GenTIC welcomes proposals from PhD-holding researchers interested in applying for a Skłodowska–Curie Postdoctoral (PF) Fellowship. Our group, based at the IN3 at Universitat Oberta de Catalunya, specifically encourages applications related to gender in/equalities in research and innovation across Europe. GenTIC has extensive experience in coordinating and participating in European gender equality projects – a total of 7 across FP7, H2020, Horizon Europe – as well as leading national and regional research projects (see Projects). During the MSCA 2023 call we supported and won two successful applications.

Currently, we are interested in supporting applications on the following topics:

Intersectional data

European policy on gender and science is moving towards an intersectional perspective. This includes an orientation towards supporting intersectional Gender Equality Plans as well as considering how intersectional issues affect research content and methods. While intersectionality has been developed on a conceptual level, there is currently a need to better understand how intersectionality can be operationalised and addressed within the concrete equality efforts of organisations. This includes a better understanding of the audit, design, implementation and impact assessment of intersectional interventions. At GenTIC we are especially interested in the development of new monitoring indicators that capture the outcomes and impacts of interventions that tackle inequalities from an intersectional perspective (even interventions that target gender only can have an intersectional impact). This might include the use of quantitative and qualitative methods, or less conventional approaches such as visualisation methods or Qualitative Comparative Analysis.

Decolonization of European gender and science knowledge/policy

Equality, diversity and inclusion strategies and interventions are becoming increasingly popular in research and innovation organisations in recognition of the benefits of a more diverse research and innovation workforce.  Despite these efforts, criticisms of these kinds of interventions have been forthcoming as merely ‘tinkering’ or ‘tokenism’ and not dealing with, or even acknowledging the systemic nature of racism, ableism, classism, or the patriarchy embedded in research organisations. How these types of interventions affect and impact the knowledge base –remains a great unknown. Taking a ‘decolonial’ approach to knowledge creation, however, seems a promising strategy to enable a more accurate assessment of inequalities in research organisations whilst rewiring knowledge production in order to value indigenous knowledge. At GenTIC we are especially interested in projects that use innovative participatory methods for knowledge production. We welcome innovative proposals on the assessment, circulation and dissemination of scientific knowledge across (and going beyond) Europe with regards to intersectional gender equality.

Women and the design of digital tools and services

Women are under-represented when it comes to the design and development of technological tools and services, including Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems. The detection and mitigation of bias in these fast-evolving technological systems is an ongoing challenge. It is important that technological products and services do not reproduce biases and gender stereotypes and that they contribute to empowering the personal and digital skills of women. At GenTIC we are interested in multidisciplinary research projects that develop new methods for bias detecting and mitigation in specific technologies but also broader technological services, taking into account an intersectional perspective. This line of research is currently explored in the HORIGESTEM project which aims to broaden secondary students’ perspectives about STEM through interventions based on female role models. This project is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Research and Innovation and will run until September 2025.

Are you interested to apply?

Candidates are invited to send one PDF file to gentic@uoc.edu (subject: MSCA-2024), by 1st of July 2024, including:

• A short CV (max 2 pages), with your ORCID, Scopus or ResearcherID profile.
• A Letter of Interest including a summary of your project idea (max. 2 pages).

Related links:

The details of the GenTIC call for hosting MSCA Postdoctoral Fellowships 2024 can be found on the EURAXESS website.