Development programme for female researchers

GenderAct aims to contribute to network building and career development for early career female researchers. By combining the training and intervention perspectives of the project, we want to develop a systemic approach that all employees can use on an everyday basis. Networking for Young Researchers targets women in temporary academic positions at the faculty who want a further academic career, as well as permanent researchers. A faculty internal network will be established for early career female researchers, which will include joint collections of academic content and meeting of colleague coaching groups, with a view to sharing experiences. CV construction and application support will be among the topics addressed, and senior researchers and research coordinators will be among the contributors. Individual career development plans will be facilitated, as well as tools for team building. The program targets individual actions as well as colleague-guidance groups and joint gatherings, where the project's academic resources (e.g. senior researchers) will be important contributors. The languages of instruction will be English and Norwegian. We now welcome applications to our network for young female researchers.

Target group and requirements for participants

Networking for Early Career Researchers targets women in academic positions at the Faculty: PhD candidates, postdoctoral fellows and temporary/permanent researchers who

• aspire to a further academic career, and
• can commit to attend all six gatherings/seminars included in the program.

The program can have up to 25 participants. Networking for Early Career Researchers is a development program that requires active participation both during and between the sessions.

The program's goals and content

The main goal is to promote women's position in academia and to create an arena for networking. The program is organised as a series of six gatherings, and the topics discussed in the program have the following main areas:

• competence-enhancing measures for own research careers,
• awareness of gender, and
• colleague guidance and networking.

Networking groups will be constituted as heterogeneously as possible. These groups will be the most important learning units during the sessions, and will be used to exchange and process experiences, work with case/exercises, test management tools and support individuals’ professional development. The groups are facilitated by the program team. Participants will be divided into groups that will collaborate between the sessions.

Program team

• The network is facilitated through GenderAct
• The program team consists of Professor Siri Øyslebø Sørensen, Associate Professor Eva Amundsdotter and project coordinator Kristin Sofie Farkas
• Kristin Sofie Farkas is the program manager for Networking for Early Career Researchers.
• Other speakers

Time and place

The program has 6 sessions, on the following dates:

1. 14 September 2021
2. 7 October 2021
3. 24 November 2021
4. 16 February 2022
5. 16 March 2022
6. 26 April 2022

The sessions will take place at a nearby hotel.

Application and admission process

• Prospective participants must submit the application form, a motivation letter and their CV (maximum 2 pages) to the department management by the deadline.  Please contact your department for application form and further details.
• The applications will be evaluated by the respective institutes. A shortlist will be sent to the Faculty by 4 July 2021.
• The Faculty will determine the final list of participants.
• Participants will receive a confirmation by 9 July 2021.

Individual career planning will be carried out for all postdoctoral fellows, permanent/temporary researchers and associate professors. Barriers that women face should be addressed in periodic job-review interviews, and efforts must be made to address these (in relation to an individual's career plans). Discussing the activities which will receive career recognition is also a natural part of these reviews, and targeted use of equality funds can be one of several important tools to address related issues. The guidance for review interviews, and the templates for career plans, will need to be updated.

During the project period internal equality funds will be specifically directed towards facilitating promotion of female associate professors. We will provide practical assistance for individual career plans. Needs will vary from person to person, but advisory guidelines will be drawn up on how such funding may be used.