Gender and inclusivity
The University of Turin is committed to ensuring that R&I activities carried out at the University take into account the diversity of contemporary society, in order to guide inclusive development.
Such activities must in fact reflect the different points of view and needs of social minorities to contribute to overcoming the discrimination intrinsic to our society.
A focus on diverse representation is important in all sectors of research and concerns all socio-demographic nuances. UniTo believes that inclusive research can be achieved by adopting an intersectional approach, which not only considers gender issues but all the dimensions through which discrimination manifests itself, such as sexual orientation, disability, ethnicity, religion and age.
Adhering to an inclusive research model does not only mean involving a heterogeneous research group, but also focusing on research content and methodologies, excluding cognitive, social and biological biases and distortions. Only in this way can research contribute to overcoming discrimination and guide contemporary society towards inclusiveness.
The University has several active projects and actions for promoting inclusiveness in research.
It has recently drawn up its first Gender Equality Plan (GEP), which includes actions and provisions that the University implements to guarantee gender equality and parity within its structure, including research activities. According to the Horizon Europe guidelines, institutions must have a GEP to participate in research funding calls for the ninth framework programme for R&I.
UniTo also coordinates the European project MINDtheGEPs, which led to the development of the University GEP. The project aims to reduce gender imbalances in European research institutions and generate data to support the development of national and European policies for gender equality in organizations that carry out research.
By involving the Mind the GEPs project team and as part of the actions aimed at enhancing the human capital of the UNITA Alliance partner institutions, the European project Re-UNITA has launched the programme "UNITA towards gender equality in research". This programme has launched a Mentoring scheme for early-career researchers in each University, involving more senior professors, with the aim of reducing gender asymmetries in research.
Furthermore, to support researchers at the University in the design phase and ensure that these aspects are properly taken into account right from the setting up of the project, the staff of the “Area Promozione Ricerca e Innovazione” Unit provides information and support on these aspects.