Last May 23rd Gender STI project representative, Luciana Ayciriex from INMARK, took part in a new edition of the MSCA Conference held in Paris. INMARK partners were invited as guest speakers in the workshop to discuss different ways to close the gender gap in research and supporting the career development of female researchers.

The Gender STI project addresses the topic of gender equality in scientific careers, being this issue one of the 3 objectives of the EU gender equality strategy in R&I, alongside design thinking methods to integrate the gender perspective in STI on an international level. Thus, for the purpose of this MSCA workshop we presented relevant findings based on a mapping study on STI international cooperation agreements, a survey on gender equality implementation in STI agreements as well as insights from in-depth interviews with relevant stakeholders in Europe and third countries.

We also shared good practices and testimonials from our “#WomenInLeadership” campaign which featured 22 extraordinary women leaders from 11 countries across the globe, aiming to celebrate women leaders in science, technology and innovation by shedding light on their journeys, challenges or goals. Moreover, we appointed our approach to the creation of prototypes related to gender equality in research careers through the GENDER STI Co-Design Labs held last September-October with participants from Europe, North America and Latin America and Asia, South Africa and Europe.

Furthermore, as regards to promoting women participation in innovation and entrepreneurship, the Gender STI project displayed relevant findings from our survey which highlighted several approaches to improve gender balance in decision-making and the integration of the gender dimension in R&I content.