Many research project applications are unsuccessful. Many results stemming from research projects were not relevant and applicable to society. There was a need to identify ways of making research projects more successful, relevant and visible.
Organising internal training workshops on the use of sex and gender analysis methods in Research
Problem (evidence)
Aims/objectives
To organise lectures and seminars about different aspects of gender variables in research with examples relevant to STEM, addressed to researchers, the HR office and the project office staff. Discussion about good practices and case studies, especially if they are connected with the area of NIC.
Resources
PLOTINA project team, Project office, PR office
Brief outcomes
We organized a workshop entitled: The role of gender in research. The workshop was held on 25TH of March, 2019 and was chaired by Dr. Jovana M. Trbovc. The workshops focused on the importance of the sex and gender in research. It also included examples of sexually sensitive research in STEM and analysis of tools and examples of such practices in our work environments and conditions.
Key area
Researchers and research: gender equality and sex and gender perspective
Type of action
Training
Organization
Kemijski Inštitut, National Institute of Chemistry
Research institute
Action level of implementation
Researchers/professors
Implementation
We organized a workshop at which 7 examples of real and ongoing research at NIC were analyzed for the sex/gender components. The participants were active researchers, who provided their experiences and opinions on the relevance and realistic possibilities of including gender variables in their research cases. We tried to identify the impact of the sexual dimension for each research case and ways of pointing it out.
Challenges
There are research areas that do not allow the inclusion of a gender variable other than equal gender balance representation of researchers carrying the research.
Coping strategies
Researchers from different fields, such as basic and applied R&D and support services (e.g. project office), should be involved in the brainstorming for developing workshop content, to obtain balanced projects which include significant gender variables.
More detailed Outcomes/Impact
The key for the success of the workshop was its interactive character. Participants were able to identify, through concrete examples of their own research, how they could introduce gender variables into their research, and how important the inclusion of these variables can be.
Gender mainstreaming in research has enabled the preparation of more successful project applications and is already required as a criterion in most EU calls. The number of EU projects increased by more than 350% compared to projects between 2015 and 2019. Furthermore, the proportion of women researchers involved in EU projects increased. In 2019 there were 3 women EU project coordinators, compared to none in 2015. Such an approach contributes to the greater social importance of research and to the emergence of new research interdisciplinary issues
Reflection: what we would do differently
Each project application needs brainstorming in relation to where the gender variable could be included, how and with what impact. It would be a good idea to encourage workshop participants to present specific cases and allow discussion time for each one.