Over the last decades, European higher education and research systems have been characterized by deep changes, due to globalization and marketization, that have dramatically transformed research careers. While doctoral and postdoctoral researchers constitute a fast-growing workforce, their working conditions have become increasingly precarious and their career prospects uncertain. Those processes tend to exacerbate and create new forms of gendered inequalities for young researchers, first and foremost women – that have been magnified by the COVID-19 crisis. Those inequalities are also reinforced by disparities within academia linked to other social determinants, such as origin, socioeconomic status, sexuality or ability.  

However, current institutional Research & Innovation (R&I) policies, including gender equality policies, rarely consider young researchers’ specific challenges. Moreover, implementing efficient and impactful policies that promote sustainable gender equality remains a great challenge throughout R&I institutions. 

The main goal of this Action is thus to increase the visibility of inequalities faced by young researchers from a gender perspective and to promote a sustainable dialogue between young researchers and stakeholders in the research ecosystem at the systemic level (European & national policy-makers) and at the institutional level (senior researchers, academic managers) by creating a community of gender equality practitioners composed of various stakeholders (young researchers, independent researchers, academic managers, organizations) across Europe. The Action has among its outcomes: training schools for young researchers, scientific publications by young researchers, recommendations & guidelines for academics and policy-makers.