Abstract

The ERC's mission is to encourage research of the highest quality in Europe through competitive funding and to support cutting-edge frontier research in all fields, based on scientific excellence. In order to give equal opportunities to men and women, the European Research Council set up a dedicated working group in 2008, a gender equality plan, and a varied group of measures to promote the integration of the gender dimension in the processes and content of ERC research. The most famous of such measures is the extension of female applicants' eligibility window by 18 months per child. Nevertheless, “leaky pipeline” and “glass ceilings” in academia are likely to affect day-to-day strategies in Universities to implement pre-award support services for female ERC applicants, leading to a smaller number of female applicants, and therefore awardees. A leaky pipeline refers to the effect of women leaving academic careers as they move up the career ladder, decreasing the number of women at the highest career levels. This effect notably affects STEM fields (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics). Glass ceiling is related to structural barriers, such as discrimination and gender bias, that hinder women from accessing the top in decision-making and managerial positions (She Figures 2021). For example, data from our university shows that an equal number of female and male researchers indicate interest in each ERC call; however, only a small number of female applicants complete the provided writing training and even fewer submit the application, when compared to male researchers. In this presentation, we will share results of a journey map analysis that illustrates the barriers and challenges still posed on ERC female applicants in our institution, despite best efforts to support their progress in grant writing and submission. One example of the reported barriers is the time commitment dedicated to family caregiving tasks, which takes away from time to define the idea and write the proposal. It will also examine the outcomes of specific strategies to empower female applicants for ERC funding, such as a bootcamp for women researchers, and a co-creation session focused on strategies to support ERC submission for female applicants. The bootcamp was designed together with the women researchers through a quick survey where they were free to choose among preset activities and to suggest other activities they would like to participate in the bootcamp. In this way, the bootcamp intends to provide two intensive days of intertwining training sessions with hands-on activities developed by women researchers. This activity will also afford networking occasions at which women researchers will exchange experiences regarding best practices in research projects, especially in a leadership position. The goal for these activities - Bootcamp and co-creation session - is to increase by 75% the motivation to apply to ERC funding and by 100% in proposal submission in a few years time. This presentation will include participants’ feedback on these events, and welcome the sharing of strategies and other cases studies from conference participants in order to build a common strategy to empower and enable female applicants for ERC funding.