2nd European Gender Summit

© European Gender Summit

Starting today, the 2nd European Gender Summit will be dedicated to 'Aligning Agendas for Excellence'. The Summit will take place today and tomorrow at the European Parliament in Brussels and will gather "top-level researchers, science leaders, and policy makers to examine gender issues that impact on the implementation of the upcoming HORIZON 2020, European Research Area, and Innovation Union".  Around 400 participants and 30 top-level international speakers will be attending this year's Summit.

The summit aims to launch the development of a European gender equality agenda. This is important in order to provide a valuable tool for the action of research institutions, funding organisations, industry innovation drivers, policy makers and gender experts all over EU. Considering the cultural diversity in the EU, it has been made a great effort to include gender issues in EU science and innovation policy - specifically those three initiatives mentioned above: Horizon 2020, European Research Area and the Innovation Union.

The Gender Summit will explore how the gender equality agendas of both European and national players can be aligned to enhance science's contribution to improve people's lives. Additionally, the European Gender Summit will also be an opportunity to present the latest gender research evidence, examples of initiatives for achieving structural change and improving the quality of research and innovation.