European Summit of Women in Power

The Spanish Presidency of the EU, in co-operation with the UK, recently organised a "Summit of women ministers" to give new impetus to gender equality, in particular, in decision-making positions.

The text of the Cadiz declaration approved by the Ministers can be found here

For more information on the meeting, please click here

EU 2020 public consultation : first responses

"Around 1500 contributions have been received from a wide range of interested parties: Member States, European and national organisations, European and national social partners, regional and local authorities, business and professional federations, companies, NGOs, think tanks and academics and numerous European citizens. Some non-EU countries and stakeholders also responded.

A first overview of responses has been prepared by the Commission to provide preliminary indications as to the main trends emerging from the consultation.

A more detailed analysis of the contributions will be issued by the Commission in mid-February."

To read the overview, please click here

For more information on the EU 2020 consultation, please click here

To read EPWS' response, please click here

Guidelines for Gender Equality Programmes in Science

"The final version of the Guidelines for Gender Equality Programmes in Science is now available on line.

The volume contains the main findings of the assessment of the good practices aimed at strengthening the presence of women at decision making level of the scientific and technological research, collected and analysed in the framework of the European project PRAGES - Practising Gender Equality in Science.

To download the document, please click here

The good practices collected and evaluated are consultable on-line in a database where the Synthesis document of the Prages database is also available.

To consult the documents, please click here

Finally, we would like to inform you that the documentation of the international seminar «Women's way into science. Lessons learned and new challenges for gender equality » held in Rome on December 3-4, 2009, is also available online."

To read the documents, please click here

For more information on the project, please click here

The Impact of Financial Governance on Gender

A new policy brief of EPWS member organisation GARNET has been released and presented to policy makers in Vienna last week.
GARNET is a Network of Excellence on Global Governance, Regionalisation and Regulation, funded under the Sixth EU Framework Programme of Research and Technological Development.

The policy brief is called "The Global Financial Meltdown and the Impact of Financial Governance on Gender".

The authors Brigitte Young, Professor of International Political Economy, University of Muenster, and Helene Schuberth, Senior Advisor of the National Bank of Austria, undertake a gendered analysis of financial governance, stressing the low or even non-existent female representation in top positions of financial institutions and the decision-making bodies of key regulatory institutions, central banks, and formal and informal financial networks (financial governance without women).

The paper proceeds to analyse three channels of how finance impacts on gender and outlines the current impact of the financial and economic crisis on gender relations as well as the impact of policy responses on gender.

Young and Schuberth point out the risk that the financial crisis will reinforce existing gender inequalitites. At the same time, they see the crisis as an opportunity to remedy the situation and put in place a financial architecture and an economic growth model wihich serves social values instead of privileging the financial sector.
Both gender inequalities and income inequalities result from a certain "group think" mentality which is exclusive and exclusionary and carries a set of outdated norms about women and men.

The paper acknowledges the input and discussions of the Network "Gender and the Financial Crisis" which was founded under the auspices of EPWS beginning of 2009.

For more information on GARNET, please click here and here

To download the policy brief (PDF), please click here

For more information on the Network on Gender and the Financial Crisis, please click here

Harvesting talent: strengthening research careers in Europe

The League of European Research Universities (LERU) has released a report setting out the priority issues that need to be addressed to improve the attractiveness and excellence of research careers.

The Position Paper "Harvesting talent: strengthening research careers in Europe" sets out the priority issues that need to be addressed to improve the attractiveness and excellence of research careers.

It is crucial that some of the best intellects in each generation continue to be attracted to research careers, and are given every opportunity to grow in ambition and creativity. To realise that potential, researchers must be immersed in a research-rich and well-equipped environment with stimulating local and international connections to other researchers, disciplines and organisations. They also need to be given independence and responsibility at an early stage.

Because most researchers are trained in universities, it is vitally important that universities provide well-designed, well-funded and well-supported jobs that are embedded in clear career structures where pathways from one career phase to the next are clearly signalled, whether they remain in or venture outside of academia.

These are the conclusions of an in-depth investigation of research careers among the members of LERU, an association of Europe's leading research-intensive universities.

For more information, please click here or here

To download the document, please click here

New Report: Research Careers in Europe Landscape and Horizon

The Member Organisation Forum on Research Careers of the European Science Foundation (ESF) released its new report "Research Careers in Europe Landscape and Horizons: A Report by the ESF Member Organisation Forum on Research Careers".

The report is the result of collective efforts in which EPWS has been involved and presents a set of recommendations and issues to be addressed in future in the Research Careers field.

The structure of the report follows the three main topics, identified by the Forum to address the complexity and breadth of Research Careers.

The analysis and the conclusions drafted by these Working Groups are the basis of this report. These build on the recommendations proposed by the Forum which are stated at the beginning of the report as the Forum Declaration.

For more information, please click here

To read the report (PDF), please click here

VINNMER - Strategic collaborations for female researchers

The long-term objective of the VINNMER programme is to help to increase the number of postgraduates that can become the leaders of the future at universities/colleges, centres, research institutes and companies.

One of the weaknesses that VINNOVA has identified in the current system is that relatively few women qualify compared to the number of men. VINNMER therefore aims to increase the opportunities for women postgraduates to qualify as researchers after gaining their PhDs.

For more information, please click here

Marie Curie Actions - Inspiring Researchers

The Marie Curie Actions site now has a page for publications, the most recent being "Marie Curie Actions - Inspiring Researchers".

The projects featured in this book show that scientific excellence depends on nurturing the human factor and tells the inspiring stories behind the researchers funded over the years by the EU Marie Curie programme.


To read the document, please click here