RESET: gender equality in scientific and academic policies

RESET

RESET, which stands for Redesigning Equality and Scientific Excellence Together, deals with a subject that has long been a concern for the European Union, where equality between men and women has been made a major objective.

Selected within the framework of the "H2020 Science With And For Society" call for projects aimed at helping research organisations implement gender equality plans, RESET is led by a consortium of European universities recognised nationally as institutions of excellence.  

The project is dedicated to removing the barriers that hinder women's careers in research and the academic world, from enrolment in a PhD programme to being hired for a permanent position. It seeks to increase the participation of women at all levels in scientific, strategic and leadership positions and to support gender mainstreaming in research and innovation activities.

RESET's operating procedures are based on two principles: co-design and  intersectionality, defined as a scientific approach analysing the complex way in which origin, skin colour, class, gender and other individual characteristics overlap and intersect in the reality of processes and behaviour.

Promoting co-design and collective intelligence methods is an important facet of RESET. The member universities consider that an effective, sustainable, systemic and cultural change is achieved when it is user-centred. The gender equality action plan is built on a participatory approach and proposes measures adapted to the University of Bordeaux community in terms of equality, diversity and quality of working life.

The local project teams rely on the involvement of all communities of academia. One of RESET's expected impacts is to make co-design a regular policy-making practice, fully integrated in academic culture.