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Dear Reader,

In our fourth issue we would like to inform you about the following topics:

- International Women's Day - March 8, 2021
- Introduction to the 5 core RFOs of GRANteD
- Virtually disseminating findings from the GRANteD project
- Virtual upcoming Conferences
- Last but not least…
International Women's Day - March 8, 2021
To celebrate this year’s International Women’s Day GRANteD will launch on Twitter a literature month under the motto “Let’s Talk About Gender Bias, Baby!”. Starting on the 8th of March we will present to you recently published papers on gender bias in academia and research funding until the end of March.

We would like to invite you to celebrate this important day with us and to raise the awareness for gender bias by letting us know which recently published papers are a must-read in this field and why. How can you do that?

Option 1: Reply to the newsletter and send us your literature recommendation (author, title, why is the paper a must-read?)

Option 2: Check out our literature month on twitter (@eu_granted, #GenderBiasBaby) and let’s talk there about Gender Bias, Baby! Just comment on our literature recommendations and let us know which paper is a “must”-read (author, title, why is the paper a must-read?)
Introduction to the 5 core RFOs of GRANteD
Although the COVID-19 pandemic put some particular and unknown challenges on our daily life and working habits, we are pleased to announce that we achieved a major milestone in 2020: We established cooperation with 5 core RFOs. The 5 core RFOs are the following:
All 5 core RFOs agreed on participating in the GRANteD project as case studies and to provide access to data and their decision making processes. In 2020 we already started with the data collection process and interviewed staff members of the FWF and panellists of the SRC. In 2021 we will accelerate the data collection process with an intensive interview phase between March and May, where we will also start interviewing staff members and/or panellists of SFI, NCN and SRDA. We look very much forward to work closely together with the core RFOs to gain empirical knowledge and insights into their concrete policies, processes and practices that influence grant decision making.

Here a short introduction to the core RFOs and the respective funding instruments under observation in the GRANteD project:

FWF Austria: ESPRIT Career Advancement for Postdocs
The ESPRIT funding instrument addresses highly qualified postdocs at the beginning of their career development and helps them to foster their research profile by supporting an independent research project. The next call is expected to begin in April 2021 with a maximum budget of 20 million EUR per year and potentially around 300 applicants per year. Applicants can apply for a grant on a rolling basis. Decision making process is a two-stage process, first a peer-review process and second a final decision making process by FWF’S Decision Board based on results of the peer-review process. Equal success rates for all sexes will be aimed at.

NCN Poland: SONATA
The SONATA funding instrument addresses highly qualified researchers with a doctoral degree (completed 2 to 7 years ago) and who are about to embark on career in research. SONATA supports its grantees in conducting innovative basic research using advanced research equipment and/or an original methodology. The 17th call of SONATA opens on 15th of September 2021 and closes on 15th of December 2021. Applicants can apply for research projects lasting 12, 24 or 36 months. The decision making process is characterised as a 2 stage peer-review evaluation process: First an expert team announced by NCN performs a quality check based on the data included in the short proposal (5 pages) and annexes. Each proposal is reviewed by two members of the experts' panel. The expert team recommends a list of proposals for the second stage. In the second stage proposals are reviewed by at least two external reviewers. Based on these reviews a ranking list of proposals recommended for funding is drafted. NCN Director announces the final decision. Final decision for the 17th call of SONATA is expected in June 2022.

SFI Ireland: Frontiers for Future Programme (FFP)
The FFP funding instrument addresses independent investigators in their mid to late career stage working in science, technology, engineering and mathematics. It comprises two streams: 1) FFP Projects (smaller and shorter grants) and 2) FFP Awards (larger and longer grants). The focus of the GRANteD project will lie on the FFP Projects. The latest call for the FFP Projects closed on 8th of October. The decision making process is still ongoing for this call. Final decisions are expected in the summer. In general decision making follows a multi-stage process. First proposals are reviewed and scored by three reviewers. Applicants are then afforded the opportunity to respond to reviewers’ comments. The original reviewers then have the option to adjust their reviews and ratings based on their assessment of the quality of the response. Top-ranked proposals proceed to a final oversight panel and proposals deemed to be fundable by the panel are ranked based on their final score. The programme provides supports to help address gender imbalance. For example, when ranking applications, in the event of applications receiving the same final score, SFI will give priority to applications from female lead applicants. Applicants also have the option of applying under the Emerging Investigator category which aims to assist researchers who have taken leave from research. Applications are funded down the ranked list until the programme budget is exhausted.

SRC Sweden: International postdoc grant (IPD)
The IPD funding instrument addresses newly qualified researchers with a doctoral degree (completed no more than 2 years ago) from a Swedish higher education institution in the fields of humanities and social sciences, medicine and health, natural and engineering sciences, educational sciences. The purpose of the IPD is to expand their networks and foster their competences by working at least two thirds of the grant period abroad at a host institution. The autumn call closed on the 22nd of September. 169 applicants applied for research projects lasting 18-36 months. The decision making process is characterised as a review panel process. First at least three members of the respective panel review and score the proposals. Then the reviewers (Swedish and international researchers) meet in the panels to discuss and prioritise the applications and to make a proposal for a decision to the Director General. In December 2020 the grantees have been announced: 41 out of the 169 proposals have been selected for funding. Almost 12,4 million EUR will be allocated over the period 2021 – 2023.

SRDA Slovakia: General Call
The General Call funding instrument addresses scientists in general. The last call of the General Call was open until the 23rd of November 2020 with a total budget of 33 million EUR and 622 applicants applied for it. Decision making process is still ongoing for this call. Final decision is expected around May 2021. In general the decision making process looks the following: In advance of the decision making process submitted applications are formally inspected. Then the applications are distributed among the council members and on the basis of a random, anonymous and automatic selection two reviewers are assigned to each application. The reviewers review the application and elaborate opinions, which are submitted to the council members. On their basis, the council members make the final decision.
Virtually disseminating findings from the GRANteD project
In November 2020 and January 2021 consortium partners from JOANNEUM RESEARCH participated in two virtual events, where they presented findings from the GRANteD project:

Virtual Conference “Gender equality in CEE countries: Policies and practices 2020″
Florian Holzinger attended the international conference “Gender equality in CEE countries: Policies and practices 2020” hosted by the Lithuanian Social Research Centre in cooperation with Vilnius University on 12th and 13th of November 2020. He talked on the complexity of GEP implementation in research performing and funding organisations (find the presentation here).

Virtual Workshop “Analyzing Gender, Practices and Social Change”
On the 14th and 15th of January 2021 the Institute for Political Science from the University Tübingen hosted an interdisciplinary workshop on “Analyzing Gender, Practices and Social Change”. Helene Schiffbänker from the GRANteD project talked on ‘practices’ in peer review panels as factor for social change, which will be also analysed in the case studies of the 5 core RFOs in the GRANteD project.

Virtual upcoming events (conferences, workshops)

GS21 Gender Summit “Gender Equality, Diversity, Inclusion post-Corona: Quo vadis?” | 14.-16.04.2021 | Munich, Germany
The event is a joint initiative of the GenderSummit/Portia and acatech, as well as the following members of the Alliance of Science Organisations in Germany: the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, the German Research Association (DFG), the Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft, the Helmholtz Association, the German Rectors’ Conference (HRK), the Leibniz Association, the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Max Planck Society, and the German Council of Science and Humanities (Wissenschaftsrat). Read more here.
JOANNEUM RESEARCH takes part as rapporteur at the GS21 and will observe and document the presentations/ keynotes as well as the discussion based on a specific template.

19th STS Conference 2020 | 03.-05.05.2021 | Graz, Austria
„Critical Issues in Science, Technology and Society Studies“ is the joint Annual Conference of the Science Technology and Society Unit of the Institute of Interactive Systems and Data Science of the Technical University of Graz, the Inter-University Research Centre for Technology, Work and Culture (IFZ) and the Institute for Advanced Studies of Science, Technology and Society (IAS-STS). Read more here.

11th European Conference on Gender Equality in Higher Education | 15. – 17.09.2021 | Madrid, Spain
The aim of the European Conference on Gender Equality in Higher Education is promote a gender-sensitive culture in our academic and R&I systems. The 11th European Conference on Gender Equality in Higher Education is hosted by the Spanish Ministry of Science and Innovation and the Ministry of Universities, in collaboration with the Universidad Politécnica de Madrid and the support of the European Network on Gender Equality in Higher Education and other Spanish stakeholders. Read more here.

Last but not least…
The GRANteD team congratulates Helene Schiffbänker. She received the Austrian Käthe-Leichter award for her research and consultancy activities in national and international projects with a proven gender research perspective!
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Credit: Helene Schiffbänker
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