Approved by the EMSO ERIC Assembly of Members on the occasion of International Women’s Day 2022, the “EMSO ERIC Gender Equality Plan” is now available on the EMSO website here

EMSO ERIC started defying its Gender Equality Strategy already in 2017 when the first gender study to assess differences in conditions, participation rates, decision making power and needs was carried out. The study had as its main objective to identify gaps among the Research Institutions, beneficiaries of the projects, and EMSO nodes representatives at the same time. This first step enabled the definition of the context, the main objectives and a set of principles at the basis of the strategy.

Recently, EMSO finalized its Gender Equality Strategy through the preparation of the official document “EMSO ERIC Gender Equality Plan (EE GEP)”, which embeds a precise plan of actions to promote gender balance, grouped in 5 main areas (Gender dimensions):

  1. Gender balance in leadership and decision-making;
  2. Gender equality in recruitment and career progression and promotion of the condition of access to personal development;
  3. Work-life balance;
  4. Integration of the gender dimension into EMSO ERIC organizational culture;
  5. Gender-based violence including sexual harassment, sexist attitudes and perception of discrimination.

The document establishes the actions and the monitoring system to ensure gender equality inside the consortium.
Gender equality requires all genders to access and enjoy the same opportunities. Accordingly, aligned with the fifth Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations (UN SDG 5), to achieve gender equality by 2030, EMSO is strengthening its policies for more inclusive work practices to guarantee that all genders can access the same rewards, resources, and professional growth.

In terms of financial commitment, EMSO ERIC assigns economic resources to the implementation of the actions as programmed in the Plan.

The EE GEP has been developed around the EIGE’s gender mainstreaming cycle, the methodology proposed by the European Institute for Gender Equality.

Following this approach, each phase corresponds to a step to develop the Plan. The EE GEP foresees the possibility to be updated on yearly basis, according to the EMSO ERIC overall strategy to ensure the most current practices in the gender equality issues align with the organisation’s needs.

Author: Valentina Tegas, EMSO ERIC