NEXT-GENDER: Capacity building for the next generation of researchers and evaluators to engage in inclusive sex and gendered research

It has become evident that across Europe (and beyond), the academic environment does not provide sufficient education on sex-and gender-specific topics (SGT) in science and technology across fields. Given that integration of the gender dimension into research and innovation content is of paramount importance for society and growth and has thus become a requirement in research funding applications (especially in the Horizon Europe Programme), there is an urgent need to educate and train both researchers and proposal evaluators and in particular the younger generation on the importance of SGT and their integration into research. Inclusivity beyond SGT and intersectionality dimensions in research add to this urgent need, so that future research and innovation benefit everyone and especially the most vulnerable.

The aim of NEXT-GENDER is to develop a training programme, comprising face-to-face workshops, CoPs and web-based toolkits, to 1) help the research community understand the importance of sex & gender as research variables and how they intersect with other variables, 2) provide guidance on how to incorporate them into research curricula, and 3) address the requirement for inclusive SGT and intersectionality dimensions in project proposals.

ILSP/Athena RC is the Vice-Chair of the Action. It is responsible for the development of the web-based toolkits and for all project activities that involve gender and intersectionality dimensions in Artificial Intelligence.