PristupačnostNews
On April 28-30, 2022, the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing hosted a two-day event FER-WIN (Women in Innovation). The event featured a panel discussion on women's experiences in innovation, the release of a publication on the first female researchers at FER, and programming workshops for elementary school students. About 30 students, staff and alumni of FER participated in the organization and implementation, and the various activities attracted over 200 visitors ranging in age from 5 to 90+ years. The activities were carried out with the aim of increasing the visibility of female students, alumni, staff and researchers of FER as part of the implementation of the FER Equality Plan.
"Women in Innovation," published by the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing, provides a brief overview of the socio-historical context of women's involvement in the scientific and educational system and introduces the first seven women scientists in the field of electrical engineering who were and are members of the faculty up to 1970. These are prof. Ph.D. Višnja Henč-Bartolić, MSc. Marica Jurišić-Zec, prof. Ph.D. Vesna Kos, prof. Ph.D. Jasna Šimunić-Hrvoić, M.Sc. sc. Mirjana Urbiha-Feuerbach, M.Sc. sc. Kalma Zimmermann-Pavčević and prof. Ph.D. Branka Zovko-Cihlar.
Vedrana Miholić, CROZ sales manager, held an online workshop "Damin's Gambit" on Thursday, January 13, 2022. The workshop was organized for the employees of FER as part of the implementation of the Caliper project.
It is completely unnecessary to doubt whether a female engineer with quality and aplomb can lead teams, be an entrepreneur, or be a high-level executive in a corporation. Any young woman who, despite all the statistical vagaries, attends a technical college and chooses a career in a predominantly male environment already knows how to deal with challenges, already finds ways to adapt, and has already learned a great deal about problem-solving techniques, critical thinking, and the skills necessary for successful team leadership.
The most important issue to discuss, however, is how to put these tools into practice.
How do you fight for the opportunity? How can we open up such opportunities for each other? And finally, how can we prepare for initial (and lifelong) failures, misjudgments or non-acceptance and grow from such situations?
Professor Nina Begičević Ređep, Dean of the Faculty of Organization and Informatics at the College of Zagreb, held an online workshop Position of Women in Leadership and Their Dominant Leadership Style on Wednesday, December 8, 2021. The workshop was organized for the staff of FER as part of the implementation of the Caliper project.
The presentation focused on the unequal position of women in leadership positions in EU countries and especially in Croatia, where slightly less than 30 percent of women are in leadership positions. In the same positions, women even earn a quarter less than their male colleagues. According to the Entrepreneurship Report, the share of women-owned businesses in Croatia was 32 percent last year.
An overview of the predominant leadership styles of women and men is also provided. A female-dominated leadership style is the style of the future, and gender-balanced teams are proven to be the most successful teams in companies.
Asst. Ph.D. Brigita Miloš from the Department of Cultural Studies at the Faculty of Philosophy in Rijeka held an online workshop STEM and Gender: concepts and contexts on Monday, November 15, 2021. The workshop was organized for the staff of FER as part of the implementation of the Caliper project.
The workshop started from an imaginary situation in which the desired ratio of men and women in STEM was achieved. From this imagined position, the concepts and contexts that preceded the imagined parity were analyzed. Participants sought to identify what the most common obstacles to achieving gender parity were and wondered how best to overcome them.
Prime Minister Andrej Plenković presented the National Plan for Recovery and Resilience 2021-2026 in the Croatian Parliament in April 2021. Following the adoption of the European Council's implementing decision in July and the signing of the financial agreement in September 2021, Croatia and the European Commission signed the Operational Agreement for the implementation of the National Recovery and Resilience Plan 2021-2026.
The Recovery and Resilience Plan aims to help overcome as quickly as possible the severe economic crisis triggered by the new coronavirus pandemic that suddenly swept the world in 2020. The pandemic wasn't only a public health threat of unprecedented proportions, but also led to the closure of country chains and a decline in economic activity on all continents. To mitigate the economic and social consequences of the pandemic, a special financial instrument called the "Next Generation EU" was established at the European Union level. More specifically, the Recovery and Resilience Facility (RRF) was launched to ensure accelerated economic recovery and digital and green transformation for member states to achieve more sustainable development and greater societal and economic resilience to future crises. Thanks to the EU's financial incentives, Croatia will have 30 billion euros or 227 billion kuna at its disposal over the next seven years, which will enable us to turn challenges into opportunities.
A special chapter in the Economic Recovery and Resilience Plan of the Government of the Republic of Croatia is dedicated to gender equality and equal opportunities for all.
At its 710th meeting on 15 September 2021, the Faculty Council adopted the Gender Equality Plan for the period 2021-2025.
The proposed measures are based on the results of an enquiry into gender equality at FER and in the local and national environment in which the Faculty operates. The research was conducted in 2020 to identify institutional factors and practises that might influence bias in various aspects of the Faculty's activities. Research and innovation stakeholders from European Union and around the world share common challenges regarding gender equality: a low percentage of female students in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering, mathematics), the phenomenon of women leaving jobs in STEM fields (leaky pipeline) and a low percentage of women in leadership positions (glass ceiling).
Gender equality in research and innovation is one of the priorities of the European Research Area (ERA). The European Commission has set three objectives for European countries and institutions:
- gender equality in scientific careers,
- gender balance in decision-making, and
- integration of the gender dimension into the content of research and innovation.
The FER Gender Equality Plan sets out measures that contribute, to the extent possible, to the achievement of the stated general objectives. The document is the result of the collective work of FER staff and is therefore fully consistent with the established Faculty practises.
Members of the Caliper Project consortium held the first management meeting on June 15 and 16, 2020. Although the first meeting was scheduled to take place in Zagreb at FER, we adapted to the current situation and held our meeting online. We met to keep up with the completed project actions and brainstorm on the nextsteps.
FER Participates in new COST project European Network for Gender Balance in Informatics. The project will last four years, and Croatian members of the project Management Committee are dr. sc. Brigita Miloš (UNIRI-FF) and doc. dr. sc. Anamari Nakić (FER), with substitutes doc. dr. sc. Matija Bašić (PMF), izv. prof. dr. sc. Nina Begičević Ređep (FOI) and prof. dr. sc. Maja Matijašević (FER). You can read the summery of the project below.
Caliper training took place on the 20th and 21st April at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing of the University of Zagreb. The main goal was creating a common knowledge base and a shared vocabulary on gender equality in research presenting and discussing problems at stake, policies, and potential interventions. The presentations of the training can be found here (in Croatian): full session.
Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing proudly announces that, is an official member of the CALIPER project which has received funding by European Union’s Research and Innovation Framework Programme Horizon 2020. CALIPER will last four years and aims at making Research Performing (RPO) and Research Funding Organizations (RFO) more gender equal increasing the number of female researchers in STEM, improving their careers prospects and integrating a gender dimension in research.
Dean Prof. Gordan Gledec, PhD, has established a Working Group for Design and Implementation of Gender Equality Plan at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering and Computing. The Working Group will design and implement a Gender Equality Plan of FER.
The CALIPER project: Linking research and innovation for gender equality aims to contribute to increasing the participation of women in research and innovation and improvement of their career’s prospects; improve the gender balance in decision-making bodies in research organisations; and include, where relevant, the gender dimension in research content.
The total value of the project is 2,896,475.00 € and the project leader at FER is assist. prof. Anamari Nakić.