By Athene Donald. This week has seen me travelling to Vienna and Bratislava for a meeting of the European Research Council’s Scientific Council. Travelling between the two cities along the Danube by fast boat provided a rare treat of a little relaxation fitted into the normally intense work of such a committee meeting. I am still learning the ropes, getting to grips with acronyms (of course) and structures; this was only my second formal meeting of the Council and the ways of Brussels can seem a little mysterious to newcomers. I also attended my first meeting of the Gender Working Group, a group chaired by fellow Council member Isabelle Vernos, who contributed to the recent Nature Special focussing on gender. In her article there she included some ERC statistics and put the case against quotas. There is absolutely no doubt that the ERC takes the issue of gender very seriously and it worries about the statistics surrounding the success rates for women in the various rounds of awards. The figures are not good, as their 2012 Annual Report makes clear. (see data below) Yet the reasons for this are many and complex – and to some extent still unknown. The good news is that the figures are being collated and analysed. The bad news is that there is no simple fix. Read more...