on finding extra funds for their research was a part of WP4 activities as well as WP5. The team have given 2 seminars for academics on Horizon 2020 calls and research funds in 2015.
AU team, the Rectorate and In-service Training Coordinatorship delivered a training session to Senate members on Gender Competent Leadership and Management in March 2016.
Three new members have joined the Gender Equality Action Commission in 2015 from Faculty of Law and Health Sciences Faculty. AU Gender Equality Action Commission has nominated the Rectorate Equality Coordinatorship as the official unit to support sustainability of GEAP implementation activities in 2016.
UNINA had a strong collaboration with the institution management in order to implement GEAP actions: on-going meetings take place between GENOVATE team members and Rectors, Administrative Director, member of the Academic Senate, and the Institutional Advisory Board of GENOVATE@UNINA. UNINA presented the GENOVATE Gender Budget project during an event in December 2015, dedicated to transparency in academia.
TU - GENOVATE change process was supported by bi-monthly meetings of TU team with FHSSW dean and with TU rector on a quarterly basis. TU Institutional Advisory Board took place twice a year.
Task 4.4. Ensuring sustainability of culture changes in the workplace
Sustainability has remained a central principle of the GENOVATE@UNIBRAD project. All project actions have sought to effect institutional change maintained beyond the lifetime of the project and further progressed. UNIBRAD have ensured visibility of culture- climate change efforts, and achievements in transforming gendered organisational politics and practices and embedded transformative measures and GENOVATE actions into institutional structures. UNIBRAD have developed a composite gender equality plan drawn from all gender projects including Athena SWAN, GENOVATE, COMPACT and AURORA. UNIBRAD also carried out continuing review and focussed application of GENOVATE actions in relation to WP4, in collaboration with HR, Senior Management Team, and other key institutional stakeholders. Gender equality work continues to be embedded within the University’s committee structures, reporting into both the Research and Knowledge Transfer [RKT] committee [chaired by the Pro Vice Chancellor [RKT] and the Equality and Diversity Committee [chaired by the Vice Chancellor]. These two parent committee report into the Executive Board. Other actions to promote sustainability include:
• Continuing to offer safe spaces and support to the university community through GENCafés and GeCATs to ensure bottom-up action. GENOVATE cafés are now used as a barometer for checking perceptions around gender equality as well as raising the profile of gender in/equality both at institutional and disciplinary levels.
• Involvement, active participation, and commitment of senior management and institutional bodies/representative to gender equality sustainability.
• Cultivation and application of a “bottom-up-top-down” blended approach to organisational gender equality policy development and implementation.
• Constant monitoring, implementation, evaluation and reformulation (whenever necessary) of Gender equality actions, as strategic tools for long-term change realised through medium-term actions linked to Athena SWAN at both institutional and faculty levels.
• Alignment and effective mainstreaming of gender equality actions and plans with other institutional policies and programmes.
UNIBRAD have already identified and celebrated tangible outcomes, e.g. gender balanced appointment panel; Gender projects have been identified and implemented at faculty levels; UNIBRAD is seeing an increase in the number of women in leadership roles including the recent appointment of women as DVC (Academic), PVC (Learning, Teaching and Governance), Chair of Council and one of the UK’s leading business women, appointed as our new Chancellor.
UCC focused on ensuring sustainability and embedding of actions in university structures in a number of areas: (a) a specific focus on advocacy and engagement in relation to strategic planning and development in the university, alongside engaging with the new UCC President who commenced in February 2017; (b) Embedding and institutionalising the outcomes of the other GEAP Actions and promoting the use of the relevant Tools for each one; (c) Promoting the GENOVATE Hub widely across the university; (d) External dissemination of learning from GENOVATE; (e) Preparation of scholarly articles for publication; (f) Establishment of Post-GENOVATE group (Gender Equality Action Research Group); (g) involvement in Athena SWAN process in the university. GENOVATE team members are active members of Athena SWAN committee (UCC) and its thematic Working Groups (Career Transitions and Development; Flexible working and managing career breaks; Organisation and culture). The GENOVATE Scientific Coordinator represents UCC on the national Athena SWAN committee. GENOVATE-UCC actions have been incorporated into the Athena SWAN Gender Equality Action Plan, which was approved by University Management Team and submitted to the Equality Challenge Unit on 1st October 2015. At national level, at the invitation of the Expert Group established to review gender equality in higher education in Ireland, the GENOVATE UCC Scientific Coordinator and Project Coordinator presented proposals to the Group at a meeting in Dublin in November 2015. These included, for example, a proposal to establish a periodic reporting mechanism to review gender equality actions at national level.
In September 2015, UNINA met with the recently established CUG (Guarantee Committee for Equal Opportunities). UNINA has witnessed notable advances in terms of its gender culture and climate. Specifically, GENOVATE promoted top-management’s support of gender equality. The Gender Observatory was established as a direct result of the project. Thereafter, it has become easier to engage in cooperation and joint work with top managers, equal opportunities entities and other relevant stakeholders.
At LTU, the GENOVATE Advisory Board members were selected from among the university’s management to ensure a decisive impact at the institutional level. Moreover, close, continuous work with the university’s HR department has sought to promote structural change through the implementation of gender aware recruitment and promotion processes and a follow-up system. GENOVATE results at LTU will also be used in a national project initiated by the government to mainstream gender in Swedish Higher Education, an initiative that will cover all of Sweden’s universities and colleges. LTU team have produced 131 blog articles to share LTU’s activities regarding stakeholder involvement and participation and sustainable change.
TU’s implementation of GENOVATE project with regular information about project activities has already raised awareness of planned organizational changes. TU’s Career Development Plan is one of the most significant GENOVATE results at the university – seeks to advance the personal careers of faculty employees while improving equal opportunities in the institution’s academic environment.
Deliverables
D 4.1 – E-learning package on gender competent leadership and management
This deliverable is directed towards developing a gender competent leadership and management to enhance leadership capacity in higher education and research institutions. It is an online learning package (e-learning package), designed to provide a broad overview of issues on gender responsible leadership for senior leaders and managers and other academics in leadership and management positions as well as candidates for managerial positions in academia.
By contextualizing the significance of gender equality for academic leadership, the e-learning package is aiming to provide a better working environment for all researchers and academic staff. It displays why gender equality matters for good leadership and how to promote gender equality in academia. The package also informs users of the basic and vital principles of gender equality for leaders and managers.
Work package 4 is one of the three core packages of the GENOVATE project directed towards empowering academic working culture and climate in favour of gender equality. The learning package is a part of this empowerment in academic institutions, which also has a potential for sustainability of culture change. The package is included in the EIGE GEAR tool at http://eige.europa.eu/gender-mainstreaming/toolkits/gear/action-toolbox
Development process: The AU team, with the support of the project coordinator, led the development of the e-learning package with specialist input from GENOVATE institutions – AU developed a section on what is gender competent leadership; UCC developed the section on understanding why women are 'missing in leadership' in research; UNIBRAD developed a section on tackling unconscious bias in the workplace; and all partners provided individual case studies for the section on how to overcome barriers as follows:
• Cultural Understanding in Leadership and Management: UNIBRAD Case
• Through the Glass Ceiling: UCC Case
• New Approaches for Fixing the System: LTU Case
• Interview on "Why women leadership still matters": AU Case
• Overcoming Barriers Through Mentoring Programme: UNINA Case
• Gender Equality in Slovak Republic: TU Case
AU provided 2 Stop and Share sessions during the course of the e-learning development: one was facilitated by the AU team on the technicality of developing an e-learning package, and the other facilitated by the LTU team was to discuss the content and proposed contributions from partners to the package.
D4.2 - Gender Culture and Working Climate Assessment Change Report
The Change Report summarises the findings of the research undertaken by partner institutions close to the end of GENOVATE implementation. The report highlights the changes and/or continuities identified in each institution during the implementation of GEAPs designed and executed by institutional GENOVATE teams. For this, each partner institution utilised findings obtained in their baseline research at the first year of the project (WD 4.1) and compared this with the gender climate in their organisation with reference to policies, structures and practices for promoting gender equality in the final year of the project to identify the institutional changes and continuities over the period of project implementation.
Assessments enabled each GENOVATE team to better understand existing working culture and climate and identify where the needs are in transforming into more gender equal working cultures. For example, information on gender representation in key positions and roles in the institution i.e. data/evidence on the actual gender composition of key decision-making bodies as well as the distribution of resources and funds has been collected. Complementary to collection of quantitative data is qualitative information gathered on how academic staff perceive and experience gender culture and working climate via varied means of techniques that reflect richer information, for example, online/paper based surveys, focus groups, semi-structures interviews, value exercises and workshops. This change report also includes a review of the existing institutional policy and regulatory changes. The research questions focused on in the assessments correspond to the following five thematic areas: [1] Gender Parity in Numbers: provides a picture of the gendered structure of decision-making bodies in the institution through evidence-based data. [2] The Allocation of Resources: exposing how the resources and research funds are distributed according to genders and academic position in the institution through evidence based data. [3] Conditions in Relation to Work Life and Home Balance: exposing the patterns embedded within the working structures and practices which underpin decision making of academics that reinforce or challenge gender inequality in the institution. [4] Policy Documents to Strengthen Gender Equality in the Institution: exposing new policy documents and/or changes on the documents in favour of gender equality policies both at the institutional level and national level. [5] Awareness and attitudes: exploring changes and continuities in attitudes to gender inequality in the university community.
The Change assessments have identified both Quantitative and Qualitative Changes including Greater awareness of gender/diversity disparities within the GENOVATE institutions with a wider recognition of its structural and systemic dimensions rather than individual factors/perceptions; More visibility of gender equality issues and greater willingness among academics and other staff to discuss existing issues and greater involvement in gender equality actions; Greater awareness and higher commitment to gender equality and diversity issues by the top leadership via adoption of the GEAPs; Improved gender equality data monitoring and human resources system towards a more appropriate system for the analysis of gender disparities and intersectional analysis; Greater knowledge about gender equality issues among selection committees of recruitment; New support mechanisms for career development to ensure more women apply for, remain in, and progress towards academic roles; Higher number of initiatives or introduction of initiatives to promote gender equality in distribution of resources for research; Institutionalised initiatives introduced by GENOVATE that are supported and owned by the management of institutions; Strengthened gender networks, gender equality support mechanisms, new training tools and higher priority to gender equality work in terms of distribution of resources; Better monitoring systems to record requests and approvals of flexible working hours; and Improved working culture and climate, more positive reflections among academics.
Key Challenges and Continuities identified include Persistence of gender imbalances in decision-making structures; Despite some increases in women’s share in some academic positions, there is still underrepresentation at high levels of academic positions especially at the level of professorship; In terms of recruitment, promotion and retention, no significant change is recorded in the distribution of applicants for vacancies; Persistence of workload pressures and funding pressures.
The findings summarised in the Change Report have supported institutional GEAP teams in evaluating their actions and tasks completed throughout the project. They may also be of interest to the researchers and policy makers working within, or with universities and other higher education institutions and research organisations, to address gender inequalities in academic/research career transitions.
WP5 - Excellence in research and innovation through gender equality and diversity [Led by LTU until M48]
The leader of WP5 withdrew from the project in December 2016 [M48]. From this point onwards, institutional coordinators led WP5 – related activities as part of their GEAP implementation]
The overall goal of WP5 was to promote the benefits of gender and diversity perspectives and to strengthen research excellence frameworks and innovation systems through gender equality and diversity. WP5 Objectives were to promote the benefits of gender and diversity perspectives in enhancing excellence in research and innovation systems; to strengthen research excellence frameworks and policies for gender equality and diversity; and to strengthen innovation systems by promoting gender equality and diversity.
WP5 Tasks
• T5.1 Develop code of practice for embedding gender equality and diversity into research and innovation excellence standards (All partners: Lead UNIBRAD/UCC)
• T5.2 Developing tools and methods to integrate gender and diversity perspectives in innovation systems (All partners: Lead LTU)
All six core partners participated in WP5 on the basis of the actions identified in their GEAPs. Each partner delivered actions within their own institution to contribute to the overall WP objectives. The actions were tailored to each specific national and institutional context, but together contributed to the delivery of WP tasks, which resulted in 2 Deliverables D5.1 - Guiding Principles on Gender Equality and Diversity Competence in Research Excellence Standards in M22; and D5.2 – Gender and Diversity Toolkit to integrate gender and diversity perspectives in innovation systems in M 41. This toolkit is included in EIGE GEAR tool and also available on the Gender Contact Point homepage https://genovate.cdt.ltu.se/ both in English and Swedish
Task 5.1 Developing code of practice for embedding gender equality and diversity into research and innovation excellence standards (All partners: Lead UNIBRAD/UCC)
UNIBRAD and UCC [as joint task leader] supported the consortium in undertaking task 5.1 which sought to strengthen research and innovation excellence frameworks and policies in the context of gender equality. All partners utilised an Equality Impact Analysis (EIA) tool designed by UNIBRAD, to assess research excellence and innovation standards in each institution, alongside a review of national policy in the area. The EIA fed into the development of institutional Codes of Practice for Gender Equality in Research Excellence Standards. Draft Codes of Practice were further refined through a buddy system where partners were matched up to provide feedback on drafts to each other. The six institutional codes were synthesised into a set of Guiding Principles [Deliverable 5.1] to enhance research excellence through gender equality and diversity. The Guiding Principles are underpinned by themes of transparency, consistency, accountability and inclusivity.
Achieving meaningful and sustainable impact in this area was supported by the wider activity of the project in transforming the culture and values of universities into more gender-aware and gender- competent environments. Partners actively implemented the guiding principles within their institution as well as use as a strategy document and the partners’ own tailored codes as tools to strengthen the stakeholder engagement in avenues such as national learning circles.
Specific Institutional Examples
UNIBRAD: UNIBRAD contributed to the development of the University’s Research Concordats [research integrity and career development of researchers] in collaboration with key internal and external stakeholders. A review of Research Excellence Framework code of practice was undertaken in 2015 with a view to adapting key principles to inform the Research Activity Framework underpinned by key tenets of the Concordats.
An open consultation was held in November 2014 involving visiting scholars from Latvia, on the implementation of the Guiding Principles for gender equality and diversity competence in research excellence standards. It involved members of the Senior Management Team and a diagonal slice of staff and students across the institution. An initial evaluation of UNIBRAD’s preparedness for the implementation of the Guiding Principles was undertaken in January 2015. Through a range of methods, including consultation with internal and external stakeholders, a framework was developed to facilitate on-going assessment of the institution’s implementation of D5.1. Meetings have been held with Equality and Diversity Committee to explore how to implement recommendations from the institutional evaluation of D5.1. The Research and Knowledge Transfer Committee adopted plans to take forward implementation of the guiding principles and worked with HR on implementation.
In addition, UNIBRAD have developed a checklist on diversity / gender competent research cycle for Principal Investigators and Research Support Unit. This is utilised alongside surgeries on equality and diversity in research and innovation to staff and research students. UNIBRAD continues to deliver seminars on gender/diversity dimensions in research content for staff and post-graduate research students. This practice will continue post GENOVATE.
UCC: UCC investigated policy and practice in relation to research excellence assessments intra-university, domestically and internationally.
• (Gender) Equality Impact Analysis undertaken of intra-organisation policy on, and practice, of assessing research excellence.
• Literature review of domestic and international policy and practice on ‘Gender, Academia and Research Excellence (see N. Maxwell ‘Literature Review: Gender, Academia and ‘Research Excellence’ Working Paper 1 GENOVATE at University College Cork, Ireland, September 2016).
Informed by these investigations of policy and practice, UCC developed Guiding Principles on Gender Equality and Research Excellence Assessments to support the development of a University Code of Practice Gender Equality and Research Excellence Assessment to be developed by the university; Establishment of a university Code of Practice on Gender Equality and Research Excellence has been included as a success criterion in the university’s Athena SWAN Action Plan. UCC engaged with university stakeholders in the development and promotion of the Guiding Principles.
LTU: LTU produced and delivered a tailored Code of Practice based on the findings and conclusions of the analysis of the university’s assessment policies and excellence strategies. An implementation plan was designed together with LTU advisory board members from the university’s academic management and external stakeholders to implement LTU’s Code of Practice in the university’s processes for recruitment and commercialization, where members expected gender equality approaches would make a difference. The plan was later refined and resulted in putting effort on recruitment and collaboration with the university’s Human Resources department. The implementation of a gender-aware and sustainable recruitment and promotion process has been supported by the LTU team, which aim at increasing the share of women professors and changing structures at the University level. The male-dominated School of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering with about 200 employees has been used as a test-bed at the School level.
The major outcome is that the share of the women professors at the university has increased from 17 to 22% during the project period and the share of the women academic staff in the school of Computer Science, Electrical and Space Engineering has increased from 11 to 21%. Another outcome is that staff at Computer Science is now taking over the ownership of the change process and creating own gender equality activities to attract female students to male-dominated undergraduate and graduate programs. Further, LTU’s Code of Practice has been presented and discussed in the national learning circles as well as regional, national and European workshops and conferences and strengthened the implementation of the university’s gender-aware and sustainable recruitment and promotion process. LTU’s implementation activities are shared on the GENOVATE on-line community on a regular basis.
AU - GENOVATE@AU contributed to the preparations of Code of Practice and Guidelines with Scientific Research and Project Unit with input from the GENCafe teams of both Faculty of Educational Science and Veterinary Faculty. The draft Code of Practice of AU for Research Excellence Framework was submitted and approved by the top management in 2014. Genovate@AU and AU Technology Transfer Office held a joint training session for researchers on Horizon 2020 for the academics in Faculty of Humanities. Collaboration activities with the Technology Transfer Office helped organise participatory research workshops to support junior and senior academics in the research process.
UNINA - The UNINA team has produced a Code of Practice for embedding gender equality and diversity into research and innovation excellence standards, which was submitted to the attention of the Rector in February 2015. The Code of Practice provides clear indications and instruments to emphasize the value of the gender dimension in research and prevent gender stereotypes and biases in research, in recruitment and career advancement in academia. Several stakeholders contributed to the event to disseminate the Code of Practice, among which the aforementioned CUG (Comitato Unico di Garanzia = Equal Opportunities Committee), and representatives of ANVUR (Agenzia Nazionale di Valutazione del Sistema Universitario e della Ricerca = National Agency for the Evaluation of University and Research). The Code of Practice was also shared in Italian Universities. In addition, The UNINA team organised one world cafè as well as other meetings with the main GENOVATE stakeholders (CII, GECATs, Women in Science Group in Naples) to discuss the UNINA Code of Practice. Roberto Torrini, ex-director of ANVUR (Agenzia Nazionale di Valutazione del Sistema Universitario e della Ricerca = National Agency for the Evaluation of University and Research) also participated in a meeting held in Rome. This meeting aimed to introduce the Code of Practice for Gender and Diversity Competent Research Excellence Standard to ANVUR director and invite ANVUR to introduce incentives supporting policies and practices suggested by the Code of Practice in evaluation procedures
TU - Equality Impact Assessment Analysis of institutional research and innovation standards of selected TU documents and documents of Faculty of Health Sciences and Social Work was carried out during the last reporting period. This led to the development of the Code of Practice for embedding gender equality into research and innovation excellence standards which was discussed with TU rector and FHSSW team. The main elements of TU’s Code of Practice was the development of the system of further education of employees; processing standards for individual positions with transparent criteria for recruitment; systematization of human resources planning in relation to key processes and career development of employees; incentives for employees with regard to the quality of professional growth; career development of employees and the importance of career objectives; and monitoring of implementation of career development plan continuing education needs of the employees
Task 5.2 Developing tools and methods to integrate gender and diversity perspectives in innovation systems (All partners: Lead LTU)
The goal of this task was to develop tools and methods to integrate gender and diversity perspectives in innovation systems and to create relevant tools and methods for internal stakeholders, companies and society. Initially the task was designed to be jointly led by LTU and UCC, but later a decision was taken for Task 5.2 to be led by LTU, as the WP5 coordinator. The other decision taken was to use the partners’ equality analyses and codes of practice from Task 5.1 as a baseline for further effective integration of gender and diversity in research and innovation. This decision made more Task 5.2 resources available for the joint development of D5.2 Toolkit and the concrete integration activities at partner institutions. D5.2 Toolkit is built on learning, results and experiences of both tasks of WP5, the two other core workpackages - WP3 and WP4 as well as the evaluation workpackage - WP7. The deliverable D5.2 feeds into GEAP implementation of partner institutions.
The cornerstones of innovation systems are stakeholder participation and interaction between actors of innovation systems. In this task the GENOVATE project is regarded as an innovation system aimed at promoting joint learning processes as well as interaction between consortium partners and between partners and stakeholders. To strengthen the joint work and interaction a toolkit development process was established and a set of tools was selected to support the process. The first step was to schedule monthly WP5 meetings at a set and recurrent time each month to ensure the availability of the contributing consortium members. Skype was chosen as a collaboration platform for the monthly meetings. The content of the monthly meetings differed depending on the phases and progress of the work in Task 5.2. The Blackboard Collaboration tool was used to record the three WP5 Stop and Share sessions: Innovation and Gender, Inclusive Innovation and Persona Method, engaging both project internal and external speakers and facilitators. Face-to-face meetings at the annual GENOVATE conventions were used as opportunities to brainstorm, discuss and further develop the toolkit.
Google docs was used in the beginning of the process to enable the joint design of the toolkit and to make it easy for partners to edit, modify and comment texts and continuously provide input to the toolkit. To ensure an open and transparent process the GENOVATE on-line WP forum was used to share the agendas and minutes of the WP5 meetings with the consortium partners. To support the process, highlight good examples, share implementation activities and increase creativity and co-creation the GENOVATE community blog was used to reach out to the partners and stakeholders when developing the toolkit. More than 50 public blog posts on innovation and gender have been produced since the beginning of the project.
One important feature of an innovation process is the engagement of stakeholders early in the process and throughout the whole process. Task 5.2 has put extra effort on discussing innovation and stakeholder interaction as innovation is a novel concept for some of the partners and partners are in different “places” regarding stakeholder involvement. Partners have carried out usability tests at partner institutions by engaging team members as well as internal and external stakeholders. Feedback from tests have been discussed and reflected on in monthly WP5 meetings. Feedback on the toolkit’s usability, relevance and layout has also been collected through toolkit and project presentations, demonstrations and benchmarking as well as by using tools in interactive workshops and focus groups. Promotion of the usage of the toolkit has been carried out at a local, national and European level and is on-going.
The toolkit entitled Promoting Sustainable Change collects and organises the tools that have been further developed and tested by partner institutions. The process and methods illustrate how academic institutions, social innovators, funding agencies, knowledge transfer partnerships, and intermediaries can use gender equality and diversity tools. They also illustrate how the toolkit can promote sustainable change. The toolkit is organized in three main chapters: Process, Methods and tools, and Stories.
The toolkit is available as an on-line book, as pdf file and as hard copy. The toolkit has been widely disseminated through existing networks and channels like websites, LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter. The toolkit has been submitted to the databases of GenPORT and EIGE as well as to funding bodies, European research institutions and companies on demand. Also, hard copies were available at the final GENOVATE conference. All partners’ dissemination activities are recorded on the Toolkit Dissemination Log available for the consortium partners on Dropbox. Dissemination and promotion of the toolkit will be carried out beyond the project.
Specific Institutional Examples
UNIBRAD have customised the toolkit to ensure a nuanced application within its knowledge transfer innovation partnerships e.g. Digital Health Zone, Catapult and China Bridges. This contextualised approach has played to the University’s strengths in promoting diversity competence and intersectionality between gender and other legally protected characteristics [UK Equality Act 2010]. UNIBRAD have adapted the toolkit to different target groups and utilised established and effective methods, which have been developed and used throughout the project such as GENOVATE café, consensus workshops and [Gender] Equality Impact Assessment. The UNIBRAD team are continuing their work on integrating gender equality and diversity in research and innovation across the University. They are intensifying efforts in supporting leaders of their innovation systems to apply these principles in their knowledge transfer work in the UK and internationally. UNIBRAD are working closely with Students Union and senior leaders to promote gender equality in entrepreneurship work
UCC - The UCC team developed a ‘Quick Guide to Gender Proofing’ for research projects in consultation with PrimeUCC and Office of Vice-President for Research and Innovation at UCC. They also provided technical expertise and guidance to the cross European ODIN Project at University College Cork to integrate gender equality into the research project including the development of a monitoring and reporting and monitoring mechanism. They developed structural, process and outcome gender equality indicators (adapted from methodology for developing human rights indicators) for supporting gender equality monitoring in research and innovation centres including a Gender Equality Indicators monitoring tool for use by research centres and units. They designed and developed THE GENOVATE Hub, an online resource platform to showcase and disseminate GENOVATE at UCC’s research, gender equality actions, and tools.
LTU - At the university level the LTU team and advisory board members are implementing a gender perspective in a process carried out by the university’s management on its pronouncement on the Swedish government’s bill on national future research policy, e.g. a model for the allocation of financial resources to the universities. Further, the university has started collecting data by gender regarding applicants and successful applicants for different positions. The same has been discussed for the gender ratio of internal research awards, internal funding, scholarships and prizes. The university also discusses the importance of collecting data by gender regarding submitted research funding application and approved applications. At the school level the main outcome of implementation activities is a design of gender approach in more than 30 research funding proposals in the field of ICT with participants from academia, industry and public organisations. There is on-going implementation of gender dimension in the core operations of the five ICT projects that have so far been approved funding from Horizon2020 and national funding bodies. Integration of gender dimension and demand of tailored gender tasks for research funding proposals and project partnerships is now spreading to other schools of LTU and has gained external attention from universities in Sweden and Europe.
At the European level a major outcome is the development of a gender course module in the new certificate program of EARMA – European Association of Research Managers and Administrators. This module [Gender and Diversity in Research Management] will be delivered for the first time in April 2018. The research managers who join the certificate programme are key actors in spreading gender equality knowledge at European research institutions. Gender mainstreaming is now also further promoted by EARMA in annual conferences with about 800 participants and through establishment of a new EARMA working group on cultures and diversity. At LTU GENOVATE results will be utilized in a national project initiated by the government with aim at mainstreaming gender in Swedish Higher Education covering all Swedish universities and colleges. GENOVATE results will be utilised and further developed also in the Gender Contact Point initiative. Gender Contact Point aims to support regional companies becoming competitive by making the university’s knowledge resources in gender approaches and initiatives available and easy to access.
To ensure sustainability, by benchmarking and raising interest in gender mainstreaming, tools and methods, workshops, seminars and meetings with engineering students, doctoral students, professors, academic supervisors and co-workers at the university have been prioritised activities. Equally important has been benchmarking with external stakeholders: innovation and business promoters, networks, funding agencies, municipalities, IT companies, EARMA and other ongoing gender projects. LTU’s implementation activities are shared on the GENOVATE on-line community on a regular basis.
AU - Genovate@AU converted the Gender and Diversity Tool into AU context. The tool translated in Turkish is submitted to the Scientific Research and Project Unit and Technology Transfer Office (TTO) at AU. This version is made available on the website of the AU TTO for increasing access and raising interest for gender and diversity toolkit.
UNINA - The UNINA team has actively participated in WP5 activities including Toolkit testing questionnaire prepared by the UNINA team sent to the mentees of the Pilot Mentoring Program and to individual stakeholders; and In addition to submitting several contributions to the final version of D5.2 Toolkit, UNINA promoted the toolkit at the UNINA Gender Observatory booth during Futuro Remoto Science festival in Naples.
In order to ensure the sustainability of GENOVATE project at UNINA, the Gender Observatory on university and research has been established in the institution. The Gender Observatory consists of four research areas, two of which (areas 1 and 2) are related to this task - Gender Studies in Science and Technology; Gender and research evaluation; Gender Budgeting and statistics; Women’s career in university and research
Further, the UNINA team designed case studies aimed at introducing gender perspectives in Advanced Robotics. These studies intend to develop new participatory methodologies in Science & Technology research, aiming at the full integration of gender perspectives and other related dimensions (such as ethical, legal and social issues). UNINA sustained the development of gender dimension in science participating to scientific conferences within the institution with seminars and dissemination materials. These contributions aimed to increase the gender dimension in specific scientific areas encouraging to use gender analysis to enhance excellence and responsibility in Research and Innovation avoiding gender biases due to the used of male models in research designs.
TU’s involvement in the application of Gender and diversity toolkit has ranged from pilot testing of the Gender and diversity toolkit at FHSSW; feedback on the application of the Promoting and Sustainable Toolkit at our faculty; and the introduction of toolkit to all academics at university, and to students as well as during the World Café 4. In June 2016 – organised a national learning circle attended by invited guests from University of Applied Sciences Landshut, Germany, Dr. Barbara HOLUBOVÁ – Institute for Labour and Family Research under the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family, Bratislava, Slovakia. Dr. HOLUBOVÁ confirmed she will use some of the tools from the toolkit in her daily work. This action had the following main goals: Exchanging the experience in the field of gender equality area from different perspectives, establishing the relationship for further work in the future and presenting the results of the GENOVATE project.
WP6 Knowledge exchange and institutional case studies [Led by UNINA]
The GENOVATE consortium consists of seven partner institutions that brought to the partnership unique expertise and varying needs in relation to gender issues. This diversity of strengths and interests provides an opportunity to exchange information across the partners and to learn from each other’s skills and experiences in support of the implementation of the GEAPs. To capitalise on this community of practice, WP6 had two main objectives: [a] To create a ‘buddy’ system whereby each consortium member is matched with one or two other partners so as to share and exchange information, and to seek or receive guidance and advice in particular areas of interest; and [b] To develop case studies that are focused on the GEAPs implemented in each institution partner within a general framework coordinated and shared with the rest of the consortium.
Project outcomes from this work package were to agree and develop case studies focused on the implemented actions and to exchange case study findings within the consortium; provide effective strategies and networking activities for knowledge exchange among partners; design and develop the tools (virtual and face to face) needed to meet the identified needs.
WP6 deliverables
• D6.1. Virtual collaboration platform for knowledge exchange and benchlearning
• D6.2. A portfolio of institutional case studies from each consortium partner
Task 6.1 Tools for effective shared learning
UNINA developed the GENOVATE Community, an online platform (with chat, WP forum, Institutional blog, online archive, online calendar) designed to facilitate meaningful knowledge exchange and reflections across the Community at local, national and international levels in each of the partner institutions’ countries, both at the European and at the global scale (http://www.genovate.unina.it/community/). There are four different categories of registered users (partner, IAB, stakeholder, public) with different privileges and levels of access to the community. A non-registered user is only able to access public posts available on the right box (Blog latest news) and the GEAPs implementation menu on the home page of the Community.
UNINA has regularly maintained and updated the Community on the basis of requests coming from Consortium partners. At the moment, the enabled users of the GENOVATE Community are 69, which forms a basis for strong community of gender equality practice with the following statistics on its use until 31-7-2017:
• 409 posts in the WPs Forum with 1278 replies
• 264 total articles in the Institutional Blog with 84778 total hits for the 184 public articles
The WP Forum has been used to coordinate work packages' work. For example, the slides and links to the Stop & Share sessions recorded on Blackboard were made available and easy to access through the WP Forum. All partner institutions have used the blog to highlight GEAP implementation activities and joint learning processes with internal and external stakeholders. In particular, some partners (like LTU) used the blog to support their status reporting and reflection process and promoted the blog with team members, advisory board members and internal and external stakeholders to spread project activities.
Task 6.2 Knowledge Exchange
During the project a great amount of work has involved identifying, building upon and where necessary bridging any expertise gaps within the consortium. A self-evaluation of partners’ expertise levels in specific areas was undertaken at the early stage of the project and repeated after a year. An expertise matrix was created based on the findings. The following criteria were adopted in scheduling the knowledge exchange within the consortium: each session focused on the needs for the GEAPs implementation; the dates were planned taking into account the schedule of the GEAPs implementation; each session gave suggestions and examples (more on practical than on theoretical basis); partners that had more expertise gave more than one lecture; speakers defined the contents of their presentation with other partners with similar expertise; and partners were invited to share all the resources and material useful to the GEAPs implementation on the GENOVATE Community.
During the project, UNINA worked in collaboration with other partners, to organise training sessions for knowledge sharing. In particular, UNINA coordinated 21 Stop and Share sessions; 20 of the sessions were virtual; topics included Change Academy Model, Equality Impact Assessment, Mentoring, Gender targets, development of e-learning, Gender and Leadership, the development of the social model, GEAP evaluation, etc. One face to face Stop and Share session was held during the GENOVATE Cork Convention in March 2015. The focus of the Stop & Share was on GEAP implementation and enabling or disabling factors. This provided an opportunity for partners, at the beginning of the Convention, to open a discussion about progress in GEAP implementation.
UNINA produced four GENOVATE Annual Convention Reports in consultation with partners.
Task 6.3 GENOVATE Case Studies
Deliverable D6.2 of the GENOVATE project concerns a portfolio of institutional case studies from the Consortium partners. The case studies focus on the GEAP actions implemented by each partner institution and report the successful strategies but also the challenges facing the GEAP implementation in partner institutions.
An online portfolio of the GENOVATE case studies was posted on the GENOVATE Community, in the section GEAP Implementation Roadmap .
The GEAP Implementation Roadmap has been built during the third year of the GENOVATE project in order to collect contributions concerning the different aspects of the GEAP implementation from the Work Packages WP2, WP6, WP7:
1. Reflections on Change Academy Model (CAM) implementation: reflections from GENOVATE partners related to the CAM implementation and the Social Model to be developed by WP2 (WP2, co-led by Trnava University, TU and University of Bradford, UNIBRAD).
2. Case studies on the GEAP implementation: posts focusing on the implementation of the GEAP in each institution (WP6, led by University of Naples Federico II, UNINA).
3. ePortfolio for the evaluation: pictorial material (photos, pictures, graphics, charts, etc) about advances, mechanisms/activities and resistances related to the GEAP implementation (WP7, led by Universidad Complutense de Madrid, UCM).
UNINA led on the development of Deliverable D6.2 (A portfolio of institutional case studies from each consortium partner) which was submitted in December 2015 (M36). Producing the case studies has involved reflection and analysis by the different GENOVATE teams on the process of GEAP implementation in relation to the three challenges and the specificity of the institutional context.
WP7 - Evaluation [Led by UCM]
WP7 has been working in two different areas: the evaluation of the GENOVATE as a whole and the support to partner institutions in the evaluation of their own GEAPs. Below, a summary of the different activities is provided, following the tasks as described in the Description of Work.
Task 7.1 Preparing and delivering evaluation seminars at the GENOVATE annual Conventions, which will fulfil different purposes
Design of the evaluation workshops for GENOVATE Conventions: Different Evaluation Workshops were designed and delivered during the GENOVATE annual conventions. This was the starting point for training partners in evaluation and for supporting them in their GEAP evaluation process. The training was carried through different kinds of activities and tools. First, four different evaluation workshops were held during the annual GENOVATE conventions. Two specific “Stop & Share” sessions were also delivered as a form of webinar focused on indicators and on the evaluation of gender change. Second, three different “Evaluation Step by Step” toolkits were developed and shared with partners. Specific evaluation workshops with each partner institution were also carried out during the UCM team’s on-site visits. Additionally, each partner was provided with on-going support by the evaluation team. All of these actions have contributed to sustained work with partners throughout the course of the project, while helping to elaborate the final guidelines and to propose a list of “GEAP quality criteria”.
Task 7.2 Onsite visits and virtual reflections
On-site visits - The UCM team undertook on-site visits to all GENOVATE partners. The goal of these visits was two-fold. Firstly, and regarding the GENOVATE evaluation, the UCM sought to obtain first-hand information about the different WPs implementation and its relation with the GEAPs. Secondly, through different working sessions and evaluation workshops, these visits sought to foster further internal knowledge and self-reflection of partners about their activities, processes and outputs as a key point for their GEAP’s evaluation practices. Additionally, the visits provided key information about institutional practice, helped to orient support to partners in their evaluation practices as well as were very important input for designing the D7.1. Guidelines for Evaluating GEAPs.
Several tools were developed for promoting virtual reflections, formed the basis for on-going evaluation of the GENOVATE project as a whole and informed the design of the Guidelines for Evaluating GEAPS.
On-going evaluation reports (OER) -prepared annually by the WP7 team for the purpose of formative evaluation. These reports were based on partners’ feedbacks and contributions throughout questionnaires, interviews and participation in workshops. The reports highlighted the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and challenges of GENOVATE project regarding process, outputs and outcomes. The report also included findings from an Evaluation Questionnaire completed by Institutional Advisory Board [IAB] members on two occasions during the project.
Evaluation Recommendations Action Plan (ERAP] presented the main recommendations, which emerged from the OER to improve current implementation of GENOVATE project.
Rapid evaluation feedback (REF) aimed to open a rapid discussion on some points related to the general project performance that can be improved with simple measures.
The ePortfolio on GEAP implementation: Partner institutions uploaded images exemplifying key moments captioned with specific references to Work Packages 3, 4, 5 representing achievements and challenges in their GEAP implementation process since the beginning of the project. Based on the analysis of the pictures submitted by partners between July 2015 and May 2016 relating to years 1 to 4 of the GENOVATE project. The eportfolio provided opportunity to share ideas about GEAP implementation and helped institutions rethink together about their main advances and pitfalls. Deliverable 7.2. Report from ePortfolio was produced from the analysis of GEAP pictures.
Task 7.3 Developing guidelines for evaluating GEAPs within partner institutions, which will include quality criteria
These guidelines synthesise the main ideas and steps to take into account when evaluating GEAPs, with concrete examples and tips drawn from the practices of GENOVATE partners and the findings of the evaluation training process, on site evaluation visits, evaluation toolkits and workshops, reflections and other support provided by the evaluation team. These Guidelines were developed following extensive reviews of existing literature on evaluation from a gender perspective and evaluation of gender change. All of these actions have contributed to sustained work with partners throughout the course of the project. These actions formed the basis for the design of the Deliverable 7.1. Guidelines for Evaluating GEAPs.
WP8 Dissemination and sustainability strategy [Led by UNIBRAD]
The goal of WP8 was to disseminate findings of the project to the various target groups [policy makers in EC, member states and other international audience, decision makers in higher education, research and equality institutions, and other end users, specifically: [a] To maintain a website with information about the project, latest news, document databases [updated at least 4 times per year] for both internal consortium communication and others; [b] To organise in-country Learning Circles involving gender networks, and one end point International Conference for the project; [c] To develop and implement media, publication and sustainability strategy; and [d] To produce Gender Equality Delivery Guides for other interested institutions and disseminating best practices to the broader academic community at regional, national and/or international level.
Task 8.1 GENOVATE website
The project website www.genovate.eu was developed during the first months of the project. It has been made accessible for mobile devices and optimized for search engine use in order to secure maximum traffic. The website has been used as prime online communication channels to give official identity and visibility to the GENOVATE initiative toward the broadest possible audience. It is also used to disseminate useful information on the project activities and objectives, and share related news with target stakeholders. Partners have been actively contributing to communication and dissemination efforts by supplying information on project advancement and related news posted on the website.
The website is regularly updated and refined with extensive content derived from the project outputs. It has been used as a repository of practical information and resources/tools developed by the project. The information on the GENOVATE website is currently up to date and the University of Bradford team will continue to maintain the website after the project. The website is attracting numerous viewers with an average hit of over 1565 per month as evidenced by Google analytics.
Task 8.2 Development and implementation of media, publication and sustainability strategy
The Dissemination and Publication Strategy developed by UNIBRAD (deliverable 8.2) has been an evolving document and has responded to the needs and requirements of the project. This has helped to ensure that the project has maximised the potential for dissemination and publication opportunities beyond the life of the project. The strategy was reviewed in September 2015 to support the development of an open access approach to GENOVATE, which has resulted in the production of 11 resources/tools. Dissemination of GENOVATE work has taken place at local institutional level and at conferences across Europe and globally. GENOVATE work has also yielded several publications in both academic and professional journals and books.
Specific Institutional Examples
UNIBRAD has disseminated GENOVATE materials at institutional conferences, events and workshops as well as during participation at external meetings, conferences, events and workshops in Africa [South Africa and Nigeria], UK, Europe [Estonia, Madrid, Lithuania, Brussels, Paris, Turkey, Vienna etc], Japan, Mexico and USA; Contributed keynote, workshops, oral and poster presentations at high level conferences including Making Diversity Interventions Count Annual International Conference Bradford in 2013; 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017; Estonia - Shared Identities in Diverse Communities: the Role of Culture, Media and Civil Society Conference; Prague; the British Science Festival; EU gender equality in HE Conferences in Vienna and Paris; African Women in Leadership Conferences both in Africa and USA; Gender Summits in Africa, Europe, Mexico and Japan; oral presentations at events including contributing to panel discussion regarding women’s contribution at AU; presented GENOVATE at JPOC Editorial Board Meeting; dissemination in the USA; and media publicity, etc); been involved in a workshop organised by EC Research and Innovation on evaluation of gender equality action plans; implemented plans to increase UNIBRAD’s participation in the online community; Co-led with WP2, a consortium paper on guided reflections; published an institutional journal article on gender equality, and are developing additional papers for submission within the next few months; presented several keynote addresses for varied audiences which cut across scientific communities, policy makers, media, politicians, etc – for example provided a keynote address at the NHS Employers Strategic Forum meeting in London; disseminated GENOVATE at the Science in Society Conference in Rome; and attended the Women in STEM conference [Inside Government] in London; GENOVATE International Workshop took place in Nigeria in June 2017. These varied dissemination activities have earned the GENOVATE team the Vice Chancellor’s Outstanding Award for 2017. In addition to the extensive international dissemination, UNIBRAD team have shared its work with UK Universities and other sectors e.g. University of Essex; University of Reading have opted to pilot our resources, etc.
UCC team members have disseminated findings at various events both internally and externally. For example, UCC presented on the GENOVATE-UCC project at a conference entitled ‘Transforming STEM Realities: Gender Equality’ hosted by the FESTA project in University of Limerick on 10 November 2015.
UCC team also presented their work: at the 9th European Conference on Gender Equality in Higher Education (and Research) conference in Paris on 12 - 14 September 2016; during Gender Equality Initiatives in Irish Higher Education, a knowledge exchange symposium at Maynooth University, 22 February 2017; at the AIB Bank Diversity event, Cork, 6 March 2017. UCC contributed to the WP2 consortium paper published in 2016 and is leading the preparation of a consortium paper based on WP3; an institutional paper on maternity leave research is to be submitted to an international journal. Along with these activities, the UCC team published a GENOVATE newsletter, maintained an active local website (www.ucc.ie/en/iss21/genovate) and set up and maintained an active Twitter account @GENOVATE_UCC. GENOVATE-UCC Twitter account had 389 followers with 100s of profile visits and 1000s of ‘impressions’ each month. The GENOVATE HUB@UCC was complete in 2016 and makes available GENOVATE@UCC's resources for promoting gender equality on a single platform. At the end of the project, a professionally designed GENOVATE postcard highlighting the GENOVATE Hub and resources was sent to every member of staff in the university.
Press coverage of GENOVATE-UCC’s work included: full page feature article in local newspaper Evening Echo on 11/1/2017; article in the national newspaper Irish Times 1/2/2017 and coverage on websites including Ninth Level Ireland and Career Guidance Ireland.
GENOVATE-UCC successfully engaged the HEA’s Expert Group on Gender Equality in their National Review of Irish Higher Education Institutions by recommending actions and sharing resources for effecting change for gender equality: GENOVATE is referred to thirty-eight times in the Report of the Expert Group.
LTU have continued raising the project profile, generating awareness, and contacting stakeholders by posting news on the LTE website, CDT website, CDT Facebook and on Twitter @genovateLTU. The LTU team have also promoted gender mainstreaming benefits in several events. In June 2015 LTU presented in the EARMA annual conference in Leiden, and in September 2015 LTU presented at the Vienna conference. The LTU team have faced a key challenge in achieving sustainability and have recognised that stakeholder participation and promotion of the ownership of a change process are key success factors, however they require the legitimacy of management to achieve sustainable change of the culture and structures of the institution. The strategy for LTU is to attract more women researchers to ICT and ICT innovation systems on all level at the institution, which will include challenging and transforming workplace cultures and structures.
AU distributed the Gender Equality Climate and Culture Report to the Technology Transfer Office Management in August 2014; published on Gender Equality in Academic Leadership and Management in the AU bulletin, issue 175; given a speech on ‘An innovative example on Gender Equality Action Plan Implementation through GENOVATE’ at The International Symposium on Gender Equality in Academia in Sabanci University, Istanbul; and participated in the EGERA.eu workshop on gender equality in Turkey in November 2014. AU has also formed a local collaboration with gender mainstreaming METU EU project, with discussions around enabling and hindering factors in mainstreaming gender equality in Turkish universities. Currently AU has been working on identifying strategies to improve visibility of GENOVATE nationally.
UNINA team have participated in the 8th European Conference on Gender Equality in Higher Education, in Vienna in September 2014 and the 9th European Conference on Gender Equality in Higher Education, in Paris in September 2016, the Gender Equality and institutions conference in Naples, in October 2014; and the conference ‘Scienza, genere e società: a che punto siamo? Prospettive di genere in una scienza che si evolve’ in November 2014; the XIX Congresso nazionale Associazione Italiana di Valutazione, in Rome (Italy) in April 2016; in the Conference Donne in 3-D: diritto allo studio, democrazia dei Saperi, donne nella scienza in Naples in May 2016; the 6th STS Italia Conference Sociotechnical Environments in Trento (Italy) in November 2016; in Conference Formazione, Ricerca e Carriere in Pisa (Italy) December 2016; in Gender Equality in Academia Conference in December 2016 in Padua (Italy); the national Conference “Saperi di genere” in Trento (Italy) in January 2017, in Conference Scienza tra ricerca e innovazione in April 2017 in Pisa (Italy), In the Gender in Physics Day in May 2017, Rome (Italy), in National Conference Per una rete mediterranea delle ricercatrici in Naples in 6 May 2017. The UNINA team have also disseminated GENOVATE to the national newspaper and the UNINA website. UNINA has continued to maintain Facebook and Twitter accounts; provide periodic feedback on the GENOVATE website; promote the Mentoring programme in UNINA; disseminate on social networks, via flyers and posters, by email, word of mouth and media (Interview on the national Radio – ‘Radio 24’, including a related article submission on the website of Radio24; article in the national newspaper; article in UNINA’s local university journal; article in the national journal on the Italian Physical Society; news on the website of Italian Society of Physics ‘Prima Pagina’); participated in communication activities during conferences (presentation of a paper at the ESA conference in Athens in April 2015; and in the European Sociological Association Conference in Prague in August 2015); and prepared GENOVATE’s dissemination event in the framework of the Science Festival Futuro Remoto that was held in Naples in October 2015, in collaboration with the Science Centre ‘Città della scienza’.
The TU team have established a Facebook page and are regularly contributing to this page to share information about GENOVATE TU activities; regularly published project information in FHSSW journal; regularly posted GENOVATE updates on the FHSSW website; presented a poster at the 8th European Conference on Gender Equality in Higher Education in Vienna, titled ‘Gender Equality Strategy at Trnava University’, in September 2014.
UCM has disseminated GENOVATE projects at several international conferences in Europe, America (Canada, Colombia and USA) and Asia (Nepal). This partner specifically participated in the 3rd ‘Equal is not enough’ Conference (Belgium, 2015) and the 11th European Evaluation Society Biennial Conference (Ireland, 2014). Moreover, UCM disseminated GENOVATE evaluation work in the Canadian Evaluation Society Conference (Canada, 2015), the American Evaluation Association Annual Meeting (USA, 2015), the Encuentro Internacional de Evaluación y políticas públicas (Colombia, 2014), the Evaluation Conclave – Community of Evaluators South Asia (Nepal, 2015). In 6th Congreso Red Española de Políticas Sociales. Seville, Spain.16th and 17th February, 2017. ‘Gender, Institutions and Change: Feminist Institutionalism after 10 years’. International Conference. University of Manchester. Manchester, United Kingdom, 3-4th April, 2017; III EvalPartners Global Evaluation Forum. Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. 26th to 28th April, 2017.
5th European Conference on Politics and Gender. European Consortium for Political Research. Standing Group on Gender and Politics. Lausanne, Switzerland. 8th to 10th June, 2017. Additionally, UCM has presented and discussed GENOVATE evaluation work in different national workshops in Madrid (Complutense University of Madrid) and Seville (Pablo de Olavide University and Loyola University – Andalucía). The most important ideas from UCM’s on-site visits to partner institutions were also disseminated by Twitter when it was considered relevant.
The WP7 guidelines, ‘Evaluating Gender Structural Change. Guidelines for Evaluating Gender Equality Action Plans’, has been disseminated on different social networks. Mainly, it has been disseminated on Twitter and Facebook as well as in the Newsletter of EvalGender+ (http://createsend.com/t/d-8553D2B20972B8D2).
Moreover, this Guidelines has been shared by email to following international and national institutions and organizations:
• United Nations Evaluation Group.
• Evaluation Office of UN Women.
• United Nations Development Programme.
• ‘Gender &Evaluation’ Thematic Working Group of the European Evaluation Society.
• ‘Gender Mainstreaming’ Working Group of the DeGEval (Evaluation Society, Gesellschaft für Evaluation e.V.).
• Feminist Evaluation Group of APROEVAL (Spanish and Portuguese Association of Evaluation Professionals).
• Africa Gender and Development Evaluators Network (AGDEN).
• Gender and Evaluation, Institute of Social Studies Trust (India).
• ‘Feminist Issues in Evaluation’ Topical Interest Group, American Evaluation Association (AEA).
• Working group in evaluation, gender and human rights, RELAC (Monitoring, Evaluation and Systematization in Latin America and the Caribbean Network).
• The Tavistock Institute.
• PRIGEPP, Regional Training Programme on Gender and Politics of FLACSO-Argentina.
• IAEN, National Institute of Social Science of Ecuador.
• CIDE, Center of Research and Training on Economics. Mexico.
• Gender and Politics Group of AECPA (Spanish Association of Political Science).
• Different Spanish, European and Latinoamerican NGOs, public administrations, Universities and gender consultants.
Information about GENOVATE are available on websites of collaborators e.g. EARMA, GENPort, TRIGGER, etc. Social networks have been utilised effectively to maximise dissemination for GENOVATE work
GENOVATE publications, press releases, media coverage and other dissemination activities are provided on the website - http://www.genovate.eu/dissemination/publications/
Project social media activities
In addition to consortium website, partners have maintained lively institutional websites. The objective has been to further increase the visibility of the project both at institutional and consortium levels.
Tweets on common topics of interest for the project have been regularly posted on the project Twitter account @GENOVATE_EU. A specific hashtag, #genovate, is used to indicate when tweets are providing information specifically related to the GENOVATE project. Institutional Twitter accounts include @genovatecafe, @GENOVATE_AU, @GenovateLTU, @GenovateUnina @GENOVATE-UCC.
The GENOVATE website is linked to the project social media channels to facilitate public access, and to guarantee that up-to-date and live information is optimally shared between the consortium and the stakeholder community.
Partners maintain Facebook pages to publicise their activities linked to GEAP implementation. For example: https://www.facebook.com/genovatecafe/ [UNIBRAD]; http://on.fb.me/20U3K8f [UCC]; https://www.facebook.com/genovatetu?fref=ts [TU]; https://www.facebook.com/Genovate-Unina-1386871078211001/ [UNINA].
Task 8.3 Learning circles and international conference
Learning Circles
All partners arranged National Learning Circles [NLCs], to provide a forum to engage in dialogue with relevant stakeholders in their own countries and beyond, with the aims of bringing together key stakeholders to develop a vision for gender equality in research and innovation within research institutions in GENOVATE countries; and developing a greater understanding of work already being undertaken in this area and providing the opportunity to learn from each other. It also sought to explore areas of potential joint working across the country and beyond, linked to the development of a sustainability strategy. The themes for NLCs were to celebrate gender equality implementation at faculty, institution, and country levels, and to ensure sustainability of gender equality actions beyond the life of the GENOVATE project.
There was wide participation in NLCs from private and public organisations including senior staff from HE and FE institutions, such as: researchers, lecturers, senior lecturers, professors, diversity specialists/equality officers, HR staff, journal editors, publishers, research councils, higher education authorities, funding agencies, senior industrial relations officers, gender project managers, programme managers, managing directors of private organisations, Athena SWAN project officers, developmental officers, and NHS employees.
Each of the six core partners organised and delivered NLCs, providing a forum to engage in dialogue with relevant stakeholders in their own countries. The learning circles offer a safe and respectful context for sharing ideas, views, and experiences. For GENOVATE, National Learning Circles (NLCs) represent participative and collaborative opportunities where GENOVATE partners and stakeholders share experiences, knowledge and learning on the effective transformation of gender organisational cultures in higher education. NLCs are instrumental in disseminating context-specific and institutional issues that emerge in both partners and stakeholders’ country and organisational contexts.
The NLCs provided opportunities to discuss GENOVATE’s issues and concerns, partners’ progress, challenges encountered, good practice on gender equality policy-making, project achievements and end-project goals. In addition, the GENOVATE NLCs also offer a collaborative “sharing and learning” experience in which consortium partners’ present examples of local and focal institutional action, identifying and exploring powerful synergies and transversal collaborations in a top-down and a bottom-up fashion, not only within their own organisations but also with other relevant institutional bodies and actors, key in decision making process in HE and gender equality issues. Bearing this in mind, Deliverable 8.4. [Synthesis Report of National Learning Circles] analyses the main themes, actions, reflections and outcomes emerging from these fruitful encounters, which ultimately bring to light the concern and importance of a solid and long-term sustainability strategy and cross-institutional agenda to ensure the growth and support of gender equality in HE and other research institutions, and therefore, its advancement in society by and large.
Institutional examples:
UNIBRAD NLCs (2015, 2016) explored localised, context-specific, and national implementation of GENOVATE in HE, together with targeted organisational interventions to transform gender cultures and organisations effectively. The first NLC focused on GENOVATE learning and tools, whilst the second one was part of the UNIBRAD Conference “Making Diversity Interventions Count” and provided an avenue for international learning involving partners from UCC and AU. UNIBRAD NLCs discussed GENOVATE implementation by looking at specific examples of contextualised approach to implementing gender equality action plans with case studies from AU, UNIBRAD and Reading Universities; together with the applicability of GENOVATE tools to academic and non-academic contexts. Other important NLC themes were a) the need and opportunities to identify spaces with potential for organisational change; b) review, monitoring, and updating of existing gender equality policies (i.e. GEAPs, career progression for women academics), and finally, collaborations with specific institutional departments (i.e. human resources) and organisations from other sectors such as the National Health Service, Trades Unions, Research Institutes and Professional Societies.
UCC: With the objective of ‘Promoting Gender Equality in Higher Education in Ireland’, UCC’s NLC covered and reflected on the achievements and challenges realised and encountered in such a process so far. Framed by the momentum towards promoting gender equality in higher education in Ireland, the invited participants from nine organisations identified multiple achievements that varied in nature, but with significant commonalities in their realisation at institutional level. These included: Evidenced based research including data collection and analysis; the development of gender equality actions plans; and Support from senior management and broad based engagement of all.
In addition to this, the NLC highlighted the importance of national legal frameworks that support and uphold gender equality in higher education (i.e. the positive obligation to integrate gender equality into strategic planning processes under section 42 of Irish Human Rights and Equality Commission Act 2014, the decision of the Higher Education Authority to establish a review; and the extension of the Athena SWAN to Ireland)
The participants also identified commonalities in the challenges experienced in promoting gender equality at institutional level, such as lack of senior management involvement; slow pace of cultural change; and resistance to gender equality.
LTU organised two National Learning Circles (June 2015 and 2016) which focused on a) developing and promoting gender-aware and sustainable recruitment processes and practices; and b) integrating a gender and diversity perspective into innovation systems. In so doing, the NLCs opened an opportunity to discuss and examine LTU Code of Practice, which is a set of recommendations to embed gender equality and diversity into research and innovation. How to implement this code factually, effectively and efficiently were main aspects of the debate, which also covered other important questions such as recruitment and commercialisation strategies, LTU GEAP implementation, actors’ involvement in the LTU Code development and implementation, and LTU Code’s contribution to sustainable structural and cultural change.
UNINA, TU and AU focused their National Learning Circles on the development and evaluation of their gender mainstreaming policy. In the case of UNINA, NLCs focused on gender mainstreaming in STEM fields; gender budgeting; UNINA's code of practice for a gender dimension in research evaluation (as it was the case with LTU); UNINA's mentoring program; and GEAP sustainability and dissemination strategies. TU's NLCs delved into GEAP implementation; recruitment, progression and promotion strategies; and their gender climate assessment. Attendees also celebrated TU’s presentation of GENOVATE tools (i.e. GENOVATE Toolkit), which were welcomed as useful and efficient implementation instruments.
In a similar fashion, AU’s NLCs also focused on organisational gender mainstreaming issues (i.e. GEAP, curricula development), and reflected on their Gender Equality Climate and Culture Report, and AU’s Equality Impact Assessment. NLCs offered a great opportunity for knowledge exchange and for sharing AU’s experiences of GEAP implementation through GENOVATE. In addition, UNINA, TU, and AU used their NLCs as opportunities to assess and strengthen their recruitment, promotion and retention policies to support women in their professional development in HE through mentoring programmes (UNINA); devising career development plans (TU), and advancing particular promotion policies (AU). Ensuring and reinforcing internal and external stakeholder collaboration with respect to their gender equality agenda was also a shared goal of partners’ NLCs. The foundation of specific monitoring institutional bodies such as a gender observatory (UNINA), and the Equality Coordination Unit (AU), together with the feasibility of promoting a national HE gender policy were also powerful themes among partners
GENOVATE International Conference
GENOVATE international conference took place in Brussels on 2nd [pre-conference event] and 3rd November 2016 [full day conference]. The conference has produced different tools - digital stories, and conference videos. Adopting a collaborative approach, the conference promoted the EC’s attempts to form alliances between projects for a more holistic dissemination and sustainability. The overall conference theme was: ‘Towards 2020: Learning from GENOVATE’s implementation of Organisational Change for Gender Equality in research and innovation’. This theme reflected the ethos of the GENOVATE project and brought together different elements and contributions from partner institutions. It also provided a platform to examine issues beyond state of the art gender equality policies and practices. Keynotes and other key speakers were drawn from a pool of gender experts, representation from the European Commission, senior managers/leaders of HE and Research Institutes, politicians, and academics.
The conference consisted of three sessions. In the first session was a welcome and opening plenary session that included the chair’s opening remarks, welcome address and the keynote address. The second session was about the lessons learned from the GENOVATE Action Plans that included presentations from GENOVATE GEAP implementing partners in different parallel sessions, feedback on main outcomes from the action plans and a ‘learning market’ during lunch break. The third session focused on GENOVATE output including recommendations and suggestions from the GENOVATE Project including presentations on the GENOVATE evaluation, GENOVATE model, intersectionality and the GEAR tool. The conference ended with a roundtable discussion on ‘Integrating gender and diversity in cultural change in research and innovation as a sustainable policy effort’ and closing remarks. 102 participants representing a wide range of roles and sectors including public authorities, employers, equality bodies, education institutions and health services, attended the conference.
Task 8.4 Producing Gender Equality Delivery Guide
The Gender Equality Delivery Guide [D8.5] provides a useful set of guidelines for Human Resources (HR) managers and policy making professionals, institutional units, and departments in Higher Education (HE) to embed, and effectively mainstream gender equality into institutional policy frameworks. The Guide represents a valuable, research action-based “roadmap” which offers support on gender competent policy-making, implementation, monitoring and deep organisational change in line with international, regional and domestic legislation; and institutional and context-specific gender equality and diversity backgrounds. The guidelines stem from the overall GENOVATE project, and translate the mainstays of the GENOVATE Model into the more action-oriented, result-driven, and hands-on dynamics of the human resources field in the context of promoting gender competent research and innovation.
Potential Impact:
GENOVATE has brought about tangible and measurable results in terms of attracting, recruiting, and advancing women in research at all levels of seniority among project participants. Progress on the achievement of this goal is evident in all aspects of the project, in particular through WP3, supported by rigorous evaluation of success through WP7.
It has also enhanced understanding of the benefit to create a work/life responsive workplace and of improving the culture and organisational structures of research organisations and universities. Progress on the achievement of this goal is evident in all aspects of the project, in particular through WP4, WP5, and WP6 supported by iterative evaluation through WP7.
The project has had significant impact across Europe and has contributed to generating public debate and raising awareness on the institutional issues hindering gender equality in research and innovation. There has been intense knowledge exchange within the consortium (WP6) and with key stakeholders throughout the project and dissemination of outcomes has occurred widely, as outlined in WP8, thus contributing to public debate and awareness-raising.
GENOVATE has produced new knowledge of value to the research and innovation enterprise across the EU. Through the process of implementing tailored GEAPs in different institution types in different national contexts, and carefully documenting, monitoring and analysing the implementation process, an innovative contextualised model of gender equality implementation has been produced and disseminated in a variety of formats tailored to key audiences (WP2, WP8). This has served as a methodological framework, or roadmap, for other European research organisations and universities in developing and implementing strategies to encourage a more gender-competent management. As part of this process, new grounded empirical knowledge has been gained on the strategies necessary to implement a sustainable and substantial GEAP in European universities, the barriers and facilitators, as well as increased awareness of the challenges faced in academic research at all levels, clearer understanding of the factors and processes that influence both the working environment, culture and experiences of female academic researchers and also the steps involved in transforming the culture, policies and practices of the organisation and the wider research sector within Europe. The availability of the numerous resources has had significant wider benefits across European and national Higher Education Institutions – e-learning Package on Gender Competent Leadership and Management [WP 4]; Contextualised Guidelines for Universities and Research Organisations [WP 3]; Guiding principles for Excellence in Research Standards [WP 5]; GENOVATE Gender and Diversity Toolkit [WP 5]; Report on Institutional Case Studies [WP 6]; Guidelines for Evaluating GEAPs [WP 7]; GENOVATE Model for Gender Equality in Transforming Research and Innovation [WP2]; Synthesis Report of National Learning Circle [WP 8]; Report on ePortfolio [WP 2]; Gender Equality Guides [WP 8]; and Gender Culture and Working Climate Assessment Report [WP 4].
This new knowledge has been embedded in the relevant policies and structures at the level of each partner institution to ensure sustainability of learning, and, through strategic collaboration with key stakeholders, into other universities and research organisations. It has contributed to the development of sustainable gender equality and diversity frameworks within the European academic research sector by transforming organisational cultures and structures to ensure that excellence in research and innovation access, assessment, advancement, management and output is open to all academic researchers, women and men, and, that the maximum potential of research activity is realised from the diversity of the research pool.
The implementation activity and the knowledge exchange involved has been collated from all six consortium partners to develop not only learning packages for a wider higher education and research audience but also a social model of gender equality that will contribute a concrete grounded framework for understanding and addressing the socio-cultural, rather than individual, dimensions of gendering within academic research.
All partner institutions have benefited from the intense knowledge exchange activities built into the GENOVATE project structure. Partners have learnt from others with more experience of implementing gender equality programmes as evidence in the result related to GEAP implementation and application of WP resources.
From the beginning of the project, GENOVATE has actively interacted with related gender equality projects.
Institutionalisation
The implementation of the GENOVATE project has generated important outputs by the partner universities, specifically concerning institutionalisation. The most outstanding result was the design and implementation of GEAP in each of the six implementing partner institutions. These GEAPs also facilitated the inclusion of gender equality issues in other strategic planning documents in most partner universities, including AU, LTU, UCC, UNINA and UNIBRAD.
GENOVATE has also contributed to increasing the numbers of staff and the budgets allocated for gender equality issues at universities, as well as to institutional practice and research in this field. In terms of institutional practice, the Gender Equality Change Academy Teams were crucial for promoting gender issues within most partner universities. In some cases, specific commissions for implementing the GEAPs were created and will continue to promote gender equality after the conclusion of the GENOVATE project. In the same vein, the creation of the “Gender Observatory” at UNINA reveals clear commitment to gender equality and the sustainability of GENOVATE’s results.
In terms of research on gender equality, GENOVATE reports – such as the Gender Equality Climate and Culture reports – have helped to make top managers more gender-responsive. Due to their varied backgrounds in gender and diversity issues, most partner institutions focused their work on gender issues. Only one of the six partners, which had previous experience of diversity issues (UNIBRAD), systematically adopted a dual approach combining diversity and gender equality issues.
Gender equality and diversity issues are interconnected. Thus, it is not only important to pay attention to gender inequalities, but also to how gender inequality intersects with other kinds of inequalities. However, the GENOVATE experience reveals that combining gender and diversity approaches is not always an easy task. Successfully adopting a dual approach in the institutionalisation process is tied to each university’s starting point in both spheres. Universities with more limited institutional backgrounds in the spheres of gender and diversity issues faced greater difficulties in promoting a dual approach. A markedly different situation, meanwhile, was experienced by partners with more institutional experience in these areas. Hence, to promote more gender- and diversity-responsive universities, it is necessary to look at their different contexts – paying special attention to specific change needs – and accordingly to design specific strategic actions to facilitate a dual approach. Additionally, since gender inequality pervades all other forms of inequalities – i.e. it is not merely “another” factor of inequality – it is important to define specific actions to tackle gender inequality. This is essential to avoid gender issues from evaporating within approaches that promote diversity.
Recruitment, Progression and Retention - A core aim of GENOVATE was to strengthen the presence of women at all levels of seniority in research in partner institutions. This was achieved in particular through Work package 3, Gender Equality in Recruitment, Progression and Research Support. As a result of tasks undertaken as part of WP3, tangible results have been achieved in all partner institutions.
Gender Culture and Climate - The GENOVATE project achieved important results with respect to gender culture and climate (WP4). According to data from the questionnaires, the most important result concerns the analysis of specific gender needs. Over the past four years, four partners now engage in some regular practices in this regard. Progress has also been made in terms of gender-balanced representation in key decision making positions, gender-balanced distribution within academic positions and the gender- balanced allocation of resources. In all these areas, two partner institutions have engaged in related practices. However, little substantial change are apparent with respect to the gender-balanced distribution of management positions. Both in 2013 and 2016, only two partner universities engaged in any regular practice in this regard.
Excellence in Research and Innovation
Prior to the GENOVATE project, only two of the partner institutions had explicit experience in the sphere of promoting gender equality and diversity competence when assessing excellence in research and innovation. LTU’s practices in this area concerned gender equality in leadership and academic supervisory training programmes; gender-balanced promotion and recruitment committees; and gender-balanced grading committees. The University of Bradford had experience linked to the Research Excellence Framework Code of Practice, and specifically introducing principles of “diversity competence”. The remaining partners (AU, TU, UCC and UNINA) did not have explicit experience.
A range of activities were promoted in partner institutions since the beginning of the GENOVATE project. At the Consortium-level and linked to deliverable 5.1. – Guiding Principles for gender and diversity competent research excellence standards – the Equality Impact Analysis (EIA) was promoted as the basis for developing this Code of Practice. The Toolkit devised as deliverable 5.2. – Gender and Diversity Toolkit to integrate gender and diversity perspective in innovation systems – was tested in most partner institutions and a number of online meetings were held to discuss it.
Overall, GENOVATE’s experiences reveal the usefulness of the Code of Practice for gender and diversity competent research excellence standards. Thus, it stands to be a useful tool that can be adopted by and adapted to future gender and structural change projects. The Gender and Diversity Toolkit to integrate gender and diversity perspective in innovation systems has been translated into the languages used by different partner institutions. Internal and external stakeholders participated to different degrees and via different types of activities at partner institutions. In addition, according to half of the partners, the Toolkit still needs to be adapted to their local contexts.
Enabling and Disabling Factors
GENOVATE project is marked by a range of different starting points and backgrounds on gender issues among its partner institutions. Thus, local work on the GEAPs has varied significantly between each partner institution. This has been one of the project’s most enriching features. The evaluation team helped to identify drivers and bottlenecks in each of three change areas – ideas, structures and people, in order to share learning about the GEAPs’ implementation and thereby inform future projects focused on structural gender change. Furthermore, this exercise seeks to contribute to the different sustainability strategies of GENOVATE’s partners. This is especially important as gender change takes time, and it is therefore necessary to take advantage of strengths and to address resistances.
These enabling and disabling factors reveal that promoting structural gender change is not an easy task. Rather, it demands that we pay attention to three levels – the level connected to ideas (how institutions think); the level related to their structures and mechanisms (how institutions work); and the level that concerns their people (how central gender equality is to their staff). In this regard, the GENOVATE experience (encapsulated in the GENOVATE Model) could contribute to the design and development of other projects in this field and, according to the partner institutions involved, this will define their next steps in terms of promoting gender and diversity change.
Sustainability
Sustainability is a core principle of the GENOVATE project, and a main concern across intra-consortium participants and stakeholders. All project actions have sought to effect institutional change, which will be maintained beyond the lifetime of the project and further progressed by an enhanced gender perspective in the wider research sector. In this respect, ensuring sustainability of Gender Equality Action Plans and GENOVATE core values and roadmaps beyond the lifetime of the project is a GENOVATE goal in itself. In so doing, a solid, coherent, feasible and adaptable sustainability strategy is seminal not only to safeguard the positive actions taken so far in advancing gender equality, but also in ensuring that further steps will be taken until gender equality is a fact for women and men. To this end, GENOVATE has identified critical intervention areas that need to be closely monitored, evaluated and further developed.
UNIBRAD: GENOVATE Cafés (GENCafés) at both the faculty- and institutional-levels provided a safe space for discussing gender equality issues at UNIBRAD. The continuation of GENCafés will provide a regular opportunity to view progress on gender equality, while supporting consistency in UNIBRAD’s messaging post- GENOVATE. This will also help to clarify the goal of promoting equal opportunities for both men and women, so as to enhance the involvement of male colleagues as allies in gender equality work. In parallel, UNIBRAD has promoted student involvement within its faculties to ensure the sustainability of gender equality change programmes. At present, the project has enabled them to participate in gender equality change activities. Collaboration with the student’s union has ensured their continual support towards maintaining the pipeline.
At the institutional level, the UNIBRAD team worked to translate GENOVATE’s processes, governance and actions into the Athena SWAN framework for the University of Bradford. The team also sought to maintain support for Gender ambassadors, Deans of academic faculties and Directors of the professional services unit. They have joined all gender equality initiatives under the portfolio of the Strategic Advisor for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion, while working closely with HR to promote the use of GENOVATE’s key tools.
UCC: UCC’s sustainability strategy boasts a number of strands. GENOVATE-UCC contributed to the national initiative that successfully brought the Athena SWAN Charter to Ireland. It also contributed to UCC’s successful application for the Athena SWAN Institutional Bronze Award, which commits the university to a new, detailed 3-year GEAP (2016-19). ENOVATE team members will continue to contribute to the university’s Athena SWAN activities. Selected gender equality actions are now reviewed annually as part of UCC’s annual strategic planning, on the recommendation of GENOVATE. Gender equality goals are to be included in the university’s next 5-year Strategic Plan (2017-2022). A post- GENOVATE group of staff has committed to promoting action and research for gender equality in the university by engaging and supporting senior management to translate gender equality commitments into effective actions. To support the university community in promoting gender equality, the GENOVATE HUB has been developed (a collation of GENOVATE@UCC's resources for promoting gender equality on a single platform). The HUB includes tools to support the implementation of selected actions. A public relations professional has been engaged to enhance the profile and visibility of GENOVATE’s work during the final project phase.
At LTU, the GENOVATE Advisory Board members were selected from among the university’s management to ensure a decisive impact at the institutional level. Moreover, close, continuous work with the university’s HR department has sought to promote structural change through the implementation of gender- aware recruitment and promotion processes and a follow-up system. GENOVATE results at LTU will also be used in a national project initiated by the government to mainstream gender in Swedish Higher Education, an initiative that will cover all of Sweden’s universities and colleges.
The integration of a gender dimension in research funding proposals at LTU gained significant of internal and external attention. This trend is now spreading to other schools of LTU, as well as to other universities in Sweden and Europe. At the European-level, gender mainstreaming is being further promoted by EARMA at annual conferences convening some 800 participants, as well as through the establishment of a new EARMA working group on cultures and diversity. The founding members of the new working group are based at Bologna University, LTU and the University of Southern Denmark.
At AU, sustainability has been bolstered through the creation of a Permanent Commission for its Gender Equality Action Plan – as part of its top management; the election of an Equality Coordinator; and the establishment of GECATs in three faculties (Health Science, Educational Science and Veterinary Faculties). In the same vein, AU has sought to ensure the sustainability of gender change by involving stakeholders and networking with other universities. Incorporating “gender equality studies” as a criterion for academic promotion within the AU Promotion and Progress Directive aims to support the centrality of gender equality at the university.
At UNINA, the recently established Gender Observatory is the key element for ensuring the sustainability of gender and diversity change. It focuses on implementing those GEAP activities that have proven especially effective for increasing gender equality in the spheres of academia and research. The Observatory spans four areas: Women’s studies in science and technology; gender and research evaluation; gender budgeting and statistics; and women’s careers in universities and research. Key among these are studies in gender issues in science and technology; the promotion of diversity in scientific excellence; activities for raising awareness of a gender perspective in research; building of academic and scientific networks attune to gender issues in science; and affirmative action to support women’s careers in academia. Sustained efforts will be made to continue updating UNINA’s gender budgeting statistics and to launch a new mentoring programme for women.
TU: Different activities have been carried out at TU to disseminate GENOVATE’s results and ensure their sustainability. For example, to promote the design and development of the Career Development Plan – one of GENOVATE’s main results at TU – the university has engaged in national learning circles; regularly meetings with the Rector and the Institutional Advisory Board; GENOVATE Cafés; and focus groups with stakeholders. However, sustainability has been threatened by the organisation itself. There has been little room for a systematic approach for gender change, and limited space for change in general.
In conclusion, although the kinds of activities engaged in varied according to the partners, all of GENOVATE’s partner institutions boosted stakeholder engagement and effectively networked with other projects and gender experts. These activities are crucial for ensuring ownership of the project and its continued sustainability. Furthermore, most partners promoted or established a structure or mechanism for supporting, revising and/or disseminating their gender equality work. For example, the Permanent Commission for the Gender Equality Action Plan at AU; LTU’s Gender Contact Point; UCC’s annual periodic reporting mechanism; the Gender Observatory at UNINA; and the role of the Strategic Advisor for Equality, Diversity and Inclusion and of senior leaders as champions providing leadership for gender equality at UNIBRAD. These structures are also poised to ensure that GENOVATE’s work will be taken forward.
Cooperation with other projects
Throughout the duration of the project, GENOVATE has continued to enjoy active interaction and collaboration with other gender equality projects including participation in the European Gender Summit and other dissemination platforms both in-country and internationally. GENOVATE has participated in the EU project coordinators and evaluators high-level meetings, participated in Workshops organised by the European Commission for FP7/Horizon2020 structural gender projects such as the STAGES final conference, TRIGGER workshop in Rome, Madrid, Brussels and London. Additionally, whilst GENOVATE intention to run a joint final conference sister projects - FESTA and GARCIA did not come to fruition, the attendance and participation at each other’s conference was significant in promoting future partnerships. GENOVATE has contributed to the final guidelines of the TRIGGER project.
There are also interactions at in-country level such as:
UNIBRAD actively contributed to EU PROGRESS programme project on gender equality in economic decision-making. Working in collaboration with the Society Integration Foundation in Latvia, this cooperation involved UNIBRAD hosting a study visit for 9 academics and students from Latvian higher education institutions in November 2014. UNIBRAD is working with the University of Reading, UK, to act as a test bed for all GENOVATE tools in 2016. This will be evaluated and lessons learnt will be incorporated within our institutional learning processes. UNIBRAD presented at the Gender Summit 5 in South Africa; UNIBRAD provides academic support to the African Women in Leadership; UNIBRAD presented a keynote paper at the workshop on Gender Mainstreaming at the Czech Academy of Sciences in Brno in the Czech Republic. This has led to a further invitation to provide a workshop as part of the Cost Action genderSTE (gender, science, technology and environment) in Vilnius, Lithuania in April 2016.
UCC attended the end-project event of the INTEGER project in Dublin in June 2015, and participated in the FESTA Conference on Transforming STEM Realities in November 2015. UCC also collaborates with members of FESTA and INTEGER through the national Ireland Athena SWAN Committee, and through the National Learning Circle.
LTU team’s cooperation with other projects are as follows Demo of D5.2 Toolkit in the OPTi F2F meeting in Stuttgart, Germany in December 2015; FUI Data centres project kick-off in Luleå, Sweden, November 2015; EARMA working group on cultures and diversity kick-off, November 2015; GENOVATE, OPTi and gender mainstreaming tools presented in ICT2015 EC conference in Lisbon, Portugal in October 2015; EARMA AC in Leiden, the Netherlands, demo of LTU Code of Practice in June 2015; VIT project workshop in May 2015; OPTi kick-off in Luleå, Sweden in April 2015; VIT project workshop in December 2014 and Swedish SiS workshop in December 2014. In addition, LTU team have held monthly meetings with EARMA on the integration of gender perspective in the training programme of EARMA (European Association for Research Managers and Administrators) and 4 meetings with SENJA (Swedish EU Network for Gender Equality in Academia).
AU has had several meetings with EGERA Project in METU and AU. Both projects are exchanging their experiences on gender mainstreaming activities. They are preparing a working document for the Directive for Scientific Research Project Units of all public universities and have extended recommendations to HEI of Turkey.
GENOVATE partners have built lasting relationships and a community of practice, which has led to continuing and sustained partnerships. For example UCC [Nursing team] and UNIBRAD [health team including GENOVATE international director] have jointly won an Erasmus grant to undertake a project to promote diversity-competent simulation based learning in health care curriculum; UCC [GENOVATE and Ocean research team] and UNIBRAD [GENOVATE team] are in consortium which have submitted 2 proposals for SWAFs 8 and 14 respectively, and RRING Responsible Research and Innovation Networked Globally [SWAFs 14] involving 23 partners has successfully been awarded ; there is on-going collaboration between UCC and UNINA around mentoring which led to a UNINA GENOVATE team member’s recent 3-month research visit to UCC to develop a comparative analysis; the UNINA team recently hosted the AU Scientific Coordinator to speak at an international conference “For a Mediterranean network of women researchers” in Naples; GENOVATE partners also continue to work together in writing a number of collaborative articles, drawing on the GENOVATE learning, for submission to international journals '
List of Websites:
Project Website
www.genovate.eu
Project Contact Names
International Director
Uduak Archibong [u.e.archibong@bradford.ac.uk]
UNIBRAD Team
Main contacts: Uduak Archibong [u.e.archibong@bradford.ac.uk] and Kellie Barnes [genovate@bradford.ac.uk]
Other team members: Nazira Karodia, Crina Oltean-Dumbrava, Anita Sargeant, Peter Hopkinson, Jeremy Bulmer, Saima Rifet, Aishih Webhe-Hererra, Nayyara Tabassum, Angela Srivastava, Juliet Maynard, Julie Smith
Interns: Sean Whiley, Jake Indriks, Jonathan Stoker, Zahraa Nazir, Maadiya Khan, Dragos Pascu, Eleni Elezi, Sadia Younas, Sabo Dagona
UCC Team
Main contact: Caitriona Ni Laoire
Other team members: Nicola Maxwell, Sarah M Field, Geraldine Boylan, Linda Connolly, Siobhan Cusack, Louise Kenny, Carol Linehan, Irene Lynch-Fannon, Siobhan Mullally, Aifric O Grada, Siobhan O’Brien, Christine Looney
LTU Team
Main contacts: Paula Wennberg and Ylva Faltholm
Other team members: Mikael Börjeson, Jan-Olov Johansson, Michael Nilsson, Annika Sallstrom, Maria Udén, Carina Mattsson, Eva Gunnarsson
AU Team
Main contact: Çiler Dursun
Other team members: Emel Memişoğlu, Ruken Öztürk, Güzin Evliyaoğlu, Bedriye Poyraz, Sema Becerikli, Murat Çınar, Yelda Usupbeyli; Mustafa Sever
UNINA Team
Main contact: Ofelia Pisanti
Other team members: Ilenia Picardi, Antonella Liccardo, Maria Carmela Agodi, Francesca Dall’Acqua, Giuliana Fiorillo, Guglielmo Tamburrini, Emilio Balzano, Anna Merinio, Giorgia Borrelli.
TU Team
Main contact: Alexandra Brazinova,
Other team members: Daniela Kallayova, Andrej Kallay, Miriam Slana, Michaela Hromkova, Zuzana Polakovičová, Monica O’Mullane
UCM Team
Main contact: Maria Bustelo
Other team members: Julia Espinosa, Maria Velasco
