University of Gothenburg
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International collaboration

The secretariat has many years of international experience, with the Nordic countries and Europe as our most common arenas.

EUTOPIA

The secretariat is an associative partner of EUTOPIA, a major European university alliance in which the University of Gothenburg is a member. Comprising six European seats of learning, EUTOPIA has a long-term vision to create a strong alliance with free movement of students, researchers, lecturers and other staff. By 2050 a student will easily be able to move between and study at all the member universities during their studies and then graduate. Work at Activities within EUTOPIA are organised in seven Work Packages with a focus on project governance, education, research, regional collaboration, inclusion, internationalisation and sustainability. The secretariat is a partner in the package that focuses on social inclusion.

GENDERACTION and Science with and for Society

GENDERACTION is an EU-funded project, where the Secretariat is one of the partners. With focus on gender and the UN Sustainable Development Goals (the 2030 Agenda), The Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research has the task to produce a research review, a report on policy development in research and innovation, and a series of five policy briefs.

The objective is to analyse the progress of member states towards implementation of gender equality within research and innovation and to promote gender dimension in research and innovation within the Horizon Europe framework programme.

The stakeholders are within the European Research Area (ERA) and the research funding and research performing organisations in the EU member states.

The secretariat participates in a programme, Science with and for Society, SwafS, whose aims include promoting gender equality in the EU’s Horizon 2020 research programme. The platform is also to open up funding opportunities for Swedish research projects. Here, the secretariat is working with several researchers on an application to Horizon 2020, linked to a call for proposals on gender-based violence including sexual harassment in research organisations and universities. Leading researchers at research institutions in nine EU countries are working together on this application, headed by the ESF – European Science Foundation/Fondation Européenne de la Science. The purpose is to develop new knowledge with a focus on prevalence, consequences and organising preventive work.

UniSAFE

Despite the scale, the political significance and the growing interest in academia, gender-based violence in research organisations remains largely under-reported and under-researched. Without sufficient knowledge, infrastructure, measures, and activities in place in academia, it is difficult to fully prevent, protect or even prosecute.

UniSAFE is an EU-funded project that aims to produce better knowledge on gender-based violence (GBV) and sexual harassment (SH) in research performing organisations, and to translate this knowledge into operational tools for higher education, research organisations and policymakers.

Over three years, UniSAFE will provide up-to-date, robust and reliable quantitative and qualitative data on GBV and SH, including newly emerging forms of violence, in universities and research performing organisations.

Research and outreach activities targeting researchers, stakeholders and policymakers will be led across EU for three years. The project will analyse the mechanisms of GBV and SH – its social determinants, antecedents and consequences – at three different levels, using a holistic research model. This in-depth knowledge of existing problems, current and future priorities will result in an operational toolkit and recommendations to reduce GBV and SH in the European academic and research area.

UniSAFE relies on a strong multi-disciplinary consortium of nine European partners. Several researchers at The Swedish Secretariat for Gender Research is part of the Swedish team, led by Örebro University, and contributes with research expertise on GBV and SH on two main tasks:

  • Developing a survey on prevalence and impacts, covering 45 research organisations (with 450 000 respondents) in 15 EU Member States
  • Performing a research analysis of current policies on GBV and SH in EU27