RRI Tools

The vision

The CALIPER project supports 7 RPOs and 2 RFOs in 7 countries across Europe (Belgium, Croatia, Italy, Georgia, Greece, Romania, Slovakia, Spain, Turkey), that are in an initial stage on gender equality improvement, to develop Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) and engage the local Innovation Hubs to transfer the gained knowledge beyond academia.

The project goal is to make research organizations more gender equal by increasing the number of female researchers in STEM, improving their careers prospects and integrating a gender dimension in research.

The project´s vision is to enhance the gender balance in STEM fields and promote a greater engagement of female researchers with research and innovation, contributing to the ERA priorities on Gender Equality and stimulating a dialogue and collaboration between academia, public authorities, professionals and industry players in order to tackle gender inequalities across the research- transfer-to-market chain.

• Remove barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers
• Integrate the gender dimension in research and innovation content, improving the quality and societal relevance of produced knowledge, technologies and innovations
• Improve the gender balance in decision-making bodies

The approach

The European Commission has refined policies on gender equality in Scientific and Technological Research along the years. Recently the focus has been shifted towards targeting RPOs and RFOs to take the lead and be held responsible for gender equality, by promoting and implementing structural changes through gender mainstreaming measures and positive actions integrated in comprehensive actions plans (GEPS) approved and supported by research institutions. The European Commission is pursuing the goal of embedding gender equality in research and innovation which is still recognized as a policy priority in the Gender Equality Strategy 2016-2020.

Research has argued that gender inequality in workplaces is more and more taking place in subtle ways: the phenomenon of the so called ‘gender fatigue’ is shaping new forms of resistances towards gender equality measures, especially from the management side when confronted with demand to implement dedicated policies. Also, a recent paper conducted in 2018 by LERU (League of European Research Universities) stresses the role of management of research organizations and the much-needed commitment and accountability towards gender equality from the management side to be sustained by thorough monitoring and evaluation. 

The CALIPER project intends to tackle these challenges promoting structural changes through a change management methodology strongly focused on engaging with a quadruple helix innovation ecosystem in the regional/national context of each RPO and RFO involved in the Project. Thus, CALIPER seeks to complement internal change actions with opening the gender equality agenda to broader synergies.

Applying the quadruple helix approach, CALIPER will stimulate dialogue and collaboration between academia, public authorities, professionals and industry players in order to tackle gender inequalities across the research- transfer-to-market pipeline.

You can download the project´s leaflet from here

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------