GenPORT was born in 2013 as an EU FP7 project aimed at creating an online community for sharing knowledge and inspiring collaborative action on gender and science. Contrary to other information portals, it is a community sourced internet site that offers an open collaborative environment for researchers, practitioners and policy-makers working on gender equality and excellence in science, technology and innovation. Its contents and services are shaped by the activities and contributions of the community members, in a participative design built up through a process of needs assessment.

The strategies and learning processes made during the development of the GenPORT portal have been discussed in the in the 9th European Conference on Gender Equality in Higher Education and Research, held in Paris on 12-14 September. Jörg Müller and Lidia Arroyo, members of Gender and ICT, have presented a poster that summarizes the GenPORT online communication and engagement strategy. Its implementation has involved three types of actions:

  • An early user engagement through an extensive interviewing process and user needs assessment, including specific science and portal advisory groups.
  • Producing genuine content and offering guidance on selected resources, backed up by content curation on Twitter. The portal content includes research synthesis, policy briefs and a Gender & Science Taxonomy, among other resources.
  • A social networking and media strategy for fostering a virtual presence on specific communities regarding gender and STEM, gender and medicine and gender and climate action.

The GenPORT project is now entering in its final year and concentrating on a variety of engagement activities to be carried out online. At this moment GenPORT counts on 224 registered users, 230 organizations and 699 submitted resources.

Folow the project on Twitter: @GenderPORTal or visit the portal GenPORT_logo