Gender equality and gender mainstreaming in research

In spite of national and EU-level strategies on gender equality, European research still suffers from a considerable loss and inefficient use of highly skilled women. The annual increase in female researchers is less than half the annual number of female PhD graduates and too few women are in leadership positions or involved in decision-making. In 2005 the Council set a goal for women to be in 25% of leading public sector research positions, but in 2009 only 13% of the heads of higher education institutions were women. The integration of a gender dimension into the design, evaluation and implementation of research is also still too limited. The challenge is to improve on all these points to increase the quality and relevance of research. The Commission is already committed to ensure 40% of the under-represented sex in all its expert groups, panels and committees and will apply this particularly under Horizon 2020.
Encouraging gender diversity to foster science excellence and relevance.