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European Commission, Directorate General for Research and Innovation, FP7-SCIENCE-IN-SOCIETY 2011-1, STAGES, Structural Transformation to Achieve Gender Equality in Science (SiS.2011.2.1.1.-1)
Project co-funded by the General Inspectorate for relations with the European Union of the Italian Ministry of Economy and Finance (IGRUE).
UAIC Research Group on Gender Equality in Science is a multidisciplinary research team set up within the frame of the STAGES project in order to conduct scientific studies and evaluations on Gender Equal Opportunities in Romanian educational and research institutions, particularly at the UAIC (see the main objectives, research group members, research and publications).
Since 2013, "Gender Equality in Science" is a theme for PhD studies at the UAIC. Prof. dr. Doina Balahur, scientific coordinator for PhD in Sociology, announced the topics and the bibliography for 2014 candidates competition. As for 2013, the research will be carried out in cooperation with the FP7 European project STAGES at the UAIC. (more info here).
Besides the own deliverables on the actions carried out within the UAIC's self-tailored Action Plan, the UAIC-STAGES team has contributed to the STAGES common reports as: STAGES Mid-term report 1 (2013), STAGES Mid-term report 2 (2014), Progress evaluation report No.1 (D.7.2./31.12.2012), Progress evaluation report No.2 (D.7.3./31.12.2013), Progress evaluation report No.3 (D.7.4./31.12.2014), Progress evaluation report No.4 (D.7.2./31.12.2015), Mid-term report on the accompanying research (D.8.2./31.12.2013), Feasibility study on the sustainability of the action plans after STAGES lifespan (D. 6.2./ 30.06.2013), Sustainability plans after STAGES lifespan (D. 6.3./ 30.06.2015), Report on the International Workshop (D.9.6./2013), STAGES Guidelines (D. 8.3./2015). Here are some summary illustrations.
Since all the research institutions which participate at the STAGES project have elaborated their Sustainability Plans on Gender Equality in Science for continuing, after the end of the project (31 December 2015), the specific actions initiated during the project period, a common deliverable including these documents has been sent at the DG Research and Innovation. The UAIC Sustainability Plan, elaborated by the UAIC Centre for Gender Equality in Science, led by Prof. Dr. Doina Balahur, has been based on the relevant experience gained in the implementation of more than 80 actions, and the conception and application of the own strategy which guided the setting up of new organizational structures and practices aimed at promoting gender equality in our institution. In 40 pages (from 170 of the whole deliverable), the UAIC Sustainability Plan presents the foreseen actions/activities, their background, i.e. similar precedent actions carried out in the UAIC-STAGES project on the period 2012-2015, the available resources, the content of the sustainability actions and the responsible actors who will be engaged in the future activities in order to continue and to develop the significant gender equality programmes initiated at the "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iasi.
The second mid-term Report of the STAGES Consortium included the reports written by the teams who carried out activities within the 7 partner organisations on the period 1.07.2013-31.12.2014. The report on the UAIC-STAGES activity highlighted that the project team has followed the enriched self-tailored Action Plan with a special focus on the sustainability of the new structures and strategies developed according to our own model of organizational change, entitled Fixing transformative and formative praxis, which already generated real structural changes for promoting gender equality in science at the University level. On this 18 months period a number of more than 45 actions and activities have been successfully carried out and publicly communicated on the UAIC-STAGES project website in almost 90 news concerning our activities. We can mention the setting up of new institutionalised structures (as the UAIC Centre for Gender Equality in Science, the UAIC Network of Women in Academia and Research, the UAIC Research Group on Gender Studies, the UAIC Multimedia Communication Team) as well as initiatives of new organizational practices for increasing the women researchers' visibility (like the public events "Women Researchers Day", "UAIC's Excellence Awards for Women in Science", Documentary exhibition "UAIC – A Place for Women in Science", documentary films series "UAIC Profiles of Women in Science"), training programmes, workshops, and info-days for improving women's participation in research, introduction of GES in PhD studies, courses and debates on Gendered Science, monitoring and reporting the gender dynamics on a regular base etc. Also, within this reporting period 7 Deliverables about 12 Actions, with more than 500 pages, have been produced in the due time and uploaded on the EC portal. The WP4 team has also contributed to the common activities, like the first STAGES report (July 2013), the STAGES Mid-term Workshop (March 2014), Sustainability report (2013), 3 STAGES Newsletters (4, 5 and 6/2013-2014), 2 Evaluation reports (2013, 2014), Cross-cutting research with the other partners (2013, 2014), 2 SC meetings and mutual learning sessions and 1 IBSA meeting (from 2013). Dissemination strategy was followed both at the national level (as for example, the UAIC-STAGES project was presented in the National Report for the Conference about FP7 and Horizon 2020 held in Bucharest in 2013 with the participation of the EC Commissioner), in contacts with representatives of the National agencies and the Ministry of National Education as well as through several TV interviews, TV reports and talk-shows, articles and presentations in mass-media, and at the international level (i.e.. communications at different European conferences and workshops - Vilnius, 2013; Brussels 2014; Paris 2014; Vienna 2014). (For more info, see the entire report on our website).
The UAIC-STAGES team has contributed to the STAGES deliverable 7.4 on "Progress evaluation report no. 3", by providing information on the activities realized on the period 1 September 2013 - 1 September 2014 and by filling in the evaluation grid drafted by ASDO, the team in charge with the preparation of this deliverable. The contribution of the UAIC-STAGES team, that has the most extensive content (more than 60 pages), has been distinctly presented in the texts written and signed by the UAIC team coordinator, Prof. Dr. Doina Balahur.
The UAIC team has contributed at the "Mid-term Research Report" prepared to be submitted to the DG Research and Innovation at the end of April 2014. Our main contribution is a preliminary study on a cross-cutting issue faced by all the STAGES partners who implement self-tailored action plans within the framework of STAGES project: the choice of an appropriate strategy for structural changes in order to achieve the objectives of improving gender equality in science in their organizations. The research concluded, based on interviews and documents analysis, that the dilemma "cooperation paradigm" vs. "conflict paradigm" is a relevant question that could determine the real effectiveness of gender programmes.in various organizational contexts of the research institutions (see the text presented at the STAGES Workshop on the 25th March 2013).
The main aim of this workshop was to present the first results of the project and to open a public debate on new policies and instruments to promote structural changes in order to achieve gender equality in science. The presentations have been given by the STAGES team leaders of the five research institutions that are partners in the Project's Consortium: Daniela Falcinelli (University of Milan, Italy), Jürgen Wilke (Fraunhofer-IAO, Stuttgart, Germany), Evanthia Kalpazidou Schmidt (University of Aarhus, Denmark), Doina Balahur ("Alexandru Ioan Cuza" University of Iasi, Romania) and Inge Blejenbergh (Radboud University of Nijmegen, Netherland), and also by Marina Cacace (ASDO, Italy). Some representatives of the similar FP7 European projects on Gender in science have shared their experience in a "Dialogue on the structural change": Uduak Archibong (Genovate Project), Silvana Badaloni and Yvonne Pourrat (Gender Time Project), Pat O'Connor (FESTA Project), Anne Pépin (Integer Project), Flavia Zucco and Barbara De Micheli (GenisLab Project). Gilles Laroche (Head of Unit, DG Research and Innovation) and Viviane Willis-Mazzichi (Head of Sector) as well as preeminent gender-and-science experts like Caroline Bélan-Ménagier, Inés Sanchez de Madariaga, Virginia Valian, Jadranka Gvozdanovic, Alice Hogan, Claudine Hermann, Katrien Maes and Paul Walton have also contributed to this scientific event. (to see the agenda of the workshop and the Communication presented by Prof. Doina Balahur, please click here).
The UAIC-STAGES team has contributed to the STAGES deliverable 7.3 on "Progress evaluation report no. 2", by providing information on the activities realized on the period 1 September 2012 - 1 September 2013 and by filling in the evaluation grid drafted by ASDO, the team in charge with the preparation of this deliverable. The UAIC team coordinator, Prof. Dr. Doina Balahur, has also remarked some deficiencies in the theoretical conception and in the methodological approach of the evaluation grid and suggested constructive modalities to improving the scientific quality of this evaluation tool.
After the first 18 months (1 January 2012 – 30 June 2013), the UAIC's retrospective on the activities initiated, organised and realised within the STAGES project includes 35 events and actions (that were presented throughout the course of the project on our website so that they are already known beyond the academic community). In the report submitted to the DG Research and Innovation of the European Commission there are firstly mentioned the creation of the new organizational structures that support the objectives of achieving gender equality in science: the UAIC Centre for Gender Equality in Science, the UAIC Network of Women in Academia and Research, and the UAIC Research Group on Gender Equality in Science. There are also presented the main public events organised at the UAIC: "Women Researchers Day. Celebration of the UAIC Women in Science", International Colloquium "Women in scientific research: achievements and challenges for gender equality management", the thematic workshops on gender policies in European context, the training modules on gender mainstreaming in human resources management, seminars on career development and info-days for young researchers. Last but not least there are mentioned the communication actions like the setting up of the Open source databases UAIC Profiles of women in science, the first documentary film in the series Awards for excellence in science, the UAIC STAGES website and the other communication campaigns aimed at increasing the public visibility of outstanding feminine personalities in science and academia from the UAIC.
The UAIC-STAGES team has contributed to the deliverable 6.2 entitled "Feasibility study on the sustainability of the action plans after STAGES lifespan", drafted by ASDO team, by providing information on the own activities realized on the period 1 January 2012- June 2013 and by selecting examples that could illustrate the topics of this deliverable.
The UAIC-STAGES team has contributed to the STAGES deliverable 7.2 on "Progress evaluation report no.1", by providing information on the activities realized on the period 1 January 2012- September 2012 and by filling in the evaluation grid drafted by ASDO, the team in charge with the preparation of this deliverable.