GENDERA Conference on Gender and Innovation

The European Conference on Gender and Innovation - Maximising Innovation Potential Through Diversity in Research Organisations takes place from the 19th - 20th of March 2012 in Stuttgart, Germany and discusses, how innovation potential can be maximised through more diversity and gender equality in research and innovation processes.

In Europe, only 30% of researchers are women; in Austria only 22% of researchers are women. The “leaky pipeline” becomes apparent soon after completion of studies. Some 58% of students at graduation are women, but in the course of time and career progression, the numbers reverse and the number of women reaching senior research positions decreases significantly with only 20% of professorships held by women.

The EU-Project GENDERA has researched and identified measures implemented by research organizations in the nine partner countries that are shown to have lead to a sustainable and documented change to the number of women researchers achieving higher research positions. Several of the identified measures will be presented at the conference. A central question to be discussed is whether individual measures can lead to significant results or whether changes in organisational culture and structure are essential to achieve the goals?

JOANNEUM RESEARCH, POLICIES - Centre for Economic and Innovation Research is partner in the GENDERA project. At the conference Helene Schiffbaenker will discuss the question, what are good practices to promote gender equality in research organizations and what makes these measures successful?

The European GENDERA conference “Maximising Innovation Potential through Diversity in Research Organisations” from Monday 19th to Tuesday, 20th March 2012, in Stuttgart, Germany 

gathers experts and stakeholders from international and European organisations who will present and discuss how innovation potential can be maximised through more diversity and gender equality in research and innovation processes. The conference invites all stakeholders to join this debate.

The GENDERA project is supported by the European Commission under the FP7 Capacities programme.

Find out more about the programme here. More information about the conference can also be found under www.gendera.eu. The conference language is English. Participation at the conference is free of charge. Registration closes on 13. March 2012. To register please visit www.gendera.eu/index.php5?file=21.