Prf Peter Hegarty

The European Training Network (ETN) G-VERSITY – Achieving Gender Diversity is an interdisciplinary and intersectoral doctoral training network for early stage researchers. G-VERSITY aims at fostering new kinds of expertise and jobs needed in Europe to help employers overcome the underrepresentation of women, men, and sexual and gender minority Groups (SGMs). The network constitutes a prototype for innovative doctoral training on gender diversity research. G-VERSITY joins 8 leading European research groups from psychology, education, management, business administration, media and communication studies with 7 non-academic partners, including a company working on the global certification for workplace gender equality, a city administration, a public broadcasting service, a media training centre, and 3 non-profit organisations. G-VERSITY will (1) determine how significant background factors affect educational and professional pathways of women, men, and SGMs, and (2) produce scientifically based interventions for use in the workplace—including workshops, guidelines, and training materials, to be applied by employers to attain gender diversity. G-VERSITY’s innovative practical toolbox with applicable knowledge for attaining gender diversity will be designed for use (a) by the public sector such as by policy makers, schools, and the media, and (b) by commercial and non-profit companies in recruitment, retention, and career advancement. The training consists of collaborative supervision of 15 individual research projects by academic and nonacademic partners including mandatory intersectoral secondments, which will maximize early-stage researchers’ employability in academic and non-academic sectors. G-VERSITY’s results and activities will be widely communicated to the scientific community and society, for instance, through its interactive web platform SOLUTIONS, and improve the scientific and the public’s understanding of gender diversity.