Development of Gender Equality Plans at universities and research performing organisations

The objective of PLOTINA was to enable the development, implementation, and assessment of self-tailored Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) at universities and other Research Performing Organizations (RPOs) with innovative and sustainable strategies.

This objective was to be achieved by: 

• Stimulating a gender-aware culture change
• Promoting career-development of both female and male researchers to prevent the waste of talent, particularly for women
• Ensuring diversification of views and methodologies (in this case by taking into account the gender/sex dimension and analysis) in research and teaching

The results of this intervention have been be a set of modular and adaptable resources for other research organisations at the starting stage in the setting up of GEPs, in particular: Gender Equality Tools, Gender Equality Library of Actions, research and teaching case studies and Good Practices. Strongly aligned with European Research Area (ERA) objectives on gender equality, PLOTINA contributes to increase the number of female researchers, promotes their careers and integrates the gender dimension into the design, evaluation and implementation of research to enhance its quality and relevance, and to foster excellence and the social value of innovations.

The work was structured along the following stages: 
i)    Assessment of  the current situation of gender equality in all partnering universities and research organisations
ii)    Development of tailored Gender Equality Plans at each university and research organisation
iii)    Implementation and evaluation of the agreed upon actions in the partnering RPOs addressing the targets of the Gender Equality Plans
iv)    Creation of a platform of resources that can be used by RPOs across Europe to implement their own Gender Equality Plans suited to their own situations

The results are available on the project website: https://www.plotina.eu. The Gender Equality Actions now support systemic and sustainable changes at the institutional and departmental level of PLOTINA’s participating universities and research organisations.

PLOTINA ended in January 2020 with a final conference and was also highlighted in the SWAFS achievements and recommendations report 2020 of the European Commission (see SWAFS achievements and recommendations report 2020 and the SWAFS report 2020 Gender equality, were a paragraph is devoted to PLOTINA project).

Regarding PLOTINA, the EC points out that

“the project produced a curated repository listing potential actions RPOs can consider to enhance gender equality, analyses of case studies as well as a glossary of gender equality-related terms. PLOTINA’s main achievements are its toolkits: step-by-step guides on how to carry out a Gender Audit, how to design a GEP, how to implement it, how to monitor the GEP’s progress and ensure its upkeep. The project was also flagged by the Commission as a success story with remarkable dissemination outputs including a video to provide guidance on how to counteract unconscious gender biases in the evaluation and recruitment of professors and researchers”.

Team:

• Magª. Maria Schwarz-Woelzl (project leader)
• Ing. Bernhard Bauch
• Ingmar Karner
• Kay Kollmann, BSc.
• Magª. Martina Lindorfer
• Dr. Magª. ilse Marschalek
• Mag. Dr. Klaus Schuch
• Mag. Helmut Gassler (on educational leave)
• Wolfgang Haider, MA BA
• Nela Šalamon, B.Sc.
• Dr. Johannes Simon
• Stefanie Stadlober

Section: Technology and Knowledge

Partners:

• Centro Studi Progetto Donna e Diversity MGMT
• Elhuyar-Zubize SL
• Instituto Superior de Economia e Gestao
• Jump Forum SPRL
• Kemijski Institut
• Mondragon Unibertsitatea
• Ozyegin Universitesi
• University of Warwick
• University of Bologna (Coordinator)

Related Articles:

• News: Gender in der Wissenschaft und Forschung an fünf Universitäten
• News: PLOTINA – Presseaussendung No2 erschienen
• News: Call for applications - Peer Reviewers for Gender Equality Plans
• News: PLOTINA in a nutshell - watch the video to learn about the project
• News: Subscribe to the newsletter of the PLOTINA project
• News: Training in Bologna: Integrating Sex and Gender in Scientific Journals
• News: PLOTINA Projekt: Förderung von Gender-Inklusion in Forschung und Lehre
• News: Praktikumsstelle ausgeschrieben
• News: How to monitor Gender Equality Plans of Universities?
• News: Happy International Day of Women and Girls in Science
• Event: Regendering Science. For an inclusive research environment
• News: ReGendering Science: e-Book of Abstracts published
• Project: Gender Equality Plan at the University of Banja Luka
• Publication: Promoting gender balance and inclusion in R&I and training - Final Evaluation Report

Tags: evaluation, gender, research management