The R&I PEERS “Pilot Experiences for Improving Gender Equality in Research Organisations” is a Horizon 2020 (H2020) project based on the concept of gender equality, expressed as women and men enjoy the same status and have equal opportunity to realize their full human rights and potential to contribute to national, political, economic, social and cultural development, and to benefit from the results. The project aims at creating and validating pilot experiences in order to disrupt the gender-biased approach and those unconscious rules that limit the participation and the career of women in research and innovation in the Mediterranean Area.
The project objectives are:
1. Implementation and improvement of 7 Gender Equality Plans (GEPs);
2. Smooth the gap of gender representation in decision-making and research-performing processes;
3. Maximise the impact and the efficacy of gender content into the research programmes.
The project aims at realizing and providing a double vision of equality (increasing the numbers of women in decision making positions throughout the Research & Innovation (R&I) system will reduce the waste of European talents and opportunity (providing support to the R&I entrepreneurship based on more effective deployment female human capital, hence offering an important competitive advantage for strengthening the scientific endeavour).
The R-I PEERS project is expected to have a direct impact across 6 European Union (EU) states and 1 associated country through its partners and indirect impact on all 29 EU states as well as on Sub-Mediterranean countries through awareness activities.
The impact will be towards the following target groups: Research Performing Organisations (RPOs), researchers and research communities; Research Funding Organisations (RFOs) and policy makers at local, regional, national and European level within the fields of gender equity issue and equality in R&I; social business and social-based industries carrying out research and funding research based on women entrepreneurship and gender equity.
The R&I PEERS aims at increasing the number of RPOs and RFOs starting to implement GEPs.
All the partners are addressing the three objectives through the following actions, proposed in their GEPs:
- Removing barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers, through actions such as the preservation of the salary of women during the maternity leave; the introduction of the parental leave; the improving of smart-working;
- Addressing gender imbalances in decision-making processes through strategies such as the establishment of new rules for the election and selection of members;
- Strengthening the gender dimension in research programmes supporting the introduction of contents about gender equality issue in academic courses and higher education.
Inequality between the genders does not just threatens individuals – it also has a very negative influence on global economies. No society can develop, economically, politically and socially, if women are marginalised. Hence, reaching gender equality is very important for our society; it benefits everyone and it is deeply linked to sustainable development, which is why it has been nominated as the Unites Nations Sustainable Development Goal (UN SDG) number five. Gender equality is indispensable for the realization of human rights for all. The overall objective of gender equality is a society in which women and men enjoy the same opportunities, rights and obligations in all spheres of life.
