The 8th Deliverable prepared by UAIC-STAGES team for the European Commission, DG Research and Innovation, had the subject the documentary exhibition “UAIC – A Place for Women in Science”. The material describes the concept of the exhibition, its rationale and objectives, organization and structure. There are also presented the location, the exhibition design and the event advertising, the content of the exhibition panels, the stands arrangement, varnishing event, visiting program, press mentions and estimated visitors, and, finally, the follow-up of this action (as one of the most complex tasks included in the UAIC Action Plan). The description is illustrated with almost 100 photos which underline the principal message conveyed beginning with the exhibition’s title: that UAIC is A Place for Women in Science.

The training module provided by the UAIC-STAGES project for the managers and staff of the UAIC Human Resources Department had this year the theme “Human Resources Excellence in Research and Gender Equality Programme”. As UAIC has recently received the EC’s logo “Human Resources Excellence in Research”, and the observance of the gender equality principle is among the criteria taken into consideration for accessing this distinction, Prof. Dr. Doina Balahur has presented the new provisions on Gender Equality in Science included in the Horizon 2020 and in the other policy documents of the European Research Area (ERA). The presentation has also focused on the gender statistical indicators included in the recent European research studies and the importance of completing a corespondent database at the UAIC in order to facilitate permanent comparative analysis. The elaboration of this database is a task assumed by the UAIC Centre for Gender Equality in Science, and will be accomplished in the next two years with the technical support of the Human Resources Department from the UAIC.

The last 4 years, Gender Summit has become among the largest and the most representative forum that brings together experts from research, academia, industry and policy who are interested to exchange knowledge on gender equality in science, by considering gender research evidence and the ways of improving the quality and impact of research and innovation through the inclusion of gender in science knowledge making and application. After expanding to North America in 2013, this year the 4th edition of Gender Summit returns to Europe, but with more than 400 experts from all the continents who have been present in Brussels, the event really had a global dimension. The generic theme of GS4EU 2014 was “From Ideas to Markets: Excellence in mainstreaming gender into research, innovation, and policy” and the key aim, so formulated by the organizers, was “to promote a standards-based and systematic operationalization of gender in research and innovation process as a core quality condition in study design, research content, and processes, in order to foster smarter, sustainable, and effective European science endeavour”. By focusing Horizon 2020, the current EC funding programme, which states, under Article 15, that: “Horizon 2020 shall ensure the effective promotion of gender equality and the gender dimension in research and innovation content”, the debates have underlined the major implications of the cross-cutting role of gender and have developed ideas about how gender can be integrated within the different calls, through actions enhancing gender equality as well as through theoretical and practical approaches aiming to include the gender dimension in research and innovation content. Read more here.

Organized by the Consortium members of the European Project GenPORT, this workshop intended to present the project’s objectives and to share knowledge and ideas on the role of GenPORT with participants from other FP7 European projects focused on gender equality in science as STAGES, FESTA, GESIS Lab, GENDER-NET, INTEGER, GARCIA, TRIGGER. The role of GenPORT project is synthetically expressed by the slogan: “Your gateway to gender and science resources”. The discussions on various topics orienting the project actions but being at the same time the common questions for all the participants at this workshop have been moderated by Juliet Webster (GenPORT project co-ordinator), Elisabeth Pollitzer, Sara Grunenberg, Jorg Muller, Rachel Palmen, Anke Lipinsky and Henrietta Dale (members of the GenPORT consortium). Among the participants: Dr. Anne Pepin (GENDER-NET, INTEGER), Prof. Doina Balahur (STAGES), Mario Conci (FESTA), Barbara de Micheli (GESIS Lab), Barbara Poggio (GARCIA), Anna Mittnerova (TRIGGER).

The theme "Gender Equality in Science" is proposed for the PhD studies, the second year consecutively, in the competition call for the admission session September 2014 of the UAIC's Doctoral School. This is until now a singular initiative in a Romanian University. Prof. dr. Doina Balahur, scientific coordinator for PhD in Sociology at the Faculty of Philosophy and Social Sciences, announced the topics and the bibliography on "Gender, Career and Performance in Scientific Research" and "Structural Transformations in Universities and Research Institutes for Achieving Gender Equality in Science". The research on these themes will be carried out in cooperation with the FP7 European project STAGES at the UAIC. (more info here)

The Romanian-U.S. Fulbright Commission announces the annual competition for Fulbright Senior Postdoctoral Awards for Romanian professors, researchers and professionals who have a doctoral degree or equivalent (certified). Grants are available for conducting research and/or lecturing in the U.S. universities. Any field, except clinical medicine and other clinical disciplines, is eligible. More details about the criteria that should be met by the applicants, grants duration and application instructions could be read at the address www.fulbright.ro or obtained by sending inquiries at office@fulbright.ro.

A report on the UAIC-STAGES activities, including the strategy and actions plan aiming to promote Gender Equality in Science at the’”Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi has been drafted by Prof. Dr. Doina Balahur, the project coordinator, and presented to the UAIC Senate members from the Commission for studies programmes and personnel development by Commission President, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Luminita Bejenaru, Faculty of Biology. The report refers to the actions and events organized by the UAIC-STAGES team the last 12 months within the framework of own strategy for producing changes in organizational structures and practices in order to promote gender equality in science at the UAIC. Based on the reflective practice, communicative action research and organizational learning, this strategy has already been disseminated in international conferences and workshops as a new one, named “Fixing the transformative praxis” strategy. A set of images reproducing the thematic panels of the documentary exhibition “UAIC – A Place for Women in Science”, currently open for visiting at the University, have been annexed to the annual report as illustrative materials for the UAIC-STAGES activities.

Starting with illustrative sequences from the TV report presenting the documentary exhibition “UAIC – A Place for Women in Science”, various aspects of promoting gender equality in science have been approached in a TV live talk-show on the main themes and objectives of the European Project STAGES at the UAIC. Professor Doina Balahur, project coordinator, has been invited by the journalist Raluca Aftene from TVR Iasi (a TV station with regional, national and international audience) to talk about the actual achievements and results of the STAGES project that run from 30 months at the UAIC, by presenting the most relevant effective actions that were guided by such questions: How to make more visible and publicly acknowledged the women’s contributions in research? How could the role models of preeminent women scientists inspire the professional development of younger female researchers? How to attract more girls who wish to access higher education to a scientific career? Sequences from the documentary films “UAIC Profiles of Women in Science”, produced within the partnership between UAIC-STAGES project and TVR Iasi, were appropriate illustrations for this dialogue on the career opportunities, personal choices but also social challenges of women in science professions.

The agenda of the Steering Committee Meeting of the STAGES Project Consortium members included, as usually, presentations and discussions on the main issues of different Working Packages: Action Plans’ implementation at the University of Milan, Italy (WP 1), Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Förderung der angewandten Forschung e.V., Germany (WP 2), Aarhus University, Denmark (WP3), “Alexandru Ioan Cuza” University of Iasi, Romania (WP4), Radboud University Nijmegen, Netherlands (WP5), Technical Assistance (WP6), Evaluation (WP7), Accompanying research (WP8), Communication (WP 9) and Management (WP 10). This common action has been held as”at a distance meeting”, by the means of SKYPE communication channel.

At the 2014 edition of the “European Women Researchers Day”, the UAIC-STAGES project rewarded the UAIC’s Women Researchers in the Life Sciences fields. Meantime we learned that, at the European level, a prestigious Women in Science Award jointly initiated by the Federation of European Biochemical Societies (FEBS) and the European Molecular Biology Organization (EMBO) rewards each year, since 2009, exceptional achievements of female scientists working in the life sciences research. Winners of this award are nominated by their major contributions that significantly advanced the understanding of a particular discipline belonging to the life sciences in the last five years. The distinguished female personalities are this way promoted as inspiring role models for future generations of women in science. More details here. We strongly encourage the UAIC women in science to take into consideration such a first class competition.