Radboud wins 2017 Minerva Informatics Equality Award
The winner of the second edition of the Minerva Informatics Equality Award is the Institute for Computing and Information Sciences at Radboud University
(The Netherlands) for their contribution to promoting women’s careers in Informatics.
This year the Award focused on initiatives encouraging the transition of female PhD and postdoctoral researchers into Faculty positions.
Prof. Lejla Batina, Head of the Digital Security group and Chair of the Gender Diversity Committee and Dr. Bernadette Smelik, Managing Director of the Institute, received the prize at a special ceremony held during the European Computer Science Summit on 24 October at the Universidade NOVA de Lisboa.“This is a wonderful incentive to continue our work. We came from far behind, in 2000 we had no tenured female scientific staff and now iCIS has 30% of all female full professors in the faculty. Thus, focussed attention on promoting women’s careers works! Most of our women, however, come from abroad: we just don't get enough female students in the Netherlands. So we are rekindling our old goal: attract more female students to computer science! ”, declared L. Batina and B. Smelik at the ceremony.
The Institute for Computing and Information Sciences (iCIS) of the Radboud University in Nijmegen has a tradition of monitoring gender equality issues since 2001. Actions include active recruitment of female researchers (as a first step towards assistant professorships); multidisciplinary and international recruitment; support of female staff/researchers by their managers; guidelines for promotion to senior positions; a mentoring program for women, both in the role of mentors as in that of mentees. The department is also leading within the Faculty of Sciences in gender awareness, for instance from the fifteen full professors aimed at in 2020, five will be allocated in Computing and Information Sciences. The faculty has successfully introduced a financial scheme for tenure track and (assistant/associate) professors during maternity leave, to safeguard productivity and talent.
“We have been impressed by the variety of initiatives at ICIS of Radboud University that all together contribute to an environment where women are well taken into account, and their full place is acknowledged. The provided figures show that these initiatives have concretely led to the transition of female PhDs into faculty positions”, commented Prof Christine Choppy (University Paris 13), Chair of the Award Committee.
The Award is sponsored by Google and carries a prize of 5,000 Euros. The grant is to be used for further work on promoting gender equality. “Google is proud to support the Minerva Informatics Equality Award and congratulates Radboud University on their achievement. We believe it’s important to cultivate the next generation of female academic leaders and celebrate initiatives like those at Radboud that have a measurable impact on converting talented women into faculty roles. Google’s mission is to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful, and our approach to Computer Science is an extension of that mission. We are committed to increasing CS opportunities for all -regardless of gender, ethnicity, geography, or socio-economic level- and aim at inspiring people everywhere, not just to use technology, but also to create it", commented Beate List, Google Research Programs Manager.
About the Minerva Informatics Equality Award
The Minerva Informatics Equality Award, organised by Informatics Europe and sponsored by Google, recognizes best practices in Departments or Faculties of European Universities and Research Labs that encourage and support the careers of women in Informatics research and education. On a three-year cycle, the award focuses each year on a different stage of the career pipeline: developing the careers of female faculty; supporting the transition for PhD and postdoctoral researchers into faculty positions; and encouraging female students to enrol in Computer Science/Informatics programmes and retaining them.
For more information, visit Minerva Informatics Equality Award
For more information, visit Women in Informatics Research and Education
About Informatics Europe
Informatics Europe represents the academic and research community in Information and Computer Sciences in Europe. Bringing together university departments and research laboratories, it creates a strong voice to safeguard and shape quality research and education in Information and Computer Sciences. With around 120 member institutions across 30 countries, Informatics Europe promotes common positions and acts on common priorities.
For more information, visit www.informatics-europe.org