GENDER IN THE CONTENT OF RESEARCHAND INNOVATION

Why is it necessary to address the gender dimension in the content of research and innovation?

Research and innovation have a significant impact on society and quality of life. However, the results of research and innovation do not always bring the same benefits to women and men (and sometimes other social groups are neglected as well).

A number of cases is known where the implicit focus on the male user and the omission of partial physical differences between men and women and the different experiences or needs of women have led to limited validity of research results, lower relevance or safety of research products for women. Such approach can result in an irrelevant, ineffective or non-functional research product and thus in inefficient use of public funds, frustrated investment, failure to seize market opportunities or unintended damage to health.

Gender dimension in different areas of research and development – videos from the GEECCO project

Humans & Computers

Robots in our Society

Energy for all

Mobility for all

Inclusive design – why intersectionality matters

Why is it necessary to address the gender dimension in the content of research and innovation?

From 2019, TA CR started to evaluate how gender perspective is reflected and possibly integrated in research projects, namely in the ZÉTA programme (junior programme) and later in the ÉTA programme (applied research in social sciences and humanities).

Methodological support

Exhibition: Integration of gender dimension in the content of research and innovation

The exhibition highlights the importance of integrating the gender dimension into research and innovation. Using specific examples from the fields of energy, medicine, robotics, transport or information technology, it shows that taking into account the role of sex and gender in research practice leads to safer, more exploited or more market-relevant research results.

The exhibition was created by a team from the Technische Universität Wien under the GEECCO project in which TA CR takes part.

The complete exhibition can be viewed HERE.

GENDER-NET Plus

The main objective of the GENDER-NET Plus ERA-NET Cofund project is to support projects with a gender dimension through a joint international call launched by European providers who are part of the project consortium. In addition, the consortium is engaged in other activities to support gender mainstreaming in research and institutional changes to ensure gender equality.

More information on the supported projects can be found HERE

TIP for calls

It is useful to consider the role of the gender dimension in a project whenever the research deals with people, when its output is to be used by people or have any impact on them. This can be a methodology for implementing public policies, applications for social innovations or development of medicines or foods, and many other topics.

Although the consideration of gender dimension may not seem relevant at a first glance in many technical or natural science research projects, make no mistake. The gender dimension can play a role, for example, in the handling force, design or safety features of prototypes and function samples, in the way the project output is presented, in product marketing, but also in the use of human tissues, male or female, in the research process.

If you consider that the integration of the gender dimension into the project methodology would be useful in terms of research impacts, do so even in calls where this aspect is not part of the evaluation criteria. It is relevant for the quality of the research plan and for maximizing the exploitation potential and social relevance of research supported from public sources.

In particular, it is always necessary to pose the question whether gender-blind research questions, methodologies and thinking about research impacts do not stand in the way to new findings, market opportunities or a higher quality of life.