At the 3rd meeting of the International Board of Scientific Advisors for STAGES project, that took place in Rome on 27 January 2015 (from 9:00 to 16:30), the progress of the Action Plans and the strategies of sustainability after the end of the project have been presented by the STAGES partners. Prof. Dr. Doina Balahur. team leader of WP4, made a presentation of the UAIC-STAGES project progress and activities underlining that the process of developing the UAIC's self-tailored AP and the permanent reflective activity that accompanied its implementation have been synthetized in a new model of structural changes to achieve gender equality in science called Fixing the transformative and formative praxis (FTFP-model). According to the new strategic model (FTFP), the actions could be differentiated, by objectives priority and concerned areas, in the following categories: 1) Actions for setting up new organizational structures able to sustain the introduction of gender equality in science on the institutional agenda; 2) Actions for enhancing organizational awareness on GES and increasing the visibility of women academics and researchers; 3) Actions programmes for improving women's participation in academia and research; 4) Action Research for fostering gender balance in research and gendered content of science; 5) Actions for international networking with academic and scientific community of gender experts; 6) Actions for sustainability/developing of UAIC's GES programme. At the IBSA meeting the final guidelines of the STAGES project have been presented by Doina Balahur (UAIC) and Inge Bleijenbergh (Radbound University). The members of IBSA made suggestions especially aiming at better capturing the diversity of experiences covered by each item.

On the 26th of January, Prof. Dr. Doina Balahur, the UAIC-STAGES coordinator, and Drd. Petronela Munteanu, member of the team, have participated at the Steering Committee of the STAGES project that has been organized in Rome, at the Hotel Ariston, from 9:00 to 18:00. The meeting agenda focused on the priorities of the project like the second progress report and also on other reports that have to be produced in 2015 (evaluation reports, sustainability plans, research report etc.). An important issue debated referred to the final product named "Guidelines", that have to be produced by the STAGES project partners based on the activities and real transformations generated by each self-tailored Action Plan implemented in the 5 Universities and Research Institute which constituted the consortium of this European project.

The STAGES team leaders of the organizations involved in the project presented their "Action plans. Progress and results" and talked about the cross-cutting issues emerging from the implementation of the action plans, such as "Networks for women, women in networks" and "Programmes for gender equality in science". The IBSA members have also commented on these themes.

A new meeting of the STAGES Steering Committee was the opportunity for the participants – team leaders and other representatives of the organizations involved in the Project – to have discussions on the current tasks of different Work Packages (WP) and their future plans.

The second meeting of the STAGES consortium took place at Rome (at the International Affairs Office of the Department for Equal Opportunities/ DPO, the Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers). According to the before established agenda, the participants discussed the current tasks of their Action Plans and other issues of the different Work Packages (WPs) of the STAGES project.

At the first meeting of the STAGES International Board of the Scientific Advisors, held in Rome (at the International Affairs Office of the Department for Equal Opportunities/ DPO, the Italian Presidency of the Council of Ministers), the issues and the challenges of the project have been discussed both by the team leaders from the research organisations that are partners in the STAGES project and the international experts who have been associated as scientific advisors.

The kick-off meeting of the STAGES consortium, held in Rome, brought together the team leaders and other representatives of the 7 organisations involved in the STAGES project who presented their institutions and the correspondent Action Plans as well as the common activities foreseen by the Work Packages.