d5.2 ‘ethical issues and gender equality promotion report’ · 2017-04-25 · 1.2 gender issues...

Competitiveness and innovation Framework Programme CIP-ICT-PSP-2012-6 325137 European Network fOr FALL Prevention, Intervention & Security E-NO FALLS

Project Number: 325137 Acronym: E-NO FALLS Title: European Network for FALL Prevention,

Intervention & Security E-NO FALLS Call (part) identifier: CIP-ICT-PSP-2012-6 Start date: 28/01/2013 Duration: 37 months

D5.2 ‘Ethical issues and gender equality promotion

report’

Nature1: R Dissemination level2: PU Due date: Month 28 Date of delivery: Month 37 Partners involved:

• Partner 1 (UPC, Task Leader UPC, Work Package Leader UPC)

Authors: Lucía Alandes (UPC), Andreu Català (UPC),

1 R = Report, P = Prototype, D = Demonstrator, O = Other 2 PU = Public, PP = Restricted to other programme participants (including the Commission Services), RE= Restricted to a group specified by the consortium (including the Commission Services), CO = Confidential, only for members of the consortium (including the Commission Services)


Revision history

Rev. Date Partner Description Name 0 03.03.2015 UPC Outline Lucía Alandes 1 04.05.2015 UPC First version Lucía Alandes 2 13.05.2015 UPC Second version Lucía Alandes 3 02.02.2016 UPC Final review Andreu Català 4 12.02.2016 UPC Final approval Andreu Català

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DISCLAIMER

The work associated with this report has been carried out in accordance with the highest technical standards and the E-NO FALLS partners have endeavoured to achieve the degree of accuracy and reliability appropriate to the work in question. However since the partners have no control over the use to which the information contained within the report is to be put by any other party, any other such party shall be deemed to have satisfied itself as to the suitability and reliability of the information in relation to any particular use, purpose or application. Under no circumstances will any of the partners, their servants, employees or agents accept any liability whatsoever arising out of any error or inaccuracy contained in this report (or any further consolidation, summary, publication or dissemination of the information contained within this report) and/or the connected work and disclaim all liability for any loss, damage, expenses, claims or infringement of third party rights.

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List of Figures

Figure 1. WP leadership gender distribution ............................................................................... 10

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Table of Contents

1. Introduction ..................................................................................................................... 6 1.1 Deliverable Objectives ...................................................................................................... 7 1.2 Gender issues ....................................................................................................................... 8 1.3 Ethical issues ......................................................................................................................11

2. Conclusions .................................................................................................................... 17

3. References ...................................................................................................................... 18

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1. Introduction The European Commission has set a Strategy for equality between women and men [1] for the period 2010-2015 and actually as follow-up and prolongation was published in december 2015 the Strategic engagement for gender equality 2016-2019 [2] It is a comprehensive framework committing the Commission to promote gender equality into all its policies. The EU also has a well-established regulatory framework on gender equality, including binding Directives, which apply widely across the labour market, including the research sector Because of the peculiarities of the research sector, specific additional action is needed to remedy to persisting gender gaps. It pursues three objectives, namely: gender equality in careers, gender balance in decision making and the integration of the gender dimension in the content of research. Since 2012, gender equality is one of the key priorities of a “Reinforced European Research Area Partnership for Excellence and Growth” (ERA). To this end, Member States are invited to remove barriers to the recruitment, retention and career progression of female researchers, address gender balance in decision making and strengthen the gender dimension in research programmes. It sets the framework for the Commission's future work towards improving gender equality. E-NO FALLS thematic network is envisaged to act as a HUB in the sense that it will become a single point concentrating conclusions, references and links to all what is being/has been done in all issues (research results, policy recommendations, market uptake...) related to fall prevention, detection, intervention and safety. E-NO FALLS portal will provide links to other networks, projects and initiatives addressing Falls which will make easier to all stakeholders to have a view and gather information about trends and future initiatives and the opportunity to be involved in all the activities of the network. The output expectation of the network is to maximize the social and economic potential of ICT-based solutions, while promoting and accelerating wider deployments for improving quality of life and sustainability of care for the ageing population The coordinating partner, UPC is the responsible for implementing, monitoring and reporting on the ENOFALLS gender and ethical equality strategy. All partners have been encouraged to implement processes and practices relating to gender including compliance. The aim is to have a balanced distribution from men and women in the network. UPC has ensure balanced representation of females/males in all images used in dissemination material and to regard ethical considerations.

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http://ec.europa.eu/social/BlobServlet?docId=6568&langId=en

https://ec.europa.eu/anti-trafficking/sites/antitrafficking/files/strategic_engagement_for_gender_equality_en.pdf


1.1 Deliverable Objectives The objective of this deliverable is to report the promotion of gender equality in ENOFALLS project and ethic related issues. The gender dimension here is to understand the differences in positions, roles and approaches of men and women and prevent biases in these gendered roles and positions when changing the approaches towards the project. The stakeholders were identified by the topic of their involvement and their role, aim and sector. Gender equality was mentioned in the preparation but not as a goal in itself. The results on the stakeholder participation in the workshops, world cafes, forums, show that some more effort can be made in the mobilization of women as well as men because they were out of balance. The approach during all the project has been to awareness of the gender balance in mobilization of project staff and stakeholders and gather more gender disaggregated data on this gendered perspective, on the roles and impact of changes in falls prevention and detection approaches mainly based on the information given by the project partners and the involved stakeholders and to use this information in communication and reporting. E-NOFALLS consortium is already composed by actors (public and private, solutions providers and users, experts in standardisation processes, etc.) willing to contribute to establish a European fall prevention, intervention and safety initiative. ENOFALLS it is a heterogeneous group with gender equality. In terms of the application development process, ENOFALLS attempts to ensure a gender balanced design orientation through the involvement of various female, scientists and engineers, business managers, doctors. Respect the ethical issues, ENOFALLS take care of improving the adherence to high standards in research integrity, decrease the number of cases of malpractice, and also regard ethical considerations for the distribution of all the questionnaires to the stakeholder groups. Data is processed in order to ensure confidentiality and person anonymity.

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1.2 Gender issues First, the gender dimension of the network content is addressed by ensuring a proportionally correct representation of males and females. ENOFALLS project have more women partner’s representations than men and four of five work package leaders are female. Secondly, this report presents that in ENOFALLS project, women are quite equally represented. We outline a number of actions to be taken by the project, These actions include:

• Ensuring work / life balance

• Active involvement of the project manager

• Carefully observing gender in language use

• Work Programme encourages balanced participation in research teams/ management

• Integrated of a gender dimension in experts and collaborators

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Ensuring work/life balance To ensure compatibility of professional and private life, majority of partners operate a system of flexible working hours. Part-time working schemes are also offered by a large of partners. ENOFALLS project is committed to avoid late meetings and weekends meetings. Active involvement of the project manager The project manager is raising awareness of gender equality issues as it is stipulated in the coordinator’s organization philosophy. Equality between Women and Men in the UPC channelled II Plan for Equal Opportunities, focusing on actions to: ensure equal opportunities in the UPC, to give visibility to the actions performed UPC. In the UPC there are highly qualified women in decision boards and many units are involved in the implementation of our Gender Equality Policy (Vice rector, the equal Opportunities Commission, the sustainability and Equal Opportunities Office, etc.). Furthermore there ae a protocol for the prevention of sexual harassment at the UPC, an Ethical Committee which has a representative responsible of Gender and diversity affairs and a Board of directors has signed a commitment to gender equality. UPC specifics programs as for example Women 2.0 UPC contribute to the empowerment of women UPC deploying effective tools for advancing a progressive and positive binomial women and technology. Furthermore, UPC Implement actions that promote the use of female talent and female embrace networks. UPC has endorsed the European Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct. UPC is in the process of being recognized for obtaining the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers (HRS4R) label. Resources for non sexist-language and communication All the documentation, deliverables, reports, publications and dissemination should avoid the suggestion that the research findings apply only to men and the ICT- based falls prevention and detection technology are only focused for one gender. Balanced participation in research teams/ management Advisory groups are composed by 50% female representation Four of the five work package leaders of the project are women and they are the responsible of disseminate all the work done in every work package.

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GENDER DISTRIBUTION IN ENOFALLS PROJECT Figure 1 presents the proportion of men and women actively contributing to the project. We can see that there is a high representation of women in leading the WP in the network

Figure 1. WP leadership gender distribution GENDER BALANCE IN CONSORTIUM Gender Balance in consortium Female Male Project coordinator 1 Work package leaders 4 1 Consortium members 19 10

The project coordinator, UPC has some initiatives in Gender Equality:

• Sexual harassment prevention protocol • Inclusion of gender perspective in the prevention of occupational risks (maternity

and nursing) • Report about UPC evolution of gender figures presented (once/year). • Training in Equal Opportunities UPC Staff. • Development of guidance to include a gender perspective in the language (written

documentation). • Introduction gender perspective in promotion studies. • A mentoring programme, M2m UPC, where senior women mentor young women

(master and PhD level)

women

men

WP leadership gender distribution

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1.3 Ethical issues

Ethics committee approval During the development process of the surveys, partners were consulted regarding ethical considerations for the distribution of the questionnaires to the stakeholder groups in their countries, and ethics committee approval was obtained from the relevant authorities where necessary in advance of the distribution process. In addition, not only during the focus group, world cafes, etc. have been a legal aspect of the ethical issues otherwise all actions have been treated with professional responsibility.

During the project has been a demonstrate adherence to the ethical framework of FP7 and the relevant legislation in each participating country

The following partners of the E-NO FALLS consortium were responsible of managing the application for ethical approval from the respective authority within each country, if necessary. Each country confirmed if ethical approval was necessary or not necessary via email.

Partners assigned Country Partner Number UL Ireland 3

CET Spain 12 FHP Portugal 2

COOSS Italy 4 NEN Netherlands 17 NFT Sweden 6

FORTH Greece 10 SN Norway 13 SIV Romania 15 CHA Germany 16

From the 10 EU countries of the consortium, the following countries did not require Ethical Approval for the survey: Spain, Portugal, Italy, Norway and Germany. In addition, two countries did not participate in the survey. Finally, the way ethics issues regarding surveys have been handled in Ireland, Greece and Netherlands is reported in the next sections.

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Greece (FORTH): For the purposes of E-NO FALLS there is no need to receive formal ethical approval to conduct research, administer questionnaires or any other project activities. In Greece, there is a National Bioethics Committee that examines, upon request, the moral and ethical issues of scientific research, especially in the biomedical fields. The Committee acts strictly on an advisory level making recommendations and issuing guidance on matters such as, patient confidentiality, the management of biological wealth, artificial prolongation of life, transplants, etc. It also cooperates with the relevant bodies at national and international level and makes recommendations for legislation. Ethical committees also exist within universities and research centres in order to provide their research teams with guidance on the legislation on such matters. FORTH has its own ethical committee which is established by the board of directors and whose mission is to consider research proposals by the research personnel of FORTH for ethical review and ensure they are compliant with the provisions of applicable national and EU legislation as well as the standards of good research practice. Research proposals that may require ethical review include those with the following issues: • Protection of medical and genetic data of persons, as regulated by Law 2619/1998 and

Law 2472/1997, protective of all personal data, especially sensitive data, such as medical and genetic data, as well as the Declaration of UNESCO on human genetic data.

• Clinical studies on pharmaceuticals, regulated by Ministerial Decision (MD) AOA/89292 of 2003 and the EC Directive 2005/28.

• Human Embryonic Stem Cell ISSCR Guidelines (version I, December 21, 2006) • Protection of experimental animals, as provided for by Presidential Decree (PD)

160/1991, that harmonizes national legislation with the EC Directive 1986/609, and Law 2015/2001, incorporating in the national legislation the European Council’ s Convention on vertebrate animals used for research and other scientific purposes.

• Biodiversity, i.e. biotechnology applications for the creation of Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs).

The E-NO FALLS project is not involved in any of the above practices, therefore, ethical approval is not necessary. Of course, the general ethics of conducting surveys and research regarding personal consent, and maintenance of anonymity will be strictly observed.

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2. Conclusions ENOFALLS consortium has a commitment to promote gender equality, and promote good practices on gender roles and ethical issues in the network and involving all the partners. In E-NOFALLS project women are well represented in decision making processes and positions, the project is running and the last year of the project we will keep being exhaustive with ten ethical and gender issues.

All partners have contributed to share their experiences, expertise, knowledge and resources in order to improve the quality of life and sustainability of care for the ageing population and promoting the gender equality and ethical issues.

Ethics and gender aspects have been integrated in all elements of the project and are an ongoing concern, both in the consortium and in the wider community of interest. Recommendations The well balanced research team in terms of gender is something to cherish during the project. Furthermore it is good to be aware of a balance when there are changes in the team. Some gender related leaves can be prevented with flexibility in the working schedules or discuss possible adaptations on with remote IT solutions. It will help to remind the gender balance when looking for and inviting stakeholders for meetings, workshops, collaborations, world cafes,

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3. References [1] European Commission, “Strategy for equality between women and men 2010-2015,”

2011. [2] European Commission, "Strategic engagement for gender equality 2016-2019,"

2015.

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d5.2 ‘ethical issues and gender equality promotion report’ · 2017-04-25 · 1.2 gender issues...

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