21st Gender Summit – Europe, from 14 to 16 April 2021

he 21st Gender Summit will take place on-line on 14-16 April. It will mark the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Gender Summit platform. To celebrate, the Elsevier Foundation prepared a story of our journey so far, which maps important milestones the Gender Summit global community has achieved since the first Gender Summit event in November 2011. A 10th anniversary is a good opportunity to take stock and plan what needs to be done in the next 10 years. The GS21 programme shows that we are certainly in a better place now. The EU policy to advance gender dimension into research, and gender equality into R&I participation, has been strengthened in Horizon Europe and similar science policy innovations have been introduced by Member States, e.g., in Germany and Netherlands, as well as beyond Europe, for instance in Canada, USA, South Korea and Japan. But the GS21 programme also warns of the risks of re-emergence of gender stereotypes (magnified by the COVID-19 pandemic) and of interferences to hinder academic freedom (e.g., the ban on gender studies in Hungary).

The theme chosen for GS21 is “Gender Equality, Diversity, Inclusion post-Corona: Quo vadis?” The programme helps explain these concepts and the connections between them in the context of science knowledge-making. The impact of the pandemic on science and academic institutions, the full effects of which are yet to be felt, will be discussed by several speakers. A number of science leaders have recorded video statements to explain the steps they took to address the effects of the crisis on researchers, and women in particular, including: Katja Becker, the President of DFG; Reimund Neugebauer, President of Fraunhofer; Otmar Wiestler, President of Helmohltz Association; Martin Stratmann, President of Max Planck Society; and Hans-Christian Pape, the President of Alexander von Humboldt Foundation.

GS21 will be hosted on the Meetyoo platform, which requires a password protected login, so although the event is free each person must register to select the password. Click here to access the Registration page . The programme for GS21-Europe involves 120 researchers, gender experts, and policy specialists organised into 16 panel and keynote sessions, and 8 training workshops. We very much hope that you will join us there and will continue supporting the Gender Summit platform to help shape the ‘Quo Vadis’ of the next 10 years.

On behalf of the global Gender Summit Community, we thank you for your continued interest in advancing the Gender Summit mission to improve quality of research and innovation by applying knowledge of when, why, and how sex/gender factors impact on results and outcomes.

Please encourage colleagues in your networks to subscribe to the Gender Summit Newsletter at https://www.gender-summit.com

If you have any queries or comments about the Gender Summit Newsletter, please email the team