The Region of Sardinia includes the SUPERA project in its development strategy

By Simona Corongiu and Tara Marini, Autonomous Region of Sardinia

The Autonomous Region of Sardinia has included the SUPERA project in its Regional Development Programme (PRS) 2020 – 2024, giving it the highest possible political recognition at this stage.

In fact, the PRS is the regional programming document valid from 2020 to 2024 which, by defining the strategies and policies that the Region intends to implement during the legislature, makes the inclusion of SUPERA a clear political commitment on the part of the President of the Region and his Regional Government.

The document “The Identity that is built in acting to create value and sustainable development for Sardinians and Sardinia“, adopted with DGR n. 9/15 of 5 March 2020, is structured in 7 strategies. Among them a central role is assumed by Strategy 2 on research and innovation.

The PRS specifies that the priority objective of regional research and innovation policies is to ensure structural and human competitive conditions for the territory and to guarantee gender equality, in order to encourage full participation in innovation and development processes, which are now globalized and characterized by a continuous evolution due to the advancement of technological and digital knowledge.

In this context, the political decision-maker has planned to recognise and disseminate the principle of gender equality within the regional administration. In this perspective, the document also specifies that the implementation of positive actions will be guaranteed to ensure the respect of the above-mentioned principle, also thanks to the results deriving from the SUPERA project, within the regional policies in favour of scientific research and innovation.

In particular, it should be noted that the Regional Programming Centre will be required to implement a set of positive actions, identified within the Gender Equality Plan of the Region of Sardinia, which will promote gender participation within the programmes aimed at promoting research and innovation, in implementation of the SUPERA project.

The expected result is to strengthen gender awareness in the research world in Sardinia in order to achieve a real structural change and therefore a greater participation in projects and programmes by women.

2021-03-25T12:01:07+02:00April 2nd, 2020|Tags: , , , , , |

Patrick Zaky’s arrest: the solidarity of the SUPERA Consortium

By the SUPERA Consortium

Despite the ongoing COVID-19 restrictions, the Supera Consortium remains concerned about the conditions of Patrick George Zaky, a 27-year-old Egyptian postgratuate student enrolled in the “GEMMA” Erasmus Mundus Master’s degree in Women’s and Gender Studies at the University of Bologna, Italy, who is held in custody in Egypt.

On February 7 2020 Patrick Zaki was arrested by the Egyptian authorities, apparently in connection with his activism and research in the area of human rights and gender issues. The international network Scholars at Risk has reported that after five months of studies in Italy, Zaki returned to Egypt for a family visit. Upon his arrival at Cairo Airport Zaki was reportedly detained, interrogated by members of the Egyptian National Security Agency (NSA) and then taken to an undisclosed location, where he was allegedly subjected to torture, including beatings and electric shocks.

According to the Egyptian Initiative for Personal Rights, a human rights organization based in Cairo, Egyptian authorities are investigating a number of allegations against Zaki, but have not publicly disclosed the grounds warranting  Zaki’s arrest. Zaki has been denied family visits, and has only had limited contact with legal counsel.

As of today, Zaki has been moved several times, and court hearings have been repeatedly put back due to the Coronavirus crisis.

The University of Bologna has issued a motion, calling for “Patrick Zaky’s safe and rapid return to Bologna, so that he can resume his studies. Until then, it is our duty to make sure that the Italian Government and the European Union continue to do their utmost to ensure Patrick’s return to our community.”

Responding to this motion, several international university networks have expressed their solidarity to Patrick Zaky.

Motion of the University of Bologna

The Conference of Italian Universities Rectors

Crue Universidades Españolas

Conférence des Présidents d’Université

Magna Charta Universitatum Observatory

European University association EUA

Scholars at Risk

2021-03-25T12:01:27+02:00March 21st, 2020|Tags: , , , |

XI European Conference on Gender Equality in Higher Education: save the date and call for abstracts

The Spanish Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, in collaboration with the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and the support of the European Network on Gender Equality in Higher Education and other Spanish stakeholders, is pleased to invite you to the 11th European Conference on Gender Equality in Higher Education that will be held in Madrid on 16-18 September 2020. The aim of the #XIGEHEConf is to promote a gender-sensitive culture in the academic and R&I systems, in light of the global challenges ahead of us.

The theme of the conference is “Advancing gender mainstreaming in Academia, Research and Innovation”. The International Scientific Committee welcomes high-level contributions in the following thematic areas:

• Gender approaches in fostering scientific-technical vocations, especially in STEM fields
• Integration of the gender dimension in university teaching (undergraduate, postgraduate and pre-doctoral training)
• Policies fostering the incorporation of the gender dimension into the content of research, knowledge transfer and innovation
• Policies fostering structural change for gender equality in the research, technology and innovation system
• Gender Equality Plans and strategies in research, technology and innovation institutions

With two cross-cutting dimensions for all the conference areas:
• Gender and Intersectionality
• Application to Polytechnic Universities, including special focus on STEM fields and Women in STEM, as well as on STEM-SSH interdisciplinarity

Proposals are expected to present research-based analysis, good practices, evaluation and impact of strategies and measures on the above mentioned areas.
NEWS: the deadline of the Call for abstracts has been extended until March 3rd, 2020. Please consult the  Abstracts Guidelines  and visit the conference website for additional infos.

Contact infos:
XI European Conference on Gender Equality in Higher Education
CONFERENCE 16-17-18 September 2020 at ETSI Industriales -UPM-
Technical School of Industrial Engineering of Madrid, Spain
secretaria@genderequalityconference2020.com
Twitter account: @XigeheConf #XIGEHEConf
Conference website

Join us in Madrid to celebrate the 11th European Conference on GEHE!

2021-03-25T12:16:49+02:00January 20th, 2020|Tags: , , , , |

See you in Madrid for the SUPERA launch event

The Conference on “Structural Gender Change at Universities and Research Funding Organisations” will be held on the 16th November 2018 (9.30 h – 14.30 h) in Madrid. The venue is the Ministry of Science, Innovation and Universities, in Paseo de la Castellana, 162.

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