Support
INSPIRE will provide a range of tools to support organisations and institutions though their journey in becoming more inclusive:
Communities of Practice
INSPIRE will support a wide variety of stakeholders through 12 Communities of Practice. Pioneered by the ACT project in the context of supporting gender equality practitioners in R&I, Communities of Practice are effective means to overcome isolation of many practitioners and organise equality work across organisational boundaries. Communities of Practice are also key for building capacity for change because they recognise that knowledge forms part of a material practice that is anchored in local and historical context. Communities of Practice foreground bottom-up approaches to knowledge creation and context sensitive support among practitioners.
Support Packages
Support packages provide a flexible but standardized way to offer high-quality support to gender practitioners. Support packages combine reusable materials with on-demand support elements (e.g., expert advice). This mixed approach is the key to offer high impact yet scalable support. Five support packages are envisioned through the project’s lifetime. Support for (1) starting a Community of Practice for equality work, (2) setting up an inclusive Gender Equality Plan, (3) Boosting Impact, (4) Sustaining and deepening change, (5) Improving quality and equality in R&I. Support packages include resources and request expected outcomes in return. They will be granted based upon clearly defined eligibility criteria to a min. of two collaborating organisations.
Open Training Units
Research results provide the basis for co-developing ten Open Training Units (OTU).
- Open Training Unit 1 familiarises external experts, consultants, trainers, or mentors with the INSPIRE training/collaboration scheme.
- Open Training Unit 2 provides guidance on setting up and launching a GEAM survey (version 3), based upon our empirical research on GEP impact factors.
- Open Training Unit 3 distils recommendations for effective GEP design and implementation.
- Open Training Unit 4 is dedicated to inclusive data monitoring and indicator development.
- Open Training Unit 5 focuses on advanced statistical analysis for intersecting inequalities and longitudinal GEAM data.
- Open Training Unit 6 provides hands-on training on assessing the intersectional impact of equality measures.
- Open Training Unit 7 is dedicated to innovation policy design to provide guidance on mainstreaming inclusive gender concerns into innovation policy targeting the private sector.
The content of three further Open Training Units will be decided in response to emergent needs as INSPIRE evolves.
GenPORT
GenPORT is an online community of practitioners, policymakers, researchers, organisations and individuals working across the globe for gender equality and excellence in science, technology and innovation. The portal aims to facilitate the exchange of experiences, to provide access to valuable online resources, to foster collaboration among the community members, and so to support continuing policy and practical interventions in pursuit of gender equality. GenPORT will continue to serve as central portal for gender and science resources for the INSPIRE continuity. The portal will be relaunched with new services integrated, such as GEP repository, and experts and trainers database (External link: https://www.genderportal.eu)
Gender Equality Audit and Monitoring
The Gender Equality Audit and Monitoring (GEAM) tool helps on carrying out survey-based gender equality audits in academic organizations or organizational units in 13 European languages. It is a flexible questionnaire that covers most aspects and perceptions of employees in the field (working conditions, perceived discrimination, experiences of sexual harassment, micro-aggressions etc), providing high-quality data for designing and implementing gender equality measures and assessing their impact over time. The GEAM has been developed in the context of the ACT project. INSPIRE will continue to provide support to carry out GEAM surveys. In addition, GEAM version 3 will be developed, giving special attention to the private sector on the one hand and the student population of the Higher Education sector on the other. (External link: https://geam.act-on-gender.eu)