EWPS General Assembly took place in Brussels at the Museum of Natural Sciences – Royal Belgian Institute of Natural Sciences on 24 of September 2019. The EPWS president Prof. Claudine Hermann and Executive Board members presented annual Activity and Financial Reports. The Assembly also elected the Administrative Board. BASNET Forumas president Assoc. Prof. Dr. Dalia Satkovskiene was elected to the Administrative Board of EPWS with alternate, the Chair of BASNET Executive Board Dr. Sandra Pralgauskaitė. It shows the high international estimation of BASNET Forumas achievements.
The annual EPWS conference: Alone is not enough. Shared challenges, joint achievements, mutual dialogue for future actions in the fields of gender equality and the gender dimension in EU research and innovation was held 25 of September 2019. Opening the conference, Claudine Hermann, EPWS President, conferred the best wishes for a successful conference from Carlos Moedas, the Commissioner for Research and Innovation, the Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality, Věra Jourová, the Chair of the Committee for Women’s Rights and Gender Equality (FEMM) of the European Parliament Committee Evelyn Regner and several further members of the European Parliament. In her Keynote speech entitled “Together toward gender equality in research for the future: policy coordination, intersectionality and the private sector”, Marcela Linková, Chair of European Research Area and Innovation Committee (ERAC) Standing Working Group on Gender in Research and Innovation, highlighted how the year 2019 marks twenty years of EU activities for gender equality and the gender dimension in science and research.
She illustrated the development of EU gender related research policy and its impressive achievements over the years, made possible by mutual support and information exchange across civil society actors, the European Parliament, the European Commission and the European Council (Member States). She identified the launch of the European Research Area (ERA) in 2000 as a special milestone in this context, as it started including social issues, citizen involvement, responsibility and proclaimed gender equality as one of its priority areas. In 2020, the roadmap for the European Research Area will be under review. In view of the current situation and under the heading “What would we need?” Linková put forward six Recommendations:
a) Keep gender equality a priority for the future ERA;
b) Promote intersectional approaches to gender equality in structural change projects;
c) Involve the innovation sector/business enterprise sector in gender equality actions;
d) Seriously address gender based violence and harassment in research institutions, very importantly also in connection with the mobility in early career stages;
e) Make the integration of the gender dimension in research obligatory and part of excellence assessment;
f) Close the Widening gap by specific actions, e.g. connecting Widening finances to a change in gender quality policy.
Among other invited speakers of the conference BASNET Forumas president Dr. Dalia Satkovskiene presented the talk entitled “The Role of EPWS in the European Science Gender Equality Policy. A Baltic States Perspective”. She alerted to the unique experience of Eastern, Central European Countries and Baltic States brought into the European discussion. She elaborated on the support of the Platform in transforming her network into a registered association and called for supporting and strengthening the role of networks, associations and NGO’s established on the basis of successful European projects.