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From Ideas to Markets: Excellence in mainstreaming gender into research, innovation, and policy. Brussels, 2014

Máire Geoghegan - Quinn, European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and  Science photograph

"The 4th Gender Summit is focused on Horizon 2020. There's a lot of money at stake in Horizon 2020 and the new rules ensure that women are at the centre of the decisions on how it should be spent and at the heart of the research and innovation that is funded. Horizon 2020 provides a clear incentive to applicants to ensure a better gender balance in their research teams. If two proposals receive exactly the same scores on all other evaluation criteria, the gender balance will be one of the factors in deciding which proposal is ranked higher. Horizon 2020 also promotes the gender dimension in research and innovation content to ensure that it takes into account the needs, behaviours a nd attitudes of both women and men. This is the way to excellence, jobs and growth. In Horizon 2020, the gender dimension is explicitly integrated from the outset in many of the specific programmes – in more than 100 topics so far out of 610 in total, spre ad across 13 different programmes. This gives us a promising idea of the number of projects that will develop a gender dimension and of the new knowledge that they will produce. I hope that those attending the Gender Summit and the science community will respond to these opportunities to create better research and more sustainable technological innovations." Mrs Máire Geoghegan - Quinn, European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science, 2010 -2014

The Gender Summit 4 EU 2014 brought together 350 delegates and 55 speakers from 40 countries on 30 June - 01 July 2014 in Brussels. The plenary sessions of the programme were held at the Charlemagne Building of the European Commission, at which three Directorate Generals of the European Commission were represented by the Director-General of the Joint Research Centre (JRC), Director for Renewables, Research and Innovation, and Energy Efficiency (DGENERGY) and Acting Director, Innovation Union and European Research Area (DG RTD). The Programme focused on Horizon 2020, the current €80bn funding programme of the European Commission. GS4EU's themes and tracks focused on the cross-cutting role of gender and how gender can be integrated within the different calls, through actions enhancing gender equality and through inclusion in research and innovation content. Read the conference report and recommendations here: GS4 2014 EU Report Read more about the programme and speakers in the Event Booklet