Some research funders require applicants to address issues of gender and/or sex in their research projects. Gender equality is one of the cross-cutting principles of the Horizon Europe programme which applicants need to be aware of. This also applies to a number of the grants available from Danish funders, for example the Lundbeck Foundation.
This requirement has been introduced due to increased focus on the benefits of addressing gender and/or sex in research projects, which include:
Overall, greater awareness of the dimension of gender and/or sex can improve the quality of research and increase its relevance to society. On the other hand, a lack of awareness of the dimension of gender and/or sex in research projects can lead to poorer-quality research or even a waste of research funding. It’s not just a question of equality in the organisation or a project consortium. To a high degree, it’s also a question of designing gender and/or sex into research and innovation from the start.
Here is a list of questions that can help inspire you when you’re considering whether and how to address gender and/or sex in your research and/or innovation project. Each section includes questions related to a specific aspect of a research project.
In Danish, the word ‘køn’ refers to both. Native speakers of Danish (and other non-native speakers of English) should make sure they understand the difference between the concepts of ‘sex’ and ‘gender’.
Kilde: Schiebinger, L., Klinge, I., Sánchez de Madariaga, I., Paik, H. Y., Schraudner, M., and Stefanick, M. (Eds.) (2011-2021). Gendered Innovations in Science, Health & Medicine, Engineering and Environment.
Gender equality is one of the cross-cutting principles of the Horizon Europe programme which applicants need to be aware of. It’s not just about equality at institutions and companies or gender balance in the consortium. To an equally high degree, it’s also a question of incorporating gender into research and innovation.
The European Commission is working in a focused and strategic manner to promote gender equality in research and innovation as part of the EU’s strategy for gender equality for 2020-25. From 2022, all public-sector institutions, including higher education and research institutions that are partners in a Horizon Europe project, must draw up a Gender Equality Plan before they can participate in Horizon Europe projects. AU has drawn up a gender equality plan, the primary focus of which is gender equality in academic positions, because the challenges are particularly clear in this area.
When applying for Horizon Europe funding, you should be aware that it remembering to integrate the aspect of gender into your research can have a major impact on how your application is evaluated.
When planning your project and writing your application, you should consider and describe how you intend to work with the aspect of gender in your research or innovation project. Specifically, you should address the gender aspects of your research or innovation project, not equality or gender balance in your project consortium. This should be included in the excellence section of your application, and is mandatory for all applications under the programmes in Pillar II, unless an exception has been explicitly stated in the call for applications. What this means is that the inclusion of the aspect of gender is also one of the criteria on which the applications are evaluated. Read the evaluation criteria in the Horizon Europe Work Programme under Award Criteria on page 21.
If you apply for other Horizon Europe grants, addressing the aspect of gender in your project is also a good idea.
The gender balance of the consortium is not an evaluation criterion per se. The general rule is that projects should included most qualified researchers in their fields to ensure the highest level of excellence. However, the gender balance of the consortium may play a role nonetheless. After the evaluators have assigned points and ranked the applications, in some cases two excellent applications will receive the same number of points. In the event that there is only funding available to support one project, other criteria will be used to evaluate the two finalists to decide which one will receive Horizon Europe support. Gender balance in the consortium is one of these criteria. This means that the gender balance of the consortium may end up playing a role in the evaluation of the application. Read the ranking criteria in the Horizon Europe Work Programme under Procedure, page 26.