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Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - R-I PEERS (Pilot experiences for improving gender equality in research organisations)

Teaser

Summary

The R&I PEERS â€œPilot Experiences for Improving Gender Equality in Research Organisationsâ€ is a Horizon 2020 project based on the concept of gender equality, that can be expressed as â€œwomen 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 resultsâ€, as stated in the GA. The R&I PEERS 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 main objectives are:
1. Implementation and improvement of 7 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 proposal aims at realizing and providing a double vision of equality (increasing the numbers of women in decision making positions throughout the 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). Dissemination and exploitation plans of the project results will then ensure the sustainability of the action after the ending of the H2020 project.
The R-I PEERS project is expected to have a direct impact across 6 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: RPOs, researchers and research communities; 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 will address the three objectives through the following main 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 the tele-work;
- Addressing gender imbalances in decision-making processes through strategies such as the establishment of new rules for the election and selection of members in decision-making bodies;2028
- Strengthening the gender dimension in research programmes supporting the introduction of content about gender equality issue in the courses and higher education.

Inequality between the genders does not just threatens individuals â€“ 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.

Work performed

The main results achieved so far, from the beginning of the project, are:
-Thirteen (13) deliverables were submitted to the EC officer via participant portal;
-The development of the R&I PEERS logo;
-The development of the Peers Community Platform, which is continuously updated with documents;
-7 GEPs have been launched and approved (the approval procedure ended in April 2019) in 5 RPOs (partners UNISA, CNTI, NANOGUNE, MIGAL, ZRC SAZU) and 2 RFOs (partners ANPR, GSGE), characterised by slightly different needs and approaches facing the gender equality issues, thus pursuing the first of the three objectives mentioned above.
-the creation of the RIPGEP, an online tool for collecting the data and monitoring the status of the GEPs and their implementation, available at the link http://150.146.131.139/

Final results

During the first 15 months of the project, the R&I PEERS made concrete progress towards achieving its objectives. In fact, all the seven work packages have been launched and are operational, apart the WP 3, which terminated its tasks at M5. WP 3 set the foundation for a successful implementation of GEPs in seven piloting partner organisations, providing a vital starting point for the rest of the work.
During this period, the seven GEPs have been approved by all partner organisations. This is an important factor that shows their intentions to include the gender equality policies within their instruments of governance. Now it is necessary that the objectives of the GEPs are transformed into concrete actions, that must be carried out even when the R&I PEERS project ends.
It is an approval that demands a continuous monitoring of the actions listed in the GEPs and a constant involvement of human and financial resources. Diversified activities have been carried out by each partner to encourage a culture based on gender equality. All these actions need the will of a group of people who works for improving them and for the creation of a network among organisations, private and public institutions present in the neighbouring territory, as it is currently happening in some partners of the consortium.
Our consortium presents itself as a heterogeneous but well-assembled group, where some organizational structures are public and large, others private and small; where some of them had already been working in the field of gender equality before the beginning of this project, while others have approached it for the first time through R&I PEERS. But this project represents for each one of the 10 partners an essential chance for spreading and improving gender equality. Working together has shown that the diversity among the partners has turned out to be a powerful point of strength, that encouraged, from the very beginning of the project, a lively debate and an exchange of ideas, opinions and experiences. Although being different organizational structures, the partners share a common ground, that is gradually disrupting the gender stereotypes. R&I PEERS created empathy among the partners because we all like and believe in this project.
For the upcoming months of the second period, we hope that this exchange of opinions and best practices among all the partners becomes richer and richer, in order to create a more efficient common methodology of work, to reach, step by step, our objectives.