The Research Organisations are Required to Implement a Gender Equality Plan

Abstract

As of January 2022, all Public bodies, such as research funding bodies, national ministries, or other public authorities, including public-for-profit organisations, higher education establishments, public and private, and Research organisations (public and private) from the EU must conform to the European Commission’s Gender Equality Plan (GEP) eligibility criterion of Horizon Europe. In short, A GEP is a set of commitments and actions that aim to promote gender equality in an organisation through a process of structural change.

Gender equality is a fundamental value of the European Union and is one of the UN’s sustainable development goals (SDGs). Gender equality in research and learning ensures that Research & Innovation (R&I) systems support democratic and equal societies. In this aspect, a correlation between the innovation capacity of a country and the gender equality index in that country has also been observed. The benefits of an equal distribution of gender within an organization include: improvement in the quality and impact of research and innovation by helping to ensure it is reflective of and relevant to the whole of society, better working environments that enable good quality research and learning and help maximise the potential and talents of all staff and students, attraction and retain of talent by ensuring that all staff can be confident that their abilities will be valued and recognised fairly and appropriately.