Over the last four years, GENDERACTION has worked actively to mainstream gender in research and innovation policies in the European Union, to coordinate advice on gender equality policy in the EU, to build capacity to foster gender equality in research and innovation, and to network across the EU and beyond. We have succeeded in becoming one of the main advocates for gender equality in European Research and Innovation policy, delivering more than 50 specific recommendations. We have engaged in fruitful discussions with the European Commission, the European Parliament, and Council Presidencies, as well as other stakeholders and institutions.
In the area of policy-making, we have identified the core elements that go into ensuring a robust process of policy-making on gender equality in the European Research Area. We have shown how important it is to monitor and evaluate policy implementation. We have also delivered evidence showing that careful attention must be paid to defining indicators in order to assess progress.
Our mutual learning activities have proved to be an excellent tool for sharing knowledge, increasing the professionalisation of our work, and learning from each other. Through our workshops, we have raised awareness of gender-equality issues in research and innovation among more than 500 people working in various fields of research and innovation.
We have developed messages to better include gender equality in the new European research-funding programme, Horizon Europe. We have successfully mobilised the greater community to join public consultations and show support for our proposals. Our policy briefs were translated into seven national languages and distributed to member states at the national level.
We have also identified new areas for mainstreaming gender. First, our analyses indicate that the Open Science policy and, to a lesser degree, the Open Innovation policy remain gender-blind, and have made proposals for addressing gender aspects this policy. We have advanced work on gender equality in international cooperation in science, technology, and innovation, and we have delivered recommendations on how to achieve this, including a concrete checklist that responsible bodies can use to ensure that new policies and agreements address gender issues. We have been successful in forming ties with gender and science organisations in third countries. Together with them, we have developed recommendations for the European Commission and other stakeholders.
Through our sustained and active advocacy, many of our recommendations have been taken up and put into practice. We at GENDERACTION are very happy that our policy briefs have been recognised by the European Commission as one of the most important contributions to gender equality in Horizon 2020.
