The gender aspect in the EU R&D framework programmes has long lived a life as sections of the R&D proposals that was not really taken serious. Standard generic 10-lines paragraphs, rolling eyes, frowns and in general being ridiculed as absolutely irrelevant. Those times are slowly fading away. The EU Commission keeps pushing for real gender-related reflections and input both in specific sections and organically in for example the Excellence section. And the Commission has here shown itself a head of time. Most people acknowledges - at least – that it is a subject you need to have an opinion about as a consortium. And if not, you wont be in that last 5% toptier that brings you the funding. It is that simple. The barrier has moved.

I brought in two experts on gender and diversity in EU R&D proposals to the virtual podcast studio. Lachlan Smith and Jakob Feldtfos Christensen, owners of DiversiUNIty that is a company supporting research organisations on diversity in research – they also run the podcast Diversity in Research. Here we go through where in the Horizon Europe proposal you need to keep an eye on the gender aspect and they give tips and hints on how to approach it.