Hypatia

Project Information

Hypatia

Grant agreement ID: 665566

DOI

10.3030/665566

Project closed

EC signature date 28 July 2015

Start date 1 August 2015

End date 31 July 2018

Funded under

• Promote gender equality in particular by supporting structural change in the organisation of research institutions and in the content and design of research activities

Total cost

€ 1 571 218,75

EU contribution

€ 1 499 693,25

Coordinated by

STICHTING NEMO SCIENCE MUSEUM
Netherlands

Periodic Reporting for period 2 - Hypatia (Hypatia)

Reporting period: 2016-11-01 to 2018-07-31

Summary of the context and overall objectives of the project

Research shows that the way sciences are communicated to youth, in and out of school, is not yet gender inclusive. Young Europeans, both girls and boys, still have very little idea of the variety of careers that are possible in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), and the skills that are relevant for those career pathways. In the coming years, with Europe’s knowledge economy developing and new technologies on the rise, skills in STEM will be needed for a broader range of careers than ever before.
The vision of Hypatia is a European society that communicates science to youth in a gender inclusive way in order to realise the full potential of girls and boys around Europe to follow STEM related careers.
Hypatia aimed to:
• Foster partnerships among schools, museums and science centres and industries and offer gender inclusive STEM education to young people
• Actively expose young people and especially girls to the variety of STEM related careers.
• Encourage young people to open up their horizons and expect everything from the field of STEM
To fulfil its mission Hypatia has prepared the following instruments:
• Guidelines for schools, museums and industries on gender inclusion
• Ready to use activities for schools, museums and industries that incorporate gender inclusion (Toolkit)
• Dialogue among policy makers, industry and school decision makers on the issue of gender inclusion ( Hypatia Hubs)
• Pan European campaign for and with young people focusing on gender inclusion and career paths in STEM ( ExpectEverything Campaign and Youth Editorial Boards )
• Provide renewed gender inclusion criteria

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

WP1 leader has led the coordination and management mechanisms of the project and has produced periodic and final reports. The coordinator has also organised two Consortium meetings attended by all partners including Third Parties. The external evaluators produced the evaluation strategy and the final evaluation report.
WP2 leader produced with the support of all partners, the Advisory Board and the Gender Panel the Hypatia institutional guidelines. These guidelines give concrete suggestions for building institutional capacity for gender inclusion and are directed towards museums, schools and industries/research centres.
WP3 leader has adapted the guide for partners on how to set up their National Hubs addressing the differences among individual organisations and networks in a national level. In the corresponding period 14 countries operated Hub meetings and youth panel meetings. Each country has produced a Local Action Plan that includes information on how gender inclusion can be integrated into STEM communication on a national level giving concrete information on the plans that each partner has for the future. a European Action Plan has also been produced.
WP4 has overseen the work needed for the publication of the toolkit on the Hypatia website. MUST as WP4 leader in collaboration with UCPH has also made an in-depth analysis of the feedback gathered during the pilot phase of the toolkit development and has shared the outcomes of the study with all project partners. The Hypatia toolkit was on time published on the project website, available in all project countries.
More than 1,200 head teachers and education decision makers from 14 countries participated in the Hypatia Seminars as part of WP5 implementation going well beyond the original expected numbers. The implementation of the Hypatia modules took place in museums, schools and industry/research settings reaching out to 500,000 teenagers in school settings, 65,000 teenagers in informal education settings and 40,000 teenagers in industry related activities.
The combined dissemination efforts of all Hypatia partners reached during this period 15 million interactions around the world and did more than 2673 dissemination actions.. Hypatia produced newsletters, led social campaigns on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, supported the Youth Editorial Boards from all partner countries and participated in events across Europe and beyond.

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

Hypatia has promoted a new concept approaching gender in science education that promotes gender equality as a whole and acknowledges the differences among people even of the same biological sex. It advocated about the importance of organisations looking first at their own stereotypes and acknowledges the fact that science is gendered. The project aimed to bring an institutional campaign on gender and has implemented Hubs containing a diverse number of stakeholders in 14 countries. It has involved in co-development mechanisms teenagers and external organisations in all its different aspects from development to implementation and dissemination.
One of the Hypatia original aims was to contribute into changing the way science is communicated.
Hypatia created 19 modules with ready made activities promoting gender inclusion available in 14 different languages in culturally adapted versions. It produced guidelines on facilitation and on gender tailored to different settings and expertise and used as vehicles the Hypatia Hub members to bring them across the partner countries. It addressed the topic of communicating science in different levels from the individual to the interactional, the institutional as well as the cultural level.
A second aim of the project was to contribute into increasing the participation and interest of girls in STEM
The Hypatia modules implemented throughout Europe reached out to more than 1200 head teachers and 600,000 teenagers. The EE campaign engaged teenagers in 14 countries directly via the youth editorial boards and via social media. The project activities challenged teenagers across Europe as well as their educators to critically look at gender stereotypes on STEM, to open up their ideas on career opportunities within the STEM fields and to Expect Everything from their future.
Hypatia aimed to encourage sustainable collaboration among schools, science museums, research centres on gender equality and science
The hubs were set from the beginning to ensure a long-term collaboration. The Local Action Plans all countries have produced have set the way on the project sustainability. the connections made with ministries of education resulted in Hypatia modules being officially recommended as educational resources, the collaborations with industries changed the way they are setting their educational projects and the implementation of Hypatia in the museums resulted in numerous cases in internal trainings and integration of gender guidelines in museum exhibitions and all new programmes.
The project has contributed towards European Research Area objectives by giving a different perspective on STEM careers and by engaging both boys and girls thus contributing to the increase of future female researchers.
Contribute to the Innovation Union Objectives
Discovering young people’s skills in relation to current and future STEM careers is a particular focus of the project with a direct relevance to gender. A set of activities are directly devoted to this. The EE campaign has had a special focus on the stem professions and skills and competences young people need to gain in order to follow science related careers as well as certain Hypatia modules.

Hypatia European Stakholders Event Brussels 2016

Hypatia National Hub meeting UK

Hypatia youth editorial Board NL

Hypatia Activities