Gender Equality through Science with and for Society
Within Horizon 2020, the aim of the "Science with and for Society" (SwafS) programme is to foster projects on gender equality. This has led to several initiatives with important impacts on the European RDI landscape. It is to be hoped that such projects will also be funded under Horizon Europe, the next EU Framework Programme.
Projects funded under SwafS have led to the implementation of gender equality plans in dozens of European research institutions. Issues such as the impact of gender diversity on RDI and gender gaps in the allocation of grants have been and are currently being analysed by various research consortia.
In Switzerland, the Friedrich Miescher Institute for Biomedical Research participated in the LIBRA project, which involved research institutes from 10 countries. LIBRA aimed to increase leadership positions of women in the life sciences. It also dealt with the sex and gender dimension in the research process itself, an issue that has often been overlooked in the past.
Another success story comes from the University of Geneva. Its Department of Theoretical Physics was part of the GENERA project, which helped foster gender equality in physics research. GENERA not only focused on academic institutions but also took into account secondary schools. Furthermore, it was a good example for cross-fertilisation within Horizon 2020, as its network served as a testbed for a new project on communities of practice in gender research.
It is currently unclear if and how similar initiatives will be funded under Horizon Europe, the upcoming Framework Programme (2021–2027). Therefore, researchers and other stakeholders should make the best use of the last Horizon 2020 SwafS call for proposals, with a deadline in April 2020.
Joël Graf, National Contact Point
