GENOVATE: Transforming Organisational Culture for Gender Equality in Research and Innovation

GENOVATE aimed to ensure the development of equal opportunities for women and men at universities by encouraging a more gender-aware management in research and scientific bodies of HE institutions.

Funding Scheme

FP7 – Science in Society

Aims and general information

GENOVATE was an action-research project based on the implementation of Gender Equality Action Plans (GEAPs) in six European universities. It brought together a consortium with diverse experience with gender equality mainstreaming approaches, with varying institutional and disciplinary backgrounds and located in different national contexts. All, however, shared common challenges for women engaged in research and all have identified three common areas for intervention: (i) recruitment, progression and research support; (ii) working environment, work-life balance and institutional culture, and finally, (iii) the increasingly important domain of standards and diversity in research excellence and innovation.

Each partner university addressed these areas through their individually tailored GEAPs that built on existing structures and policies where relevant, or developed new systems and practices where appropriate. This contextualised approach was supported by an ongoing knowledge-exchange system within the consortium and by ongoing participatory evaluation, both of which with the aim of maximising the shared learning of all partners at every step of the process.