Promoting gender equality - article archive

MU workshops on intercultural differences

Masaryk University has a new Platform for Internal Training of Masaryk University Employees and PhD Students as of 15 January 2026. The first workshops offered through this platform are related to intercultural differences. The academic environment is increasingly international, which brings not only enrichment but also misunderstandings stemming from different approaches to communication, time or authority. These workshops offer a foundation for understanding cultural differences and show how to use them as a source of inspiration and effective collaboration instead of frustration.

On February 9, 2026, the workshop Intercultural Differences in the Role of the Manager. The workshop focuses on the specifics of working in culturally diverse environments, on sensitively and effectively leading international teams, and on transferring intercultural understanding into everyday management practice. Participants will gain practical tools, share experiences, and learn to adapt their leadership with respect for different values and work styles. Details and application form can be found on the MUNI Internal Education website.

The Intercultural Differences and Collaboration workshop will be held on February 9, 2026. The workshop will guide participants through the basics of understanding the cultural frameworks that influence our work habits, relationships and the way we communicate. It will help them gain sensitivity to cultural differences and teach them to see them as a source of inspiration, not frustration. Details and application form can be found on the MUNI Internal Education website.

E-course FI: Prevention of gender-based violence

What forms of violence are covered by the term gender-based violence? Can you encounter it on campus?

In the MU Information System, we have put together an interactive training course for male and female employees of the Faculty of Informatics that explains the phenomenon of gender-based violence and offers strategies on how to deal with it if they encounter it on campus. The author of the content is the Gender Information Centre Nora, o.p.s. The training materials were created within the project "Prevention of gender-based violence in the working environment of public research institutions and universities in the Czech Republic", which was financially supported by Norway through the Norway Grants.

The topics of the course include, for example, gender bias against women in academic and research environments, sexual harassment, psychological forms of gender-based violence, bias against women in the recruitment process, gender-balanced expression.

The Preventing Gender-Based Violence e-course can be found HERE.

Webinar on "Gendering Ethics and Integrity"

We are sharing an invitation to a webinar on Gendering Ethics and Integrity as part of the Gender+ & Intersectionality in Biomedical Research Thematic Hub. The session will focus on how ethics, research integrity, gender and intersectionality shape everyday research practice and contribute to institutional change. The webinar will take place on 10 December 2025 online between 1pm-3pm (CET) in English. It will be an interactive meeting format encouraging participatory sharing (it is not a frontal lecture).

The thematic Hub Gender+ & Intersectionality in Biomedical Research offers a space for collective participation, critical reflection and sharing of experiences on how structural inequalities affect the research environment and work-life balance.

The target audience is anyone working on equality and diversity and/or biomedical and other disciplines. Registration is required for the webinar: REGISTRATION.

Communities for Change workshop on applying an intersectional perspective to data collection and evaluation

On 9 December 2025 from 9 am to 1 pm, the 4th Community for Change workshop will take place in Vila Lanna (V Sadech 1/1, Prague 6), this time on the topic of applying an intersectional perspective in data collection and evaluation - examples of good practice. The workshop will focus on how to approach the design, distribution and evaluation of surveys in a way that takes into account an intersectional perspective and the results of the survey provide the institution with relevant and useful evidence for further decision-making and policy-making. Good practice will be shared by Mgr. Dita Jahodová, ombudsperson of the Faculty of Architecture of CTU, and Ing. Bohdana Šlégrová, HR Specialist and Head of the HR Development Department at Brno University of Technology.

The objectives of the workshop include:

• Learning about the possibilities of applying an intersectional perspective in data collection and evaluation.
• Sharing good practices in survey preparation and data collection and evaluation.
• Identifying the limitations and opportunities associated with collecting and evaluating data with an intersectional perspective.
• Collaborating to formulate practical recommendations for applying an intersectional approach in practice.

If you are interested in participating, you need to register HERE.

Joint Statement on Gender Equality in Higher Education, Research and Innovation

On 27 October 2025, Instruct-ERIC (a pan-European research infrastructure that makes cutting-edge technologies and methods in structural biology available to users; details on the Instruct-ERIC website) signed a joint declaration with all eleven European research institutions that have won the EU Gender Champion Award, committing to promote gender equality and the gender dimension in research and innovation.

"Attracting more women to academic careers and ensuring the highest standards of research quality are essential to strengthen the role of science in addressing societal and economic challenges. To achieve this, it is essential that we continue to promote gender equality in European and international cooperation." These words come from a joint statement that recognises real progress, from institutional changes through gender equality plans and better awareness of bias to strengthened responses to gender-based violence. It also highlights persistent challenges: unequal promotion, pay gaps and the lack of gender perspectives in research and innovation.

The full text of the declaration can be found HERE.

Results of the CAREER RESTART 2026 competition

The results of the Career Restart competition for 2026 were announced at the GAMU annual conference at CEITEC MU on 8 December 2025. The application period was from 1 September to 10 October 2025. Selected applicants will receive funding of CZK 500,000 per year for two years.

The aim of Career Restart is to create conditions for the integration of female and male researchers into research teams at MU after a career break (for example, due to parental leave, long-term illness or long-term care of a loved one). CAREER RESTART grants will facilitate and accelerate the return of talented young scientists to productive scientific careers and thus increase the percentage of their representation in independent/senior research positions. Detailed information can be found HERE.

Elizabeth Maria Karpukhina Busswood - one of the faces of this year's Faculty of Computer Science campaign

Get to know one of the faces of this year's Faculty of Informatics MU candidate campaign, Elizabeth Maria Karpukhina Busswood. She has successfully completed her Bachelor's degree in Programming and Application Development and is now pursuing her postgraduate studies in Software Engineering. She says of her journey that she found at FI exactly what she expected from college - and so much more. New friends, cafes and the endless possibilities the college offers are among the main reasons she fell in love with Brno.

In her interview with Marta Vrlova from the Department of External Relations and Cooperation with FI MU partners, you will find out what it is like to be part of the FI community, why she decided to study at FI, what she thinks characterises her studies at FI and many other interesting facts and insights about FI.

The full article can be found on the FI website.

Invitation to the workshop: gender roles in working life

Discover how cultural patterns and stereotypes affect our work roles, decision-making and relationships - come to a workshop on gender roles in working life. Our work roles are not only shaped by skills and experience. Cultural patterns, societal expectations and stereotypes also play a significant role - often unconsciously. The first workshop in a series on gender in the workplace will offer a space to reflect on what it means to be a man or a woman in professional life and how these influences shape our decisions, relationships and career paths.

The workshop will take place on 21 November 2025 from 9 am to 1 pm under the guidance of the lecturer Assoc. Mgr. Lucie Jarkovská, Ph.D..

At the workshop you will get the opportunity to:

• reflect on your own attitudes and experiences,
• recognize unconscious biases that may influence work interactions,
• seek ways to create a more open and fair working environment.

The application deadline is October 16, 2025 at 9:00 a.m. on the CERPEK MU website.

CAREER RESTART Grant Scheme for 2026

CAREER RESTART or Supporting the integration of post-career scientists and researchers into research teams at MU - call for 2026.

From 2020, the MU Grant Agency will implement the CAREER RESTART grant scheme, which aims to create conditions for the inclusion of scientists and researchers after a career break, for example due to parental leave, into research teams at MU. The CAREER RESTART grants will facilitate and accelerate the return of young talented scientists to productive scientific careers and thus increase the percentage of their representation in independent/senior research positions. Detailed information can be found in the September Newsletter of the FI Research and Project Support Department and on the MU Grant Agency website.

Training on personal and collective security at FI

On 24 April 2025, a training on personal and collective security at FI was held at FI, which was lectured by Mgr. Pavel Bojanovský, MU Security Manager. More than 40 academic and non-academic staff and employees of FI attended the training organized in a hybrid form.

The training focused mainly on:

• possibilities of increasing personal and collective security of employees,
• signals to be noticed, evaluated and not kept to oneself,
• scenarios of the most frequent violent attacks and the principles of behaviour during them,
• handling conflict communication situations (how to handle escalated communication, how to leave the office safely and ensure your safety comfort),
• incidents, their reporting and recording.

Invitations to events related to the International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2025

What conferences, seminars and other events are taking place this year as part of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science?

On February 11, 2025, the conference "Become a Woman Scientist for a Day" will be organized by the Faculty of Nuclear Engineering of CTU together with the Faculty of Electrical Engineering of CTU, in collaboration with Second Foundation, BNL-CZ and CERN-CZ. The conference, with female experts from practice and academia, will offer participants the opportunity to experience science first-hand. They can choose from topics ranging from particle physics to robotics to precision machine calibration.

On 11 February 2025, the Faculty of Science of Charles University will host the Women in Science: Challenges and Opportunities on the Way. The event starts at 5.30pm - an evening of inspiring stories and stimulating discussions, with women researchers from different backgrounds sharing their experiences.

Palacký University in Olomouc is organising a "Debate with Women Scientists in the Fortress of Knowledge" on 10 February 2025 and a " Breakfast with Science in the Student Club" on 11 February 2025, especially for junior women scientists and PhD students. Mgr. Michaela Šaradín Lebídková, Ph.D. from the Faculty of Social Studies MU (FSS MU). Her main research interest is digital intimacy and digital wellbeing, which she explores through the lens of media effects. The topic of digital wellbeing is addressed in a joint project of FSS MU and FI MU.

International Day of Women and Girls in Science 11 February 2025 with NKC - Gender and Science

On 11 February 2025, NKC - Gender and Science will launch a month-long online campaign to highlight the changes that should happen in the Czech academic environment to prevent a talent drain and suppression of the potential of women and other marginalised groups. Through the involvement of inspiring women scientists and science students, the campaign aims to highlight that change is not only desirable, but necessary.

This year's NCC campaign for International Day of Women and Girls will run for a month, leading up to Women's History Month and International Women's Day in March. Its international motto this year is Accelerate Action: that is why NKC wants to stress the need for change in the Czech academic environment. What prevents women scientists from developing successful scientific careers? What barriers do they have to face? What do they wish would change? For more information about the campaign, follow the website www.genderaveda.cz.

New FI e-learning: Preventing gender-based violence

What forms of violence are covered by the term gender-based violence? Can you also encounter it in academia?

In the MU Information System, we have put together an interactive training course for male and female employees of the Faculty of Informatics that explains the phenomenon of gender-based violence and offers strategies on how to deal with it if they encounter it on campus. The author of the content is the Gender Information Centre Nora, o.p.s. The training materials were created within the project "Prevention of gender-based violence in the working environment of public research institutions and universities in the Czech Republic", which was financially supported by Norway through the Norway Grants.

The topics of the course include, for example, gender bias against women in academic and research environments, sexual harassment, psychological forms of gender-based violence, bias against women in the recruitment process, gender-balanced expression.

The Preventing Gender-Based Violence e-course can be found HERE.

MU Gender Equality Plan 2025-2028

MU implements a variety of measures to promote gender equality as part of the University's strategic commitment to the principles of transparency, equality and accountability, and at the same time with regard to the work-life balance of all its employees and students. It fulfils this commitment at the level of its units and through the activities of the University as a whole. All this is done on the basis of the MU Gender Equality Plans as well as the sub-gender plans of individual MU faculties and institutes.

The measures set out in the MU Gender Equality Plan 2025-2028 are currently being implemented.

To promote gender equality at MU, the university website Gender Equality at MU was launched in January 2025.

On the page you can find out more about the gender plans, important people and institutions, and the GEP working group at MU. You will also find various educational events, publications and statistics.

CAREER RESTART 2025 grant scheme

The next edition of the CAREER RESTART grant scheme has been announced. The competition period runs from 9 September 2024 to 18 October 2024. The announcement of the results of the call will take place at the GAMU Annual Conference on 11 December 2024.

The aim of Career Restart is to create conditions for the integration of researchers after a career interruption (e.g. due to parental leave, long-term illness or long-term care of a loved one) into research teams at MU. CAREER RESTART grants will facilitate and accelerate the return of talented young scientists to productive scientific careers and thus increase the percentage of their representation in independent/senior research positions. Detailed information can be found HERE.

The Faculty of Computer Science has adopted the FI Gender Equality Plan (Part 1)

The FI Gender Equality Plan was developed based on the outputs and recommendations of the gender audit that FI conducted from April to September 2024 together with external experts from the NORA Gender Information Centre with methodological support from the MU Rector's Office.

The development of the FI Gender Audit and the FI Gender Equality Plan is part of the current Faculty HR Award Action Plan (HRS4R). The same was the case for the 1st Gender Audit and Plan in 2021. The FI Gender Audit covers the following key areas:

• Organizational objectives and institutional arrangements for gender equality policy,
• the organisation's culture and workplace relations,
• the gender dimension in research,
• HR and payroll policies,
• wellbeing and work-life balance.

The six-month audit process consisted of several quantitative and qualitative methods of data collection and analysis:

• Analysis of public and internal university and faculty documents, websites and social media. MU and FI networks,
• processing and analysis of statistical data,
• online questionnaire survey,
• 4 face-to-face focus groups,
• face-to-face and online individual interviews with male and female FI employees who expressed interest in the questionnaire survey.

The Faculty of Informatics adopted the FI Gender Equality Plan (Part 2)

The audit found that FI systematically and actively promotes gender equality and diversity. It has incorporated the principles of equal treatment and non-discrimination at the faculty level. In 2024, the focus was on the development of the adaptation process for new employees, and the evaluation of non-academic male and female employees was introduced. FI also offers a wide range of arrangements for caring male and female staff, helping to reconcile work and personal/family life. Sub-topics for improvement or development have also been identified. A team of external experts proposed more than 30 measures covering 7 areas:

• Transforming organisational culture,
• work/parenting/life balance,
• recruitment and selection and functional progression,
• gender balance in leadership positions,
• measures against sexual harassment and other forms of gender-based violence,
• the gender dimension in research and innovation,
• studies and student population.

Suggested measures include, for example, the creation of mentoring programmes to support women's career development, awareness raising and training on the gender dimension in research, gender-based violence or gender-sensitive language, raising awareness of remuneration, benefits, complaints or anti-discrimination law, and the collection and evaluation of gender-segregated data. The implementation of these measures will be subject to regular annual evaluation and review.

We thank all participants in the gender audit for their participation. We greatly appreciate your feedback, your opinions and shared experiences. To share your suggestions for positive change at FI, please email .

8th National Conference on Gender and Science

We would like to inform you about an exciting opportunity to participate in the 8th National Conference on Gender and Science, which will take place on 10 September 2024 in Prague at the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. The theme of this year's conference is "Social Security: From Challenge to Action" and will focus on issues of security and dignity in academic settings, with an emphasis on the prevention of gender-based violence.

The conference is intended for all those interested in gender equality and improving conditions in scientific and academic institutions. It offers a wide range of discussions, workshops and networking activities to share best practices and solutions for a safer and more inclusive work environment.

The conference will be held in person in Prague with the option of online participation for those unable to be physically present. For more information about the program and registration, please visit the official conference website.

Gender Summit Virtual Conference (GS24)

The Gender Summit Virtual Conference (GS24) will take place on 22 May and 23 May 2024. The Gender Summit was established in 2011 as a result of the EU-funded genSET project to create a platform dedicated to gender issues in the environment of scientific institutions.

This year's event will feature approximately 70 international experts who will present the latest research findings and analytical approaches to gender issues that will help the scientific community reflect on the negative impacts of social inequality on the quality of research. In addition, the event will offer a space to discuss measures that help integrate gender policy into scientific practice. The virtual conference will be followed by an in-person meeting on 19 November 2024 in Ottawa, Canada.

A detailed agenda for the virtual conference is available HERE. Participation is free to register HERE.

Gender Sensitive Communication Workshop

On April 10, 2024, staff from the Human Resources Department, the Office of Studies, the Office of Doctoral and International Studies, and the Office of External Relations and Partnerships participated in an online workshop on "Gender Sensitive Communication". The workshop was led by NKC gender and science lecturers.

The workshop was primarily aimed at imparting tips on how to incorporate gender-sensitive communication into regular internal communication, faculty regulations and documents, communication towards students and on social media.

NKC Gender and Science's handbook entitled "How to Gender Sensitive Communication in an Institution" can be downloaded HERE.

Courses Monitoring and Evaluation of the Gender Equality Plan, Gender Equality in the Institution and Gender Equality Plans I and II

Want to learn more about gender equality? The National Contact Centre - Gender and Science of the Institute of Sociology of the CAS offers courses on gender equality, which are designed as e-learning, publicly available training for interested women and men from universities and research organisations in the Czech Republic. These courses are designed to provide a comprehensive understanding of gender equality plans and aim to provide an overall overview of the topic of gender equality.

You can register for the courses HERE.

From April 2024, it is possible to enrol in the new mini-course Monitoring and Evaluation of the Gender Equality Plan. The course focuses on monitoring and evaluation of gender equality plans. It introduces in detail the objectives of monitoring and evaluation, the basic concepts that the field of monitoring and evaluation works with, as well as the manual "How to monitor and evaluate gender equality plans" and specific tools for monitoring and evaluation.

The course "Effective Communication in International / Intercultural Teams

A short course on "Effective Communication within International / Intercultural Teams" will take place from 24 November 2023 to 26 November 2023.

Do you want to learn tips on how to work effectively in an international team, how to manage time management or remote communication? Sign up for a free three-day course organised by the MU Language Learning Centre.

The course is available for MU employees and PhD students who are also employees. Try out exercises and scenarios from practice together with foreign lecturers. The course must be registered for via the CJV website and is conducted in English. Preliminary program and link from the registration can be found HERE.

Webinar on the gender dimension in research

Invitation: On 4 October 2023, the NCC will host a webinar on the gender dimension in research. The online workshop by Professor Stefanie Lemke from BOKU Vienna, entitled Integrating gender in food systems research - concepts, approaches and experiences from the field, is part of the NKC's educational activities on gender and science focusing on the gender dimension in science. The workshop is intended for the professional public and will be held in English.

More information and registration for the webinar can be found HERE.

European Diversity Month

Promoting diversity and creating inclusive workplaces is a long-term challenge. The European Diversity Month is in May and a number of activities are taking place during the month, such as the International Conference - European Diversity Day 2023: Building Bridges - Diversity, Sustainability and Partnership or the European Commission's Launch Conference with the participation of European Commissioner Helena Dalli - 28 April 2023.

For inspiration, ideas and themes for the European Diversity Month celebrations, you may find the concise and clear Guide, which can be downloaded below in English and English HERE.

FI webinar on the growing role of diversity in IT

On 5 April 2023, FI held a webinar on the growing role of diversity in IT with Assoc. Ing. RNDr. Barbora Bühnová, Ph.D., FI Vice Dean for Industry Relations, who is also Vice-Chair of the EUGAIN Network and co-founder and board member of Czechitas.

The webinar focused on the growing role of diversity in IT, including some findings from recent studies on the topic. Effective strategies to make IT more inclusive and open to diverse talent were discussed. Participants shared lessons learned from engaging more girls in IT, including insights and strategies specifically related to academia.

The recording and presentation from the webinar can be viewed HERE.

Minerva Informatics Equality Reward - Best Practices in Supporting Women

The Minerva Informatics Equality Award recognises outstanding European initiatives and best practices supporting women's careers in informatics research and education. The aim is to recognise successful initiatives with a measurable impact on women's careers at all stages. These initiatives can serve as examples of best practice and be adopted by other institutions. Until 2022, the award was given in a 3-year cycle, focusing on a different career stage each year. Projects from previous years can be found HERE.

Starting in 2023, the focus is on any stage of career advancement for women in computer science research and education. Best practices are compiled in this Informatics Europe BROCHURE.