Gender Equality Network in the European Research Area Performing in Physics – PAM (Planning-Action-Monitoring) tool

The WP3 monitoring tool was originally proposed to monitor the progress of GEPs at the level of each organization. As GEPs were not designed right in time to do so, it was agreed in the JS meeting in Vienna to develop an overall frame to monitor GEP progress – out of which each organization can choose measures and targets best fitting for their implementation work.
The resulting tool is not used to compare on a macro-level (like the WP5 Monitoring tool), but to monitor progress within a research organisation. The tool has been designed along the experiences that we as evaluation team made during the runtime of GENERA. It is therefore a tool based on the experiences in physics organisations and has been specifically conceptualized for physics.
Target groups are RFOs and RPOs in physics which are already active in planning and implementing gender equality measures and Gender Equality Plans (GEPs).
The accompanying evaluation of the GENERA project showed that it is a challenge for Implementation Managers to define targets and choose suitable measures. A vast amount of gender equality measures and targets can be found in toolboxes and literature. In praxis this creates a lot of confusions what to do or rather a complexity that needs to be structured – and the tool to structure it is the GENERA Action Tree, which links measures and targets.
The PAM tool, developed throughout the accompanying evaluation process consolidates experiences and expertise acquired throughout the project runtime. The development of the tool was aligned with the needs of the IMs and the research organizations’ management, in order to provide orientation, systematization and causalities – crucial in the field of physics.