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Waiting for the new Board – Interview with Roy Someshwar, MCAA Treasurer Waiting for the new Board – Interview with Snežana Krstić, MCAA Chair Waiting for the new Board – Interview with Axelle Viré, MCAA Vice-Chair Waiting for the new Board – Interview with Kiran Kumar Chereddy, MCAA Ordinary Board Member
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MCAA as Dissemination Channel in two HORIZON 2020 proposals on Gender Equality: the FELIA and ViaGEP projects

The MCAA is tasked with disseminating the results of Marie Curie projects to universities. Doing so gives the MCAA better visibility at European level.

FELIA project proposal

The FELIA project aims to achieve structural change in various disciplines in European research organisations by removing and reducing barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of women researchers. It would address gender imbalances in decision-making processes and strengthen the gender dimension in research programmes. Increasing women’s participation in research and academia, and promoting gender equality, is vital for the competitiveness of European research.

To address EU priorities and challenges on gender equality in research, FELIA brings together a consortium of 12 organisations from 7 EU Member States and 2 Associate countries to develop and implement Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) in 8 RPOs (Research Performing Organisations) and universities. It will also promote GEPs in a further 60 RPOs. A training package is designed to further embed gender equality practices. To leverage the projects results, a comprehensive dissemination, exploitation and sustainability work package would reach academics, students, research and institutional managers, research funding organisations, policy-makers and the general public.

The project will also provide tailored support for early-career women researchers through:

  • Training and mentoring to share experiences and best practices identified during this project, better equipping women researchers to apply for, and secure, academic posts and promotion, thus contributing to increasing the number of women researchers in European universities and beyond;
  • Providing the opportunity for three PhD and two Postdoctoral Researchers to advance their research and careers in the area of gender equality, serving as case studies for defining best practices in actual working conditions. These early-career researchers will gain from the project, enabling them in turn to help raise awareness of gender equality, and thus improving the position of women in the wider European area. This, inter alia, will help strengthen the European Research Area (ERA).

The scientific results will be incorporated into the HR practices of participating universities. The consortium is therefore confident of having a real impact. Furthermore, a handbook, a set of best practice notes and case studies will be disseminated to other European RPOs, Higher Education Institutions and RFOs.

ViaGEP project proposal

The ViAGEP consortium is led by Vitae in the UK and will utilise current international expertise and good practice to work with a small number of starting stage institutions (RPOs) and experts from different Member States in order to:

  • accelerate the delivery of GEP within partner organisations (RPOs and RFOs);
  • create universal, scalable and transferable frameworks, tools and resources that will be disseminated via EURAXESS;
  • provide a lasting legacy of practice, resources and tools for other ERA organisations, building capacity across ERA.

The project’s expected duration is three years. Our approach would ensure that a long-term legacy remains in order to encourage the creation of gender equality plans – and ultimately opportunities for women in research across the European Research Area. Our project would harness European best practice and expertise, building strategic and operational collaboration between organisations tackling gender equality. The outputs would be the implementation of successful gender equality plans in participating organisations, stronger European cross-cultural collaborations in pursuit of success in this agenda, and resources to disseminate through EURAXESS portals and other mechanisms. This will be supported by mentoring and evaluation processes, including longitudinal analysis of impact.

We, as GEMS WG, would like to invite our MCAA members to express their interest in collaborating to the dissemination of the two project proposal above, once approved.

With my Best Wishes,

Gianna Avellis.
Chair of GEMS WG
avellisgianna@gmail.com
MCAA
c/o INOVAMAIS
Avenue des Arts 24
B-1000 Brussels, Belgium

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