This month, the Gender and ICT Programme in the IN3 launched our four-year EU FP7 Supporting Action which will create an internet-based community of practice on gender equality in science, technology and innovation. Partners from five other EU Member States (Germany, Italy, Slovakia, Sweden, and the UK) came to the IN3 for the first project meeting on 3-5 June 2013.  Here, we agreed the work programme of the entire project team for the coming year.  We also started planning the high level events which will be held with stakeholders: science organisations, policy makers, and experts in portal development and in gender equality.

The first year of the project will be devoted to gathering information on what good quality resources currently exist in this area.  These might include gender action plans, equality toolkits, statistical data, case studies, academic articles, reports, weblinks, videos and more – in other words, any resource in any medium which is relevant to this area and which will eventually be classified and shared on the internet portal we are building.  We will also be talking to gender and science communities about what they would like from a internet portal on gender equality in science.  As this will be a very powerful resource driven and shaped by those who use it, getting the input of community members at this stage is vital.  If you have materials which you would like to contribute, please get in touch with us.

Juliet Webster: jwebster@uoc.edu

Jörg Müller: jmuller@uoc.edu