Double Win for 2022 Minerva Informatics Equality Award
Since 2016, the Minerva Informatics Equality Award seeks to celebrate successful initiatives that have had a measurable impact on the careers of women in informatics research and education.
This year we are delighted to celebrate two winners: Gender-equality and Anti-harassment Committees at IRISA and Inria Center of University of Rennes (France), and Faculty of Informatics, TU Wien (Austria), for their achievements in developing the careers of female faculty, including retention and promotion.
The Minerva Award, organised by Informatics Europe and sponsored by Google, was presented at a special ceremony on 25 October 2022, during the 18th European Computer Science Summit (ECSS 2022), an in-person event in Hamburg, Germany.
Prof. Gerti Kappel, Dean of TU Wien Informatics, received the Award on behalf of the Faculty and presented the scope and impact of their gender-equality initiatives. She declares, “With tailored funding, mentoring programs, dual-career support, and a family-friendly working environment, TU Wien Informatics constantly improves its gender balance. With 25% female full professors, our faculty allocates special funds for Ph.D. and postdoctoral positions for women and implements a tenure-track program for women academics. Since 2017, we have hired 6 female tenure-track professors, yielding a 54% gender quota on the tenure-track level. We are in the process of doubling our current female tenure track positions in the near future.”
As the first female dean in the history of TU Wien, Professor Kappel feels especially grateful that not only TU Wien Informatics but TU Wien as a whole is honored with this year’s Minerva Award. She says, “The excellence program led by TU Wien’s Rector Sabine Seidler to promote high-potential female researchers is key in developing the careers of our female faculty.”
Prof. Laura Kovács, Professor of TU Wien Informatics, also expresses her gratitude for the Award. “We believe that the large proportion of women in our faculty, including leading roles, serves as a role model for any further activity in promoting gender equality at TU Wien Informatics and beyond. We carry out gender-sensitive hiring procedures and offer extensive work-life balance solutions, including on-site child care, flexible working hours, relocation support, and travel stipends. Our gender-equality initiatives are a central part of the faculty’s development plan, aiming to further improve gender balance on all levels of seniority. This award encourages us to further push our endeavours, creating an equal and diverse academic work environment for the generations of researchers to come.”
Prof. Nicolas Markey and Prof. Camille Maumet, co-heads of gender-equality group at IRISA and Inria Rennes, are
delighted to receive the Award on behalf of our second winner for this year: Gender-equality and Anti-harassment Committees at IRISA and Inria Center of University of Rennes. They share, “It is a great pleasure for our committees to receive the 2022 Minerva Award. When our gender-equality committee was set up 6 years ago, the women representation in our lab was around 18%, and even less at management positions. A key moment has been the understanding that this situation was not the consequence of individual issues, but was of a structural nature and required collective solutions. Our anti-harassment committee was created more recently, under the responsibility of Prof. Elisa Fromont, with a specific focus on explaining and preventing all forms of harassments.”
Prof. Anne Siegel, former head of the gender-equality committee, adds, “Both committees provided the opportunity for all members of the lab, women and men, to act upon the challenges related to gender equality. They set up long-term and ambitious objectives, and proposed various actions aiming at raising awareness via conferences and training courses, fostering career development, for example, with a mentoring programme, or developing well-being and inclusiveness, to cite a few.”
“The committees have worked in groups with patience, willingness, enthusiasm, and strong support from our directions. We observe that lines are shifting: the proportion of women increases, and more women defend their habilitations and get promoted; a breastfeeding room has been created, and gender-neutral communication is encouraged; 90% of permanent staff followed a training course on harassment. Generally speaking, the atmosphere in the lab is more inclusive, and peer-to-peer interactions were fostered. Receiving the Minerva Award is a strong encouragement to further develop our actions in the future,” they conclude.
Prof. Karima Boudaoud (Université Côte d’Azur, France), Co-chair of this year’s Award Committee, congratulated the Award winners this year. She said, “The Award Committee was pleased to receive a diverse range of applications which addressed the issues around developing the careers of female faculty. The applications made clear that there are a number of different barriers that can impede and deter women from progressing in their academic careers. These range from stereotypes and a lack of role models through difficulties achieving work-life balance to open problems of bullying and harassment. Collectively the applications articulated mechanisms to address all these challenges. In completing our evaluation, our Committee assessed each application against the clarity of objectives, evidence of impact, sustainability and the extent to which the initiative can serve as a template for other departments and organisations.”
“Our Committee particularly valued TU Wien Informatics’ strong faculty commitment within their project, its sustained nature and the demonstrable results to recruit, promote and retain female faculty.” She also adds, “Our Committee particularly valued the grass-roots nature of IRISA/Inria Rennes’ project and approach of gradual but continual improvement across a large organisation. We also appreciated the efforts of the team to act as a beacon in the broader French informatics community by sharing their experience and offering a template that can be reproduced. It was refreshing that male colleagues played a strong role in the leadership of this project.”
In view of this year’s strong candidates, the Award committee decided on giving a runner-up recognition to the WE-CARE (Women Empowerment – Careers and REcognition) programme submitted by the Department of Computer Science, Brunel University London, UK. With three strategic aims: supporting women's recruitment, professional development, and career progression, WE-CARE is making significant strides in closing the gender gap. The programme has now led to women making up 33% of the Computer Science team at the Department, achieving one of the highest representation rates in the UK and resulting in higher numbers of women applying successfully for promotion.
The Minerva Award is sponsored by Google and carries a prize of 5,000 EUR for winner to carry out further work on promoting gender equality. To celebrate the Award’s success, Google has generously doubled the prize this year to a total of 10,000 EUR, where each winner received a prize of 5,000 EUR to carry on their excellent initiatives. “Google is proud to support the Minerva Informatics Equality Award again and congratulates the winners on their achievements”, declares Dr. Beate List, Program Manager, CS Education, Google.
About the Minerva Informatics Equality Award
The Minerva Informatics Equality Award, organised by Informatics Europe and sponsored by Google, recognises 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. The winners are selected by a prominent team of international experts in an evaluation process that run each year from May to August.
For more information, visit Minerva Informatics Equality Award and Gender Diversity webpages.
About Informatics Europe
Informatics Europe represents the academic and research community in Informatics (or Computer Science) in Europe. Bringing together university departments and research laboratories, it creates a strong voice to safeguard and shape quality research and education in Informatics. With over 160 member institutions across 33 countries, Informatics Europe promotes common positions and acts on common priorities. Explore our website to learn more about our projects and services.