Measuring gender in R&I – theories, methods, and experience

ABSTRACT

This article provides an overview of the theoretical assumptions, methods, and key results from the Evaluation Framework for Promoting Gender Equality in Research and Innovation (EFFORTI) project, which was funded by the European Commission. The purpose of EFFORTI was to analyse the impact of interventions to promote gender equality in research and innovation (R&I), and to establish criteria for more responsible and responsive research and innovation (RRI) systems in Europe. This article provides an overview of the project’s main results and the lessons learnt from the empirical analysis of R&I systems in several European countries and a comparison of 19 gender equality intervention measures.

KEYWORDS:

• Gender equality
• evaluation
• research and innovation
• evaluation framework
• EFFORTI
• theory of change

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Notes

1 Unless otherwise noted, this section is based on Reidl et al. (2018).

2 A full list of all indicators can be found in Kalpazidou Schmidt et al. (2018).

3 Unless otherwise noted, this section is based on Palmén et al. (2018).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under [grant number 710470].

Notes on contributors

Rachel Palmén

Rachel Palmén is Senior Researcher at the Gender and ICT Research Program, Internet Interdisciplinary Institute, Open University of Catalonia and at Notus: Applied Social Research. She specializes in gender (in)equalities and science and interventions in this field focusing on the impact of policy and other initiatives. Twitter handle @rachelpalmen.

Evanthia Kalpazidou Schmidt

Evanthia Kalpazidou Schmidt is Associate Professor and Research Director at the Department of Political Science, Aarhus University. She specializes in science and innovation policy; Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI); gender in knowledge production and research organizations; European gender policies and strategies; impact of knowledge governance and policy interventions; research evaluation; European research policy and governance.

Clemens Striebing

Clemens Striebing is Researcher at the Center for Responsible Research and Innovation (CeRRI) of Fraunhofer IAO. At Fraunhofer CeRRI, he is concerned with gender equality in the innovation system, organizational cultures and the transfer and exploitation of research outputs.

Sybille Reidl

Sybille Reidl is Senior Researcher at the Institute for Economics and Innovation Research of JOANNEUM RESEARCH, which is focused on applied research and consulting services in the fields of science, technology, and innovation (STI). Her main research areas are gender/diversity and human resources in STI and evaluation of gender equality policies and initiatives in R&I.

Susanne Bührer

Susanne Bührer has been employed at Fraunhofer ISI in Karlsruhe since 1996, and has been the Coordinator of the Business Unit ‘Policy Design and Evaluation’ since 2010. Her specialized research fields include program evaluations, monitoring the evaluation of institutional funding measures, the topic of gender and innovation, and responsible research and innovation issues. Twitter handle: @FraunhoferISI.

Dóra Groó

Dóra Groó is President of the Association of Hungarian Women in Science. A medical doctor by training she made her PhD in experimental medicine and worked for 10 years in pharmaceutical research. From 1994 to 2012, she was Director of the Hungarian Science and Technology Foundation (TETALAP).