IDEAI-UPC. Intelligent Data Science and Artificial Intelligence Research Center

Gender gap

This is the site, at the IDEAI-UPC website, dedicated to promote women's participation in the field of information and communication technologies (ICT), in education, career and entrepreneurship. Below you will find posts related to the field, and on the left a collection of audiovisual materials.

Cost Action EUGAIN: European Network for Gender Balance in Informatics. What is it, what does it offer and how can you participate?

COST actions are networks that allow research and innovation initiatives to be connected and promoted throughout Europe (and beyond) with a duration of four years. The goal is to establish an effective and lasting network of excellence to advance knowledge and methods to improve gender balance in computing. This network will encourage sustainable collaboration, facilitate the exchange of knowledge and experiences, emphasizing best intervention practices. 37 countries participate in COST Action EUGAIN. The Facultat d’Informàtica de Barcelona (FIB) at the UPC collaborates directly with this COST action and Dr. Àngela Nebot, researcher of the IDEAI group, is part of the Management Committee.

This action:

  • Establishes an efficient and lasting network of excellence to advance knowledge and methods to improve gender balance in Informatics. Such a network will encourage sustainable collaboration, facilitate knowledge and experience sharing, with an emphasis on intervention best-practices, through seminars, workshops, and short-term exchange visits, involving a comprehensive list of stakeholders.

  • Promotes policy and intervention practices for recruiting and selection of female students, researchers, professors, including guidelines for their monitoring and evaluation; disseminate the practices for further development by the wider academic community, fostering collaborative international projects.

  • Encourages publication of peer-reviewed papers, presentations at important conferences and events, to create at an international level awareness of the gender gap in Informatics.

  • Cooperates with industry to foster career networks, creating mutually beneficial synergies, for students and early career researchers to find excellent career opportunities and for industry to tap on a pool of highly motivated talented individuals.

  • Acts as a transnational platform facilitating multi-stakeholder engagement and co-creating processes and actions at local, national, European and international levels.

If you are interested in these topics, contact Àngela Nebot (angela@cs.upc.edu)

Objectives of the COST Action EUGAIN

Women are underrepresented in Informatics (Computer Science, Computer Engineering, Computing, ICT) at all levels, from undergraduate and graduate studies to participation and leadership in academia and industry. Increasing female representation in the field is a grand challenge for academics, policymakers, and society as a whole. Although the problem is evident, progress has been invariably slow, in spite of all the momentum and impulse for change happening across Europe. The main aim of this COST Action is to improve gender balance in Informatics through the creation and strengthening of a truly multi-cultural European network of academics working on the forefront of the efforts in their countries, institutions and research communities. We will be building on their knowledge, experiences, struggles, successes, and failures, learning and sharing what has worked and how it could be transferred to other institutions and countries. Among other outcomes, the Action will provide the academic community, policymakers, industry and other stakeholders with recommendations and guidelines to address the following key challenges:

  1. How to have more girls choosing Informatics as their higher education studies and profession;

  2. How to retain female students and assure they finish their studies and start successful careers in the field;

  3. How to encourage more female Ph.D. and postdoctoral researchers to remain in the academic career and apply for professorships in Informatics departments;

  4. How to support and inspire young women in their careers and help them to overcome the main hurdles that prevent women to reach senior positions.

For more information refer to https://www.cost.eu/actions/CA19122/#tabs|Name:overview