LERU Roundtable on “women, research and universities”

The League of European Research Universities is pleased to invite you to a roundtable discussion on the opportunities and challenges for women in academic careers. The event will take place in Brussels on 22 March 2013.

Last year LERU published an advice paper entitled ‘Women, research and universities: excellence without gender bias’. The purpose of the present event is to introduce the LERU paper to a broad audience, to let a number of high-level experts comment on the paper from different angles and to have a discussion with the audience.

A main topic of discussion will be the challenges facing women in research careers and what universities and other players can and need to do to recruit, support and advance women to senior levels. The LERU paper and roundtable are especially timely as the EU is preparing a Recommendation to member states on women and research. After the presentation of the paper, there will be responses from a panel of speakers, including EU policy makers as well as an expert from the private sector to discuss similarities and differences between the industry and academic sectors and how they can learn from each other. The audience will then be engaged in a discussion with the panel.

Several members of the LERU working group on gender representing the LERU universities, as well as LERU’s Secretary-General, Prof. Kurt Deketelaere, will participate in the event.