8 – 10 June 2022 marked the kick-off of a new EU Horizon Europe project GENDERACTIONplus hosted by the Institute of Sociology of the Czech Academy of Sciences in Prague, Czech Republic.
The consortium consisting of 26 organisations from 21 European countries will, in line with the new ERA Policy Agenda, focus on five thematic areas, including gender based violence in academia and inclusiveness and intersectionality with other diversity categories and potential grounds for discrimination, such as ethnicity, disability or LGBTQI+.
The overall goal of GENDERACTIONplus is to contribute to advancing gender equality in the European Research Area through capacity building, policy exchange and coordination, as well as the provision of strategic policy advice. Through these activities the project will contribute to supporting GE policy coordination and integration in the new ERA. To organise this work, two Communities of Practice will be created, one consisting of representatives of national authorities and the other of representatives of Research Funding Organisations.
The five thematic areas that the project will address are:
1) intersectionality and inclusiveness;
2) gender-based violence in academia;
3) the gender dimension in R&I;
4) the monitoring of gender equality actions at the Member State level in the new ERA, including the development of a monitoring mechanism and indicators;
5) the development of a system for monitoring and evaluating the implementation and impact of gender equality plans (GEPs) as the main instrument to promote inclusive institutional changes in the new ERA.
“It is vital that gender equality continues to be one of the priorities in the new European Research Area. We have seen major advances at the policy level in the EU overall and in some European countries in recent years but we also know we can do better. Gender based violence and sexual harassment continue to be a major problem, and we need to develop better tools to address intersectionality and diversity. Another important issue is the monitoring and evaluation of gender equality plans, and their impact, since they are now an eligibility criterion for Horizon Europe. This is a great opportunity to advance on all these topics in a great and motivated European consortium,” said Project Coordinator Marcela Linkova, Institute of Sociology of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic.
As a partner in the consortium, VA will be responsible for managing citizen and stakeholder engagement across the project.
“VA is excited to be part of this huge collaborative project, the scale and ambition of which has a real opportunity to make considerable impact at both European and national level. We have many years of experience of citizen and stakeholder engagement gained through both national and international projects and look forward to working closely with the other partners to embed these activities within the project,” said Maria Hagardt, International Relations & Communications Manager at VA (Public & Science).
