Current News Article

09/07/2007
ADVANCE Project - Training for Women in Scientific Research

The Advance project is funded by the European Commission through the sixth framework programme ‘Science and Society’, co-ordinated by Danube University krems, the Advance project includes international participation of the following five partners;

• Academy of Management, Łodz, Poland
• Helsinki Collegium for Advanced Studies, University of Helsinki, Finland
• IFZ-Interuniversitäres Forschungszentrum für Technik, Arbeit und Kultur, University Klagenfurt, Austria
• GGeP-The Graduate Gender Programme, University of Utrecht, the Netherlands
• South-West University "Neofit Rilski", Blagoevgrad, Bulgaria

The Advance Project is aimed at promoting the participation of women in science and research, by supporting female scientists in acquiring research and career management skills and tools; these will endeavour to help them build upon their careers. This two year project will run from September 2006 – August 2008. 

The Advance project focuses on these goals through training and mentoring activities including both a mentoring and coaching program and Summer School program. In addition, extensive networking experience will be an important part of these programmes.

The mentoring and coaching program

The mentoring and coaching programmes are implemented at the ADVANCE partner organisations and are crucial for the advancement of junior researchers within the academic and industrial research context.
Mentoring is to be established between a mentor and mentee; this long term process is aimed at the promotion of the mentee in terms of career development and networking etc.

The recruitment of three mentees and mentors (experienced scientists from partner institutions) took place in April 2007 at each of the institutions mentioned above; further to this, kick off meetings were arranged so that partners could reach a common understanding of the mentoring and coaching content and process.

The duration of the mentoring programme is approx 8 months (April 1st 2007 – November 30th 2007) with monthly meetings between mentors – mentees.

Summer School

The core section of the ADVANCE program is a specific training program within the framework of the summer school.

The predefined topics of the summer school (https://www.advance-project.eu/plonearticlemultipage.2006-10-17.0575410085/the-summer-school-content) are aimed at helping female scientists to understand the academic and research structures, how the organisations function and which career paths exist.

The participants will be able to become aware of and develop skills that are necessary in important career transitions, gaining more independence, power and responsibility. It is intended to support building a portfolio of personal and management/leadership skills that is a valuable asset in the professional life.

The Summer School will be held at the Danube University Krems, and will include two modules, parts 1 and 2:

Part 1:
23rd July – 3rd August 2007

Part 2:
7th August – 9th August 2007
Contact: Michaela Gindl (organiser of the summer school)

Utrecht University

‘’The predicament of female scientists in the Netherlands is so critical, that the European Community has given it a special name: "The Dutch Case” Despite this research and the exceptional low percentages of women professors in top positions in industry and Universities in the Netherlands, Utrecht University plays a key role in the ADVANCE project and is talked of as an exceptional case especially regarding women professors within natural sciences.

Dr. Cecilia Åsberg, Lecturer at the department of Gender Studies, Institute for Media and Re/presentation, Utrecht University, is involved in the two core elements of the ADVANCE project, having recently selected three women Scientists (pre or post doc level) as mentees and three well established professors (mentors)
Utrecht University will be responsible for implementing the coaching and mentoring structures, besides this they will also provide coaching sessions and short sessions on CV-building, networking skills and other academic skills that will help their mentees progress within their careers.

Dr. Cecilia Åsberg and Ms Edyta Just at gender studies saw the ‘’Dutch Case’’ as a great opportunity to add a seminar series: ‘’The ADVANCE Gender Lab: Experimenting Arts and Sciences’’ to the activities at Utrecht University. Not available at any other participating ADVANCE University, this is the only gender lab of its kind, aimed to create a space for truly interdisciplinary exchanges of knowledge regarding gender and science.
Dr. Åsberg and Ms Just decided to meet with scientists and scholars at the interdisplinary seminar for open discussions and workshops which reached beyond the important over-arching issue of formal gender equality to gender matters at the very content level of knowledge production in the arts and sciences.

The lab is thus promoting that gender and scientific quality is a connected core issue running across fields and disciplines, bridging the predominately humanist oriented gender studies with insights from the natural sciences. All parties are able to gain an insight into each others specialist fields.

The Gender Lab is open for invited speakers, PhD students, researchers of Gender Studies and the ADVANCE mentors and mentées from Utrecht University. So far the seminar series has held two meetings, and has established both the differences of methodological approaches and similarities in interests. Other planned meetings are in progress and they expect that more can come out of this cross-disciplinary ADVANCE alliance.
The Utrecht University ADVANCE team are hoping to soon visit the centraal museum in Utrecht to discuss, from the different disciplinary backgrounds, the Genesis exhibition there on the links to be found between visual arts and the life science and their mutual attention towards information and code.
 
The ADVANCE team at Utrecht University consists of Distinguished Prof. Rosi Braidotti, Dr. Cecilia Åsberg (co-ordinator) and Dr. Edyta Just (assistant co-ordinator).

If you require any further information then please visit: https://www.advance-project.eu/ or alternatively contact: Dr. Cecilia Åsberg: [email protected]