CENTRE OF EXCELLENCE ON INCLUSIVE GENDER EQUALITY IN RESEARCH & INNOVATION: CREATING KNOWLEDGE AND ENGAGING IN COLLABORATIVE ACTION
INSPIRE will build the European centre of excellence on inclusive gender equality in research and innovation, globally renowned for the quality of its research and analysis produced. It brings together cutting-edge knowledge, ambitious policy approaches, and innovative practices to provide a gateway for scholars, equality experts, practitioners and trainers to connect and share resources, co-create new ones, and link strategically with public and private institutions to benefit the European Research Area.
With a total budget of 5 million € funded by the Horizon Europe Research Funding Programme, INSPIRE is coordinated by Gender and ICT (GenTIC) at the IN3 of Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) and led by researcher Rachel Palmén as principal investigator. It builds on GenTIC’s and UOC’s longstanding experience in gender equality and research – through taking a leading role in FP7 and Horizon 2020 projects such as GenPORT, GEDII, ACT and CASPER.
The project will provide thought leadership and direction in the design, implementation, and evaluation of inclusive Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) from an intersectional perspective across Europe. INSPIRE’s ambitious research programme develops new, relevant indicators for inclusive GEP development, and conducts a GEP monitoring survey whilst identifying key configurations of GEP success and failure. It will fill key knowledge gaps as a result of case studies on intersectional policies, whilst identifying promising practices in gendered regional innovation policy.
Additionally, this new Centre of Excellence counts on 4 Knowledge & Support Hubs (KSHs) led by renowned academics and practitioners throughout Europe to develop cutting-edge knowledge on sustaining change, widening participation, intersectionality and fostering innovation and change in the private sector. Building on the experiences of the ACT project, these hubs will provide support to 12 communities of practice (involving more than 95 institutions) to facilitate the implementation of Gender Equality Plans and foster mutual support for the co-development of innovative practices, training, and data collection.
INSPIRE strengthens the evidence base for informed policymaking and engages decision-makers in policy and R&I funding. Ultimately, it will reduce disparities across EU member states and strengthen the European Research Area by spreading knowledge, know-how and new opportunities for more open and inclusive research and innovation.
The project lasts for 4 years and involves 14 partners from Europe (Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Hungary, The Netherlands, Poland, Slovenia and Spain) as well as Latin America. Besides coordinating the project and leading the management tasks, GenTIC (IN3-UOC) will lead the empirical research of the case studies and key configurations of Gender Equality Plans success and failure.
Start date: 1 October 2022 – End date: 30 September 2026
Project coordinator: Rachel Palmén (GenTIC – UOC)
Consortium:
Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (Spain)
Joanneum Research (Austria)
University of Southern Denmark (Denmark)
Jagiellonian University in Krakow (Poland)
Notus (Spain)
Facultad Latinoamericana de Ciencias Sociales (FLACSO) (Argentina)
Europa Media (Hungary)
Portia (United Kingdom)
Radboud University (The Netherlands)
Fraunhofer ISI (Germany)
Hasselt University (Belgium)
Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (Slovenia)
GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences (Germany)
INNOSYSTEMS M.IKE. (Greece)
Funding body:
This project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe research and innovation programme under grant agreement No 101058537.
Related projects: