This week we celebrate International Women’s Day! This is an opportunity for us at EURAXESS India to look at some of the measures the European Union is implementing to create an equal playing field for all researchers and scientists regardless of their gender. We will zoom in on the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA), a funding programme that supports researchers in developing their creative and innovative potential through advanced training and international and intersectoral mobility.
Since their creation, the MSCA have placed strong emphasis on promoting gender and equal opportunities for their fellows, and within their projects. Indeed, the MSCA require transparent recruitment and high quality employment and working conditions for researchers, in line with the principles of the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers
In addition, MSCA grants permit part-time working and parental leave. Post-doctoral researchers who wish to resume their career after a break, for example to raise children, can apply to a dedicated panel of the MSCA Individual Fellowships.
As a result, MSCA are widely regarded as best practice in promoting gender balance: nearly 40% of MSCA fellows are women, a share significantly higher than in other parts of H2020, as shows Figure 1 which focuses on the gender breakdown within applicants and grantees for the MSCA IF 2016 call.
In line with Horizon 2020 commitments, the MSCA promote gender equality at several levels:
- Proposal evaluation: evaluators receive training on unconscious gender bias;
- Human resources: equal opportunities are ensured in MSCA projects, both at the level of supported researchers and in project supervision;
- Decision-making: The MSCA Advisory Group consists of more women than men.
- Research projects: projects integrating the gender dimension in their research and innovation content, where relevant, have higher chances of success (https://youtu.be/Hq4eWo30RfY).
In the 2016 MSCA-Individual Fellowship Call, women represented only 39% of all applicants, yet 43% of the selected fellows were female.
On the occasion of the 150th anniversary of the birth of Marie Sklodowska-Curie, and only a few years after the 100th anniversary of her Nobel Prize win, we hope that such measures will further contribute towards creating equal opportunities for all researchers, regardless of their gender.
In 2005, the European Commission adopted a European Charter for Researchers and a Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers.On gender balance, they recommend: "Employers and/or funders should aim for a representative gender balance at all levels of staff, including at supervisory and managerial level. [.] To ensureequal treatment, selection and evaluation committees should havean adequate gender balance." Read more about the Charter & Code |
You can find out more about the MSCA on the official website
You may open the attachment to find out some telling graphics on: (i) Gender equality or gender gap? About the ‘leaky pipeline’ and efforts to mitigate it in Europe; and (ii) Gender equality initiatives in the MSCA programmes.
Read the "She Figures in European Research and Innovation Report (2015)" : click here
To acces to a summary of the above publication read the leaflet:click here