Improving the gender balance and diversity in research is a central mission of MECS. That this is taken seriously is already reflected in the gender composition at the start of the project compared to the average in the STEM disciplines, as shown in the graphic below.
The “leaky pipeline”, i.e. dropping female fractions as the career levels rise, is particularly dire at professor level. The involved research groups already show at all career stages significantly higher female ratios compared to the average of natural sciences in Austria. Our PIs cover all levels of seniority from 2 to 31 years in academic age, group members come from > 30 nationalities and represent all gender identities. Particularly, we have 26% female professors. These are role models across all career stages. However, we target at least 40% females at all career stages as MECS will develop. To improve MECS has a tailored set of measures, which will be implemented by a dedicated EDI officer and EDI expert.
Dedicated actions in MECS
•Create a culture that values everyone
•Bundle the best of EDI support from all institutions
•Family-friendly work (meeting times, childcare)
•Fixing the “leaky pipeline”
•Systemic: promote EDI at all levels
•Mandatory diversity and implicit bias training