[Equal] WG: Newsletter n° 23 on scientific culture and gender issues

Mon Mar 10 09:20:50 MET 2008

Gerne leite ich euch den Newsletter der EU-Kommission, DG Research, scientific culture and gender issues weiter.
Herzliche Grüsse Christa Sonderegger

Newsletter n° 23 on scientific culture and gender issues
Contact: Vera Fehnle (vera.fehnle at ec.europa.eu)          

RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
Practising Gender Equality in Science (PRAGES)                                                
Following our first call for proposals under Framework Programme 7, the project PRAGES (Practising Gender Equality in Science) had been selected under the topic "Survey of positive action schemes in the area of Research Decision-making". This project which started on 1 March, will last for 18 months and is coordinated by the Presidency of the Council of Ministers of the Italian government, Department of equal rights and opportunities. The partners are from 8 European countries, the US, Australia and Canada.
The project compares the various strategies implemented for promoting the presence of women in decision-making bodies relating to scientific research in public institutions.
It pursues the objective of collecting, classifying and evaluating good practices and positive actions (involving those where a positive contribution from men is recorded) that can be found in OECD countries, both at national level and at the level of the individual institutions, and to make them available, in a usable form, to a number of selected targets, including both decision-makers and other relevant stakeholders.

Expert group on Gender and Excellence
Gender studies of research policy presented in the report "Gender and Excellence in the Making" (2004) have revealed that the term "excellence" as applied today may hide gender biases in establishing scientific careers. The discourse on "excellence" needs to be reframed in such a way as to include all scientists, regardless of gender. 

As part of the work programme 2008, an expert group on gender and excellence has been created in order to provide recommendations to the Commission, adapted to the different national realities, on the improvement of transparency and accountability of procedures used in selection committees for grants and fellowships award, and access to research funding in general. 
The working group which met for the first time on 31January 2008, will last for a maximum of 12 months.  Its mission is to produce a report and recommendations on gender aspects in the financing of research.

PUBLICATIONS
Mapping the maze: Getting more women to the top in research 
The Women In Research Decision Making (WIRDEM) expert group produced a report which examines and describes in detail nomination procedures, obstacles, facts and funding limitations that women need to overcome in their academic careers. It reviews the procedures for evaluating and promoting research personnel to senior positions and identifies examples of good practice at national and institutional levels. The publication can be downloaded from the following website:
 http://ec.europa.eu/research/science-society/index.cfm?fuseaction=public.topic&id=1541
The paper version will be available in the coming weeks. Paper copies can be requested at the following e-mail address: rtd-womenscience at ec.europa.eu

Statistics in Focus - EUROSTAT publications
Statistics in Focus 10/2008 - Women employed in science and technology - release date 7/2/2008. This issue looks at the characteristics for the female human resources in science and technology (HRST), i.e. women that are occupied in an science and technology (S&T) occupation (ISCO codes 2 and 3). http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page?_pageid=1073,46587259&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL&p_product_code=KS-SF-08-010

Statistics in Focus 131/2007 - Doctorate holders - release date 20/12/2007. The main focus in this paper is on doctorate holders and it reviews the supply of and demand for doctorate holders starting from the education inflows up to the detail of their employment. http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/page?_pageid=1073,46587259&_dad=portal&_schema=PORTAL&p_product_code=KS-SF-07-131         

EVENTS

European Science Awards

The European Commission is organising an award ceremony on 12 March 2008 to celebrate the best in European science.

This European Science Awards Ceremony - hosted by the Commissioner for Science and Research, Mr. Janez Potočnik, with the participation of the Slovenian Minister of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Mojca Kucler Dolinar - covers three prizes: the Descartes Prize for Transnational Collaborative Research, the prize for Excellence in Science Communication and the Marie Curie Awards. 

The ceremony will take place at the Flagey Building in Brussels, starting at 15.00.

Please note that registration for the event is free of charge but the number of places is limited. Therefore, you are kindly asked to confirm your participation by registering on the following Commission website, before 7 March:

https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/fmi/scic/EUScAward08/Start.php

The Commission regrets it is not able to cover the costs of your participation at this event.

CALL FOR PAPERS

The politics of knowing: research, institutions and gender in the making, 27-28 November 2008, Prague, Czech Republic

Science today, perhaps more than ever, is the site of multiple negotiations. Market values increasingly drive scientific research and higher education yet the traditional emphasis upon rational knowledge remains. The range of actors with a claim to 'have a say' in science has also grown to include a range of voices beyond academe, from industry and the public. These new actors may play different roles in different contexts and geopolitical spaces. All these processes also have a gender dimension - from recruitment and retention of students and employees, to work-life balance, and the gendering of knowledge production processes and practices.

The conference will showcase research on these issues from (social) science and technology studies, and feminist and post-colonial studies under the framework of the project Knowledge, Institutions and Gender: an East-West Comparative Study (KNOWING, Framework Programme 6, www.knowing.soc.cas.cz).

Deadline for submission of papers: 30 April 2008

For more information: www.knowing.soc.cas.cz
Contact person: Marcela Linkova: marcela.linkova at soc.cas.cz

European Platform of Women Scientists (EPWS) 2008 Annual Conference

The EPWS 2008 Annual Conference "Women Shaping Science" is organised in collaboration with BASNET, the Baltic States Network: Women in Sciences and High Technology, and will take place in Vilnius (Lithuania) on 5-7 June 2008. 
A Call for Proposals has just been launched: www.epws.org                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

IN THE MEDIA

Some recent articles which might be of interest... 

>From Science|Business - http://bulletin.sciencebusiness.net/ebulletins/showissue.php3?page=/548/2589/9011 
>From EUROPA: http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=IP/07/1676&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en
>From University of Melbourne: http://uninews.unimelb.edu.au/articleid_3965.html
Research Enquiries: http://ec.europa.eu/research/enquiries

lic. iur. Christa Sonderegger, Dipl. NPO-Managerin
Universität Basel
Leiterin Ressort Chancengleichheit
Petersgraben 35, CH - 4003 Basel

Fon +41 61 267 12 46
Fax +41 61 267 30 03
christa.sonderegger at unibas.ch
www.zuv.unibas.ch/chancengleichheit/