Women in Industrial Research (WIR)

NEWS - February 2006

European Conference "Re-searching Women in Science and Technology"
May 15-16, 2006 - Museumsquartier, Vienna, Austria

This conference will give an impetus to increase the percentage of women in industrial research in Austria and Europe. Strategies for equal opportunities will be presented and new action plans in an international context will be worked out and discussed. The WiST expert group will also present their report on 'the business perspective' of the gender issue in the sector.

The conference is geared to scientists, students, persons responsible for gender and diversity issues, human resource developers in companies, political, business and media representatives and in general, to everybody who is interested in the issue.

Programme and additional Information ( 95KB)

Main Topics:

- Political developments in Europe and Austria
- Attractiveness of the industry for female scientists and technicians
- Innovative human resource development for cutting-edge research
- Presentation of role models in European industry

Organisers:

- Austrian Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology in the framework of the FEMtech initiative
- European Commission, Directorate-General for Research, Women and Science unit

Co-Organisers:

- EU Expert Group WiST - Women in Science and Technology - the business perspective
- FFG Austrian Research Promotion Agency
- ÖGUT Austrian Society for Environment and Technology

Location:

MuseumsQuartier Vienna, Museumplatz 1, 1070 Wien

++++++++++++CLICK HERE TO REGISTER++++++++++

NEWS - April/May 2005

Council Resolution - 18 April 2005
The European Competitive Council invited the Member States to formulate objectives for the participation of women in science: first step should be the 25% objective at EU average for women in leading positions in the public sector and to increase the participation of women in industrial research and technology/ engineering. (COMT 74 / RECH 85 of 18 April 2005 - 128KB)

Commission staff working paper – 11 March 2005
The new report “Women and Science: Excellence and Innovation – Gender Equality in Science (SEC (2005) 370 of 11 March 2005 74KB - Annex 374KB) presents new data on progress made to close the gender gap in science and technology. Especially in industrial research growth rates were higher for women than for men within the last years. In 2002 18% of all researchers in industry in EU 25 were women.
The increases 1999 – 2002 have been highest in
- Spain with 4.194 (+150%) additional women researchers working in industry,
- Germany with 3.936 (+27%),
- France with 1.227 (+7%),
- Portugal with 487 (+ 61%), and
- Cyprus with 39 (+ 61%).
Source: SEC (2005) 370, p. 12, footnote 45

The report recommends as future priorities:
- Improving scientific excellence by promoting gender awareness and fairness
- Boosting the numbers of women in leading positions (The proportion of women in leading positions (as Full professors) should increase to at least 25% by 2010; for new recruitments the proportion of women should be at least 33%)
- Strengthening gender research and the gender dimension in research (for example to establish gender research in EU research funding, to launch a European award on excellence in gender research)
- Enhancing the role of women in engineering and innovation (one third of all researchers in industry and of all graduates in engineering should be women by 2010)
- Research careers which allow for a reconciliation of professional and private life (see also the Commission Recommendation of 11 March 2005 for a European Charter for Researchers and on a Code of Conduct for the recruitment of Researchers (2005/251/EC)
- Gender monitoring in the Member States and more efficient monitoring of the Research Framework Programme

NEWS - February 2005

WIR Workshop - 1 March 2005 - Berlin

There was a workshop at the recent 4th International World Women Work conference, which took place in Berlin between Feb 28 and March 1 2005. Endorsed by Jean-Claude Juncker, Prime Minister of Luxembourg (and the current President of the EU), the event generated increased debate concerning the status of women in the workplace. The WIR workshop was chaired by Pierre Bismuth, with Helga Ebeling and Eleonora Peis also in attendance.

Launch of new EU Expert Group - 16 February 2005

'Women in Science and Technology - the business perspective'
A new expert group has been launched in the context of the WIR initiative. It involves prominent representatives of European industry and has been set up with a view to analysing the promotion of women in Science and Technology from a business perspective and to develop an integrated approach to the cultural change involved within companies.

The kick-off meeting was held on Feb 16th 2005 with around 10 leading companies involved, with Pierre Bismuth (Schlumberger Ltd) as Chairman and Dr. Margo Brouns (University Groningen) as Rapporteur.

Further information can be obtained from Marina Marchetti - Marina.Marchetti@ec.europa.eu

Publication of the Proceedings - February 2005

We have just recently published “Speeding Up Changes in Europe” which details the proceedings from the international WIR conference which was held in Berlin, in October 2003 and attended by more than 350 experts from more than 40 countries. Click here to download the PDF version (1.9 MB)or if you wish to receive a free copy of this or any other WIR publication - contact Vera Fehnle vera.fehnle@ec.europa.eu or Robert O’Meara robert.o'meara@ec.europa.eu

NEWS - 14 October 2003

Women in Industrial Research - speeding up changes in Europe

More than 350 experts from more than 40 countries attended the international conference "Women in Industrial Research - speeding up changes in Europe" which took place in Berlin, Germany on 10-11 October. 
Results and recommendations (PDF: 28 kB) of the WIR-conference, final programme (PDF: 160 kB),  presentations and further information: http://www.wir-conference.de.

Wake-up call of CEOs

In Berlin, Andrew Gould, CEO of Schlumberger, presented a position paper ( 17 kB) outlining the public commitment of the CEOs of a group of leading R&D companies (Airbus, Air Liquide, Hewlett Packard, Rolls Royce, Schlumberger, Siemens) to promote women in science and technology in the private sector in Europe. The companies are ready to take the following actions: