On the 28 April, at the first Senate meeting after the recent elections for the management bodies at the UAIC, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Luminita Bejenaru, from the Faculty of Biology, Deputy Director of the UAIC Centre for Gender Equality in Science (CGES), has been re-elected as President of the Senate Commission on Academic studies and programmes as well as a member in the Management Board of the Senate. This way Prof. Luminita Bejenaru, who is a prestigious scientific personality, awarded in 2014 with the Women's Annual Science and Technology Excellence Award, and also an active promotor of the programme for gender equality in science at the UAIC, will continue to represent the Network of Women in Academia and Research in the Senate of the "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University and to contribute to the advancement of the initiatives and activities of the Centre for Gender Equality in Science for fostering gender equality in our university.

The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) organised an online discussion taking place on EuroGender on the 28th of April 2016. The consultation, attended by more than 50 gender experts involved in European projects on gender equality in science, aimed at collecting insights on the test version of EIGE's online step-by-step guide for developing and implementing gender equality plans in Research and Higher Education Institutions. EIGE has developed the online tool based on research carried out in the 28 EU Member States, along with other participatory consultation processes. Prof. Dr. Doina Balahur, the UAIC-STAGES coordinator, took part at the debate and contributed to the content of this tool with examples of good practices resulted from own practical experience of implementing the STAGES project at the UAIC (see link). These practices are cited several times in the EIGE's Guide, as for example "A practice to award and ensure greater visibility for women researchers (RO)" (at link), or other direct mentions on communication strategy (at link).

The EC’s policy documents concerning European Research Area consistently recommends to the EC’s institutions as well as to the national authorities responsible with science and innovation to consider the objectives of gender equality in science as a priority for the research development and competitiveness. In this respect, the main directions for concrete actions have been identified as: fostering gender balance in research teams; ensuring gender balance in research evaluation and decision-making bodies; and integrating gender/sex analysis in research and innovation (R&I) content, to help improve the scientific quality and societal relevance of the produced knowledge, technology and/or innovation. Such objectives are part of the Commission’s provisions for the implementation of Horizon 2020 (the EU funding programme for Research & Innovation) and are integrated at each stage of the Research and Innovation cycle. Based on the experience gained as a participant in the FP7 Project STAGES, the UAIC team promoted the gender equality principles in its cooperation with the national agencies and the Ministry of Education and provided expertise on how gender equality issues are observed in gender statistics and in the national research programmes and projects. Therefore, we are glad to mention that recent documents of the national agencies explicitly introduced gender equality objectives and criteria in research programmes. For example, the Executive Agency for Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation Funding (UEFISCDI) has recently released the National Research, Development and Innovation Plan (PN III) for the period 2015-2020. On this occasion a new dimension, explicitly addressing gender equality in science, has been added both in the programmes and in the project application. According to this document: "Equal opportunities and gender equality will be assured for all the participants both at the level of programme and project’s implementation according to the national regulations and European practices". It is also mentioned that: "The Project Managers have to take all the measures in order to promote equal opportunities between men and women within the process of elaboration and implementation of the application /project. These have to aim, as far as possible, the balance between women and men for all the positions foreseen in the application request/project including the management ones".

Since 2007, due to a generous private initiative, the Battaglia Family and the Association "ALBA" from Rome offered study grants for Romanian scholars who want to extend their knowledge and specialization in Italian language and culture. By far 21 such grants have been offered for studies at the University of Perugia and Sapienza University of Rome. This year two students of the Faculty of Letters, Alexandra Matei and Ioan Juncu, have been awarded with this grant by Daniele Battaglia, the director of the Italian Association.

On 26 May 2016, Prof. Dr. Doina Balahur and Ph.D. student Petronela Munteanu have attended the Conference organized by the COST project "Intergenerational family support across Europe" at the Catholic University of Sacred Heart, Milan, Italy, and presented the paper "Work-life balance strategies and the circulation of elites. Case studies in Romania's academia and research". On this occasion, Prof. Doina Balahur has presented the UAIC-STAGES project and its main achievements on structural change to achieve gender equality in science.

Our University has been awarded within the national event-competition "Romanian Outsourcing Awards for Excellence 2016", second edition, organised by Outsourcing Today, a national communication platform for business services sector, under the aegis The Diplomat – Bucharest. The UAIC has been nominated at the category the "Best Academic Program of the Year" and was awarded for the project Bring IT on!, run by the Computer Science Faculty since 2010. (more info at link). Receiving this award, Associate Prof. Dr. Corina Forascu, manager of the project, has declared that the project Bring it on! pursues to promote informational technologies developed in academic research to be applied in partnerships with industry and business sector. Professor Corina Forascu is a member of the UAIC Network of Women in Academia and Research and also a member of the Scientific Committee of the UAIC Centre for Gender Equality in Science, and, in 2014, she has been awarded by the UAIC-STAGES project with the Women’s Annual Science and Technology Excellence Award for her scientific achievements.

The programme "L'OREAL-UNESCO awards for women in science" is already known as a national competition for grants that aims to stimulate young female researchers on their career development. It is adressed to women scientists under 35, who are either PhD students or post-doctoral researchers within a Romanian higher education institution. Even if annualy only 2 grants are funded for the two sections – Life Sciences and Physics Sciences, the number of applications increased from one to another edition, this year, at the 7th edition, being registred 87 applications, with 55% more than in the previous edition. Dr. Lavinia Petronela Curecheriu, from the Faculty of Physics, has participated at this scientific competition and has been selected among the finalists, at the section "Physics Sciences", being awarded with a Diploma that recognises the scientific merit of her application.

The European Commission, Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD), is currently carrying out an evaluation of the implementation, results and wider impacts of the Science and/in Society projects and activities in Framework Programmes 6 and 7 (FP6 and FP7). In this context, Prof. Dr. Doina Balahur, the UAIC's team coordinator for the FP7 STAGES project, has been invited to participate, as a 'key informant', at the data collection for a study aiming to provide "an exhaustive review (stock taking) and a thorough analysis (meta-analysis) of all activities funded under FP6 Science and Society and FP7 Science in Society". As expressed in the invitation letter, signed by Ms. Ana Arana-Antelo, Head of Unit B7 - Science with and for Society, “The study findings are intended to serve as evidence base on the impact of Science and/in Society projects and programmes as a whole, and in particular with regard to the stated objectives of the programmes: to improve the relationship between science and society” and “will also contribute to the current reflection on the development and implementation of Science with and for Society (SWAFS) in Horizon 2020, and of Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), including Gender cross-cutting actions”. To carry out this study, some evaluation institutions have been commissioned, namely Ernst & Young (EY) in consortium with Open Evidence and the Wuppertal Institute. Professor Doina Balahur filled in the online survey by providing information needed for data collection, and also shared lessons learned by expressing opinions on the relevance and effectiveness of Science and/in Society projects based on direct experience of the STAGES implementation.

Like every year, the graduation ceremony for students who completed their MA degree in Sociology included an open course on career development. As the coordinator of the Master programmes, Prof. Dr. Doina Balahur presented several perspectives of professional development for the people who want to continue study and research. She referred to the possibility to candidate at the Doctoral School and to continue research, at an upper level, in the generous field of Gender Equality in Science and Gender in Responsible Research and Innovation. In context, Professor remarked that most of the graduate students in this generation attended the public events organized by the UAIC-STAGES project, growing professionally in a climate where gender equality discourse and practice were present in the everyday academic life. At the event has been also invited Ms. Niculina Karacsony, Director of the Direction of Social Work from Iasi.

As coordinator of the UAIC-STAGES project, Prof. Dr. Doina Balahur has been selected to participate at a survey-based study aiming to assess the added value of current and previous EU Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation, funded by the European Commission. The invitation letter, signed by Mr. Kurt Vandenberghe, Director - Policy Development and Coordination, at the Directorate General for Research & Innovation, mentioned that: “The EU added value of the Framework Programmes for Research and Innovation is the additional value resulting from the Programmes over what could be achieved only at national and/or regional levels. It is a key concept for evidence-based policymaking in the EU and a mandatory criterion for evaluating the Framework Programmes”. The study managed by an external contractor, Public Policy and Management Institute (PPMI), will contribute to the forthcoming Interim Evaluation of Horizon 2020, that, in turn, so as it is specified, “will play an important role in discussions on the allocation of the EU budget, as well as the design of future EU funding for research and innovation”.

The European Commission is monitoring the ERASMUS programme for international exchanges of students by publishing annual statistics concerning higher education institutions that send students to study abroad within the frame of grants mobility opportunities offered through this European Funding Programme. In the latest published Top 500 higher education institutions sending Erasmus students, UAIC is ranked on the 51th place out of a total of 3500 universities participants at the ERASMUS programme. Our institution is the first among Romanian universities, with 665 students who benefitted from EU grants to study or train abroad on the period 2013-2014. (see link). Based on the performances in the previous years, the UAIC will receive for the academic year 2016-2017 a grant of 2,75 million Euro – the greatest at the national level - for funding ERASMUS+ stages in European higher institutions for its students.