The Mathematical Institute of SANU has been participating in the implementation of Horizon 2020 project “LeTSGEPs” – LeTSGEPs (Leading Towards Sustainable Gender Equality Plans in research institutions) – since January 2020. The goal of this project is to improve gender equality through the implementation of sustainable Plans for achieving gender equality in science and gender sensitive budgeting. MI SANU previously participated with great success, from 2017 to 2020, in the implementation of the Horizon 2020 project “Nucleus” in the field of responsible research and innovation. The concept of responsible research and innovation encompasses a whole set of principles and topics aimed at advancing science and making relevant decisions and solving problems for the wider community, and includes: promotion and public engagement of science, openness and accessibility of scientific results, gender equality in science, ethics in scientific research, citizen engagement in science, continuing scientific education and many others. One of the results of the “Nucleus” project is the establishment of the Council of MI SANU for responsible research and innovation, the work is fully supported by: Prof Dr Silvija Gilezan, Dr Tatjana Davidović, Prof Dr Zoran Marković, Dr Ivana Atanasovska, Dr Vesna Todorčević, Dr Bojan Marinković (Clarivate), Dr Đorđe Baralić, Dr Marija Šegan Radonjić, Dr Lazar Velimirović, Dr Anđelka Hedrih, Biljana Nedeljkov, Kristina Milojević, Aleksandra Drecun (Intersection), Divna Vučković (Intersection) and Danijela Vučićević (The Centre for the Promotion of Science – CPN).

For many decades, MI SANU has cherished the principles of responsible research and innovation, particularly supporting women in science. Through the work on the project, in May 2021, the first Gender Equality Plan of MI SANU was adopted, which envisages 12 concrete measures for the improvement in this sphere. The draft plan was prepared by the Working Group for Gender Equality and the MI SANU Council for the Responsible Research and Innovation.

Prior to the adoption of the Plan, the project “LeTSGEPs” organised intensive trainings and trainings in the field of gender budgeting, planning of measures for achieving gender equality and verification, which was attended by 15 associates of MI SANU. Within the project, the first systematic research on the state of gender equality, discrimination, job satisfaction and working hours, work-life balance in MI SANU was conducted through the online Questionnaire. Due to the Covid-19 pandemic almost all activities of this project were held online, but despite the obvious difficulties, the first phase of the project was successfully completed, receiving the highest marks from the European Commission.

The research team of MI SANU on this project consists of Prof Dr Zoran Marković, Dr Marija Šegan Radonjić, Dr Đorđe Baralić and Aleksandra Drecun, advisor to MI SANU on this project. In addition to MI SANU, the partners in this project are the University of Reggio Emilia (Italy), the University of Messina (Italy), the University of Cergy in Paris (France), the Max Planck Institute (Germany), the Institute for Marine Research (Spain), and the University of Tirana (Albania). In February 2021, MI SANU organised two very successful and well-attended online workshops: the national workshop “Gender Equality Plans in Science, and the Importance of Gender-Sensitive Budgeting” and the international “Gender Budgeting in Research Institutions”.

MI SANU received the support of the Ministry of Education, Science and Technological Development of the Republic of Serbia and the UN Women in Serbia.

Information on the project can be found at link.