The GENDER-NET Plus project has provided a unique opportunity to advance gender equality in research, particularly the integration of gender analysis into research content (IGAR). Building on the outcomes of the GENDER-NET project (2013-2016), GENDER-NET Plus (2017-2023) addressed the issue of IGAR, which is too rarely taken into account by the gender equality policies of European Research performing organizations (RPOs) and Research funding organizations (RFOs).
GENDER-NET Plus has completed its success story in 2023 by organizing its final dissemination conference in Brussels on 13-14 February.
It is an ERA-NET Cofund selected under the Horizon 2020 WIDERA programme that started in September 2017. The project gathers 16 research funding organisations from 13 countries (Austria, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Finland, France, Estonia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Norway, Spain, Sweden). In 2018, they launched a co-funded joint call aiming to promote the integration of sex, gender and intersectional dimension into research in addressing societal challenges linked to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The applicants were invited to explore interactions and interdependencies explicitly between SDG 5 Gender Equality and one or more of the following SDGs: SDG 3 Good health and well-being, SDG 9 Infrastructure, Industrialization and Innovation, and SDG 13 Climate Action. 75 applications were submitted out of which 13 were finally selected for co-funding, involving around 400 researchers from 56 research performing organizations. They have produced very innovative scientific results with high societal impact by bringing together researchers from various disciplines, countries and institutions, enabling new research collaborations and novel knowledge. Their scientific results show that the integration of sex and gender analysis in research is crucial to produce inclusive science, avoiding gender-blind and -biased research methods and benefiting society as a whole.
In addition, the GENDER-NET Plus Consortium partners have published key reports on :1) National and regional initiatives promoting gender equality in research institutions through structural change; 2) A Comparative analytical report on existing national and regional initiatives on the integration of the gender dimension in research content; 3) A Study on gender equality in research in research funding, as well as a Policy brief on Promoting gender equality in research funding.
GENDER-NET Plus is thus playing a major role in addressing the challenge of ‘Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research’ identified as one of the policy goals of the European Research Area.
