Equal Opportunities and Family Support
Equal Opportunities Team: Dr Joan Barau, Prof. Daniela Kramer, Dr. Maximilian Reuter
Equal opportunities, the promotion of female scientists and support for families are integral parts of each partner university’s mission statements and strategic concepts. All institutions have dedicated Equal Opportunities Offices that advise the universities and their members on gender equality issues and develop measures to pursue equal opportunities. To support young families, the institutions participating in the SFB 1361 offer advice and services to parents via their Family Service Offices. They also have extensive childcare facilities, including daycare centres and emergency childcare, as well as networks of childminders. Furthermore, school holiday programmes are offered to cover school breaks.
In addition to the equal opportunities and family support measures provided by the participating institutions, the SFB 1361 offers the following support to its members:
Career support for female scientists
- Dedicated professional skills workshops for female scientists
- Seminars/career talks on career-related topics by female role models
- Individual coaching and mentoring
- Travel grants to participate in networking events and conferences for female scientists
Gender and diversity awareness
- Training for all project leaders to guarantee fair recruitment and leadership
- Training on unconscious bias and gender awareness
- Gender equality ombudsperson
Family support
- Technical assistance, for example in the form of technicians or student assistants, to support pregnant scientists or scientists with family duties, ensuring that they will be able to continue their research projects productively and in a timely fashion
- Childcare arrangements during conferences and SFB 1361-related meetings, incl. childminders and/or travel costs for accompanying relatives to look after children (within the frame of legal regulations)
- Family Room and movable “KidsBoxes” that allow parents to entertain and care for their children at the workplace if regular childcare is temporarily unavailable (available in Mainz)
- Financial support for parents for emergency/out-of-hours childcare
- Financial support for parents to create a home office workspace