The Workshop entitled "Territorial resilience and gender inequalities in Romanian cities", jointly co-organized by the Faculty of Geography and Geology, the UAIC Centre for Gender Equality in Science and the UAIC Network of Women in Academia and Research, on the occasion of the World Environment Day, continued the series of thematic activities aiming to promote the approach of gender in content and methods of science within the frame of the UAIC-STAGES project. The workshop was co-moderated by Prof. Dr. Doina Balahur (UAIC-STAGES coordinator), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Gabriela Breabăn (Geography), Senior Lecturer Dr. Alexandru Bănică (Geography) and Senior Lecturer Dr. Marinela Istrate (Geography). Prof. Dr. Doina Balahur gave a presentation on "Gendered content of science and innovation" which emphasized the high relevance the gender approach is having in the research of resilience and environmental challenges, one of the big problems that world is facing today and a research priority in Horizon 2020 programme. The workshop has been attended by more than 30 participants, senior and young researchers from the Faculty of Geography and Geology and by the representatives of the UAIC Network of Women in Academia and Science. Among the participants there were: Professor Emeritus Alina Ungureanu (Geography), Assoc. Professor Dr. Ionel Muntele (Geography), Prof. Dr. Adriana Prodan (Economics), Assoc. Professor Dr. Luminița Bejenaru (Biology), Senior Lecturer Dr. Christiana Balan (Economics), Dr. Paiu Mădălina (Geography), Drd. Loredana Cătărău (Sociology). The discussions on the research topics and methods have emphasized the value of the interdisciplinary approach and the importance of the integration of gender dimension in the scientific approach of urban-resilience and environment.

For the new generation of students who completed their MA degree in Sociology, the graduation ceremony included an open course on career development. As the coordinator of the Master programmes Prof. Dr. Doina Balahur talked to the more than 60 postgraduate students about the future directions of professional development. Among the important directions suggested, Professor Balahur underlined 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. Pleading for this perspective, professor emphasized 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 their everyday academic life. At the graduation ceremony also participated Prof. Dr. Tatiana Daniela Șoitu who encouraged the students to take the opportunity of continuing their professional development through a PhD research project.

On the occasion of the events organized by the North-East Regional Development Agency of Romania at the Expo-Milan 2015 (on 10-12 June 2015), Prof. Dr. Dumitru Luca, Vice-Rector of the "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University, made a presentation of the Research Centres, Platforms, Groups and Departments from our University, within the frame of the Conference "Invest in North-East Romania" on 11 June 2015. In this context, the achievements of the UAIC-STAGES project and the UAIC Center for Gender Equality, set up by the project, have been largely presented. It has been stressed that since its implementation at the Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, the FP7 UAIC-STAGES project, coordinated by Prof. Dr. Doina Balahur, from Department of Sociology (G.A. No.-289051; Seventh FRAMEWORK PROGRAMME, Specific programme 'Capacity', Work programme 'Science in Society', FP7-SCIENCE-IN-SOCIETY-2011-1) has initiated important researches and actions for institutional transformation in order to achieve gender equality in science at the UAIC and such outcomes ensure the long term sustainability of this specific programme. Among these organizational changes have been mentioned the setting up and institutionalization of new functional structures like the UAIC Centre for Gender Equality in Science (the first one that has ever been created in a Romanian university) which will evaluate, monitor and report on the gender equality policies at the UAIC, the setting up and institutionalization of the UAIC Network of Women in Academia and Research, the setting up and the institutionalization of the annual events like 'Women's Researchers Day', 'Women's Annual Science and Technology Excellence Award and Women's Annual Distinction for Young Researchers', Documentary films "UAIC Profile of Women in Science', the exhibition 'ÚAIC - A Place for Women in Science' and other organizational practices which contribute to promotion of gender equality in academia and research.

The Doctoral Scholarship Programme on Gender Equality in Science, set up in 2013 within the frame of the UAIC-STAGES project in cooperation with the UAIC Doctoral School / Doctoral School in Sociology, is successfully continued in 2015 as well. This year the theme of the grant competition is Gender and Responsible Research and Innovation. The PhD research themes will be supervised by Prof. Dr. Doina Balahur, coordinator of the UAIC-STAGES project, who initiated the thematic programme on Gender Equality in Science to be included as PhD advanced research in Sociology at the "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University.

The PhD candidate George Ichim, who is a member of the UAIC-STAGES team, benefited by the new doctoral programme on gender equality in science set up within the frame of this European project at the initiative and with the scientific supervision of Prof. Dr. Doina Balahur. Recently, he won a one month research and documentation stage at the University of Messina, Italy, under the coordination of Prof. Fabio Mostaccio. On this occasion, George Ichim has conducted several interviews with women in academia and research connected to his PhD research topic on women on boards in university and gender representation in scientific research committees.

Like the previous years, the annual report on gender equality in science at the "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University revised the activities and events organised within the UAIC-STAGES project and also the strategies for sustainability foreseen for further continuation and developments of the new organisational structures and practices. The report has been prepared by Prof. Dr. Doina Balahur, the coordinator of the project, Director of the UAIC Centre for Gender Equality in Science and has been presented to the UAIC Senate members from the Commission for studies programmes and personnel development by the Commission's President, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Luminița Bejenaru, member in the leadership of the UAIC Centre for GES. In their comments the Senate members appreciated the complex approach on gender equality promoted by the UAIC-STAGES team and its outcomes on real structural changes as well as that this unique experience gained by our university generated good practices that should be shared and transferred to other universities and research organizations in Romania. Other comments appreciated the communication strategy developed by the UAIC team of experts in communication and the high visibility of the activities assured by the rich website (www.stages.csmcd.ro). The strategy of cooperation with other relevant European universities and networks supporting the transfer of knowledge on gender and excellence in science was also considered a very important contribution the UAIC-STAGES project has brought. It has been concluded that, based on the experience gained by the whole University community from participative action research and real structural transformations, gender equality became a sustainable action programme at UAIC.

On the 18th of June 2015 the UAIC Management Board has approved the Sustainability Plan on Gender Equality in Science at the "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iasi, elaborated and submitted by Prof. Dr. Doina Balahur, the coordinator of the UAIC-STAGES project, on behalf of the Centre for Gender Equality in Science and of the Network of Women in Academia and Research. Once with the endorsement of the Sustainability Plan by the top management of the university, it has been assured that the new functional structures and practices initiated by the Gender Action Plan of the UAIC-STAGES project will be continued and further developed after the end of the project. The document is structured into two parts. The first one, Premises for the Sustainability Plan, makes an overview of the very rich self-tailored Action Plan (with more than 40 action and 80 activities/events), the new strategy and model of structural changes, Fixing the transformative and Formative Praxis, developed within permanent research that accompanied the AP implementation, and also the significant results, i.e. the new institutional structures and new organizational practices created within the project's cycle. The second part is dedicated to the Content of Sustainability Plan: objectives and foreseen activities. It presents the planned actions/activities, their background in similar actions carried out during the STAGES project (2012-2015), the available resources, the content of the sustainability actions and the responsible actors.

According to the designed sustainability plan, the UAIC-STAGES project team promotes an active strategy aiming at assuring the continuity of the new functional structures and practices set up at UAIC for promoting gender equality in science. In this respect a series of trainings of the members of the Centre for Gender Equality in Science and of the Network of Women in Academia and Research have been foreseen with the aim to develop their skills and certificate their expertise for gender equality evaluation and monitoring in our university. Following this strategy, within the period 22 June – 17 July 2015, a team of the UAIC Network of Women in Academia and Research and of the Centre for Gender Equality in Science participated at an intensive training course on Participatory Gender Audit (PGA) organized by the International Labour Organization at the International Training Centre in Turin, Italy. The Romanian team has been represented by Prof. Dr. Doina Balahur, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Luminița Bejenaru, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Corina Forăscu and Ec. Liliana Iftimia, Head of the UAIC Accounting-Financial Department. After three weeks of online course and individual preparation, on the week 13-17 July the training was finalized in Turin, under the coordination of two ILO gender experts, Johanna Lortie and Linda Wirth. The training aimed at promoting organizational learning on mainstreaming gender equality by using a self-assessment tool for institutional multi-level analysis and by involving the organization members to jointly reflect on and to build their capacity to face gender challenges in their own institutions.

Under the same strategy focused on preparation the sustainability of the structures and practices developed within the frame of the UAIC-STGES project, Ms. Elena Felice-Radu, the Head of the Project Management Department, and also member of the UAIC-STAGES team, attended, within 6-24 July 2015, the ILO online and face to face training course on Coping with complexity: Towards a more systemic approach to Project Cycle Management. Based on the recent research and scientific evaluation, the training course challenged the traditional view on project cycle management, especially when the aim is organizational change and institutional capacity building, and this way stimulated the increasing and updating of the knowledge and skills on successful projects applications and management.

The 10th deliverable prepared and sent at the European Commission - DG Research and Innovation by the UAIC-STAGES team reported on the action concerning the production of a series of Documentary films on the life and career of outstanding women scientists in Europe. The three films produced on the period 2013-2015 under the title UAIC Profiles of Women in Science had as main objective to making known the scientific achievements of women researchers and professors from the UAIC by presenting their professional profiles and highlighting their most relevant results in science as well as their contribution, as role models for young researchers, at the promotion of gender equality in science at our university. The protagonists of these promotional films have been Prof. Dr. Liliana Mitoseriu (Faculty of Physics), Prof. Dr. Elena Bâcu and Prof. Dr. Alexandra-Raluca Iordan (Faculty of Chemistry), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Luminița Bejenaru, Assoc. Prof. Dr. Zenovia Olteanu and Prof. Dr. Maria-Magdalena Zamfirache (Faculty of Biology), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Iuliana Breabăn (Faculty of Geography-Geology), Prof. Dr. Violeta Fotea (Faculty of Mathematics), Assoc. Prof. Dr. Lenuța Alboaie and Assoc. Prof. Dr. Corina Forăscu (Faculty of Computer Sciences), Prof. Dr. Rodica Dimitriu (Faculty of Letters), Prof. Dr. Adriana Prodan (Faculty of Economics and Business Administration) and Lecturer Dr. Snejana Sulima (Faculty of Law). The report concluded that by the public presentation of these films within the annual events "Women Researchers Day - Celebration of the UAIC Women in Science", which had more than 500 participants, as well as by their wide dissemination through the website of the UAIC-STAGES project and through mass-media and social media, the action contributed at the increasing public notority of women researchers and therefore received high appreciation of the academic community members from inside and outside the UAIC. It is noteworthy, in this respect, that the 3 films, having together 85 minutes, registred so far a total of more than 1500 views on YouTube.

The European Institute for Gender Equality (EIGE) launched in Brussels on 25 June 2015 the updated version of the Gender Equality Index (GEI). The official presentation of the 2015 version of GEI took place at the high level conference organized at the Belgian Royal Museums of Arts and History in the presence of Vera Jourova, Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, representatives of the European Parliament, of the Council of Europe, of the Fundamental Rights Agency, as well as numerous policy makers from different Member States and invited gender experts. A general overview of the new data on gender equality in the European Union for the period 2005-2012 was presented by Virginia Langbakk, Director of EIGE, who emphasized that the results of Gender Equality Index show that there have been visible, albeit marginal improvements between 2005 and 2012 in the domains covered by GEI. With an overall score of 52.9 out of 100 in 2012, the EU remains only half way towards equality, having risen from 51.3 in 2005. An analytical presentation of the six core domains of the Gender Equality Index (work, money, knowledge, time, power and health) and of its two satellite domains (violence and intersecting inequalities) has been given by Dr. Jolanta Reingarde, senior researcher and analyst at the EIGE. The UAIC Network of Women in Academia and Research and the Centre for Gender Equality in Science has been represented by Prof. Dr. Doina Balahur.