presented by Dr. Anne Pépin, National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS) – Mission for the Place of Women, France at the EPWS Debate in the European Parliament

INTEGER – for INstitutional Transformation for Effecting Gender Equality in Research – is a 4-year project funded through the European Commission’s FP7 Science in Society Programme (call FP7-SIS-2010-2.1.1.1: Implementing Structural Change in Research Organisations/Universities) and began in March 2011. INTEGER brings together a focused and balanced partnership of organisations which share a top level commitment to the implementation of sustainable transformational change to improve the career progression of women scientific researchers.

The project’s aim is to create sustainable structural change to improve the career paths of women researchers through the implementation of contextualised transformational gender action plans. A variety of tools and techniques will be used and assessed in order to support an effective and comprehensive organisational gender management strategy in each of the three implementing institutions. We will share our experience, tools and learning progressively as the project develops, through guidelines, case studies, role models, publications, public speaking and other forms of dissemination.

Our 5-year action plans will work across four key themes:

1) empowerment of decision makers
2) organisational structures
3) career progression, development and support
4) work-life balance

A wide variety of activities will take place, including in Year 1: team-building, quantitative and qualitative baseline data assessment, transformational change trainings, exchange of experience seminar, and gender action plan design. An Ambassador program will bring in diverse science leaders from the fields of research and higher education with experience of the implementation of gender equality plans to share their expertise. The following years of the project will consist of implementation, assessment, planning and dissemination.

The INTEGER consortium comprises:

Co-ordinator

The UKRC, Bradford College, United Kingdom.

Implementing Institutions

• The Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, France, represented by its Mission pour la place des femmes, with implementation in the Institute of Physics and the Institute for Mathematical Sciences. –

• Trinity College Dublin, Ireland, represented by WiSER (Centre for Women in Science and Engineering Research), with implementation in schools of the Faculty of Engineering, Maths and Science. – 

• Siauliai University, Lithuania, represented by the Gender Studies Centre, with implementation in the Faculty of Mathematics and Informatics and the Faculty of Technology. 

• External evaluator: The Centre of Excellence Women in Science (department of GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences), Germany. 

The INTEGER Project is also supported by an international group of expert advisors: all are part of extensive gender equality networks and will aid the dissemination activities of the project at the highest level.