Achieving gender equality in COST’s research networks

07/11/2024

COST is fully committed to promoting gender equality and supporting both talented women and men in research and innovation. We aim to ensure equal opportunities and gender-friendly career advancement within all our research networks.

To further our existing work in this area we have recently released a Gender Equality Plan (GEP) focused on advancing gender equality in all COST activities, with a specific focus on the COST Actions.

The idea of this GEP is to encourage COST Actions to incorporate a gender dimension in their activities and provide suggestions on how to advance gender equality in what they do. Its aim is to promote an inclusive culture at the level of both the Administration, as well as the Actions, and create a ‘gender equality mindset’ among Action participants.

The GEP outlines the following recommendations and commitments:

Recommendations for COST Actions

  • Ensure gender balance in your networks;
  • Nominate a Gender Equality Advisor;
  • Identify and invite participants from the underrepresented group;
  • Develop a COST Action Gender Equality Plan (template available here);
  • Organise Action events with a gender focus;
  • Benefit from the gender equality events organised by the COST Association;
  • Use gender inclusive language in internal and external network communication to promote equality and eradicate gender bias.

Responsibilities of the COST Association:

  • Highlight the importance of including a gender dimension in a COST Actions during COST Info Days and first Management Committee meetings;
  • Monitor the status of gender balance within COST Actions;
  • Organise annual gender equality training events, informing COST Action participants on integrating a gender dimension in R&I;
  • Put in the spotlight those COST Actions that have organised impressive gender equality activities;
  • Publish gender-related success stories to mark the International Day of Women and Girls in Science (11 February) and International Women’s Day (8 March).

To support COST Actions in developing their own GEP, COST has developed a customisable template for the creation of a Gender Equality Plan.

Finally, in order to lead by example, the Gender Equality Plan for COST activities is complemented with a Gender Equality Plan for the COST Association that was published in September 2024.

State of play

The state of play of women representation in COST Actions is as follows (as of July 2024):

COST Actions have an average of 49% women representation

52% of researchers in COST Action leadership positions are women

43% of Action Chairs and 56% of Action Vice-Chairs are women

53% of the total young participants in COST Actions are women

57% of ITC participants in COST Actions are women

COST’s target under Horizon Europe is to achieve 50% gender balance in its research networks. The current statistics demonstrate a commendable level of gender balanced representation across various roles and activities thus far. Only for the COST Action Chair position men are still in majority and COST is actively working with its community through its training and campaigns to address this.

Best practise examples

There are many best practise examples available already within the COST Action community. Here are some highlights of Actions that have embraced gender inclusion into the fabric of their network:

The European Network on International Student Mobility: Connecting Research and Practice (ENIS) are one of the first Actions we are aware of to independently publish a gender inclusion action plan They run an annual communications campaign to coincide with International Day of Women and Girls in Science to raise visibility of women practitioners and scholars in their network including webinars, podcasts, and social media content. The network also reports regularly on their gender statistics providing full transparency

International Youth Day was celebrated on the 12th of August and to mark the occasion A European Network to Leverage the Multi-Age Workforce (LeverAge) released their Inclusiveness Plan. “At LeverAge, we are committed to fostering a sustainable future with an age-diverse workforce that values the contributions of all generations.” The Plan goes further than a standard GEP to broaden the definition of gender equality and consider geographic diversity. It is complemented with a concrete plan to ensure inclusivity in all network activities from its grant calls to Training School participation, meetings and event hosting, student development, and general Action participation.

Confined Molecular Systems: From a new Generation of Materials to the Stars (COSY) have created the dedicated FemCOSY group to raise awareness of gender biases, share experiences of women in science, and create a supporting community and foster networking to improve the situation for women in science, with particular focus on the scientific areas covered by the COSY Action (physics, computational and experimental, and computational chemistry).

“The FemCOSY group was created as a supportive team for female researchers of the network at any stage of their careers. We tried to create a cooperative (vs. competitive) atmosphere between female peers, where everyone can develop their full potential and express their creativity in science, without being scared for being judged and undervalued.” explains María Pilar de Lara-Castells, Chair of COSY.

COSY is finding practical ways where women in their network can get more hands-on and practical experience. For example CATCOSY2024, the annual COSY conference, is organised by three-member organising committee formed by two Early Career Researchers alongside one senior researcher where experience is gained and personal networks grow.

The PEN@Hydropower network host a Women Mentoring Group, an initiative aimed at supporting and attracting women to the field of hydropower. Women are still underrepresented in hydropower and energy sectors, with only a 25% average representation and as such efforts to attract and retain talent are crucial.

Launched in April 2024 the inaugural cohort of six women have embarked on a journey of growth and development. “Mentoring is a powerful tool that offers long-term guidance and support. The relationship between mentor and mentee allows senior women to share their knowledge and experience, helping younger women navigate career challenges and fostering essential skills like self-reflection and self-awareness. The mentoring process aims to enhance visibility and boost self-confidence, particularly in male-dominated fields like hydropower.” explain the Action.

PEN@Hydropower’s overarching goal is to achieve gender parity within their Working Group structures by the end of 2026. While leadership levels already demonstrate equality, there remains a disparity within Working Groups, where female representation hovers around 20-30%.

The COST Action PRIORITY is not only advancing research on addressing the environmental challenges posed by micro- and nanoplastics, but also taking significant strides in promoting Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) within the scientific community. The Action’s DEI Group, led by Equality Manager Prof. Mariasole Bannò, with the support of a virtual mobility grantee Camilla Leggerini, organised two training workshops, conducted in collaboration with other experts in the field. The workshops explored which strategies could improve DEI in STEM disciplines, in particular in the topics covered by PRIORITY. The DEI Group also publishes regular newsletters to raise awareness and informs participants on gender-related issues such as the use of inclusive language.

“The presence of a DEI group ensures that diversity and inclusion are not just exercises to be ticked off, but integral components of the way we operate. This brings immense value to research, promoting diverse perspectives and creating a more innovative and inclusive research environment in line with EU provisions. This is the purpose of the DEI group working across all PRIORITY Working Groups.” explains Prof. Bannò.

Ensuring gender balance is one of the key goals of the FinAI network (Fintech and Artificial Intelligence in Finance – Towards a transparent financial industry). The COST FinAI Diversity Team actively promotes women participation in all the Action’s activities.

“We started the Diversity Team as a small group and – as theFinAI is about to end in few weeks – we end as a larger one. We have currently 43 participants (not only women, which is itself an achievement). Our work has been in two directions: raise awareness and promote gender diversity and inclusion in FinAI; and work together on research in our field of study related to gender diversity and inclusion

We gave ourselves guidelines for event organisation, promoted events on the topic, not only the 4 editions of the Women in Fintech and AI conferences, but also workshops on diversity issues (e.g. ‘Diversity challenges and opportunities in FinTech’ that took place in hybrid form in Naples, 2022). We always strived to have hybrid events to allow all participants to take part in events without having to travel. We think this is especially important for those women that also act as caregivers and might have less flexibility in travelling. 

We also did research on these topics such as exploring gender differences in the knowledge and use of Fintech products. This research was supported by a Virtual Mobility Grant and part of results have been published in the paper Maria, I., Tanda, A., & Tarantola, C. (2023). A latent variable approach to Millennials’ knowledge of green finance.” shares Alessandra Tanda, Diversity Team Leader for FinAI.

Additional information

Many more example of COST Actions shining a light on gender equality and be found in the live blogs published for International Women’s Day: Gender Live Blog 2023 and Gender Live Blog 2024.

Download the Gender Equality Plan for COST Actions.

Download the Gender Equality Plan template.

Discover more about gender equality at COST.