Evaluating Gender Equality in Research and Innovation – Theories, Methods, and Results

In this seminar the results of a European project called EFFORTI (Evaluation Framework for Promoting Gender Equality in R&I) will be presented. In this research  developed an offline and online toolbox that
helps to analyze and model the influence of measures to promote gender equality on research and innovation outputs and on establishing more responsible and responsive R&I (research and innovation) systems has been developed.
EFFORTI proposes a wide-ranging, well-developed framework for capturing the complexity of interventions and their impacts in com-plex systems. The EFFORTI conceptual evaluation framework opens the “black box” of the relationship between gender equality interventions and outputs, outcomes and impacts, pointing out which aspects of context are important for the design and evaluation of policy interventions. It is a theory-based evaluation framework that goes beyond linearity and causality and focuses on contribution to achieve impact instead of attribution. The framework focuses on the questions (i) in which way and (ii) under which conditions an intervention causes the effects observed and explores how, for whom and in which context the intervention works. As such, the evaluation offline and online framework is not only applicable for the gender equality con-text but also for other kind of interventions as well.

Acerca de Susanne Bührer

Dr. Susanne Bührer is a social scientist and has been working at Fraunhofer ISI in Karlsruhe since 1996, since 2010 as head of the business unit "Social Change and Innovation". Her re-search and work areas are program evaluations, accompanying evaluations of institutional funding measures, the topic area of (gender) diversity as well as studies on questions of re-sponsible research and innovation RRI. In addition to evaluation projects such as the evalua-tion of the BMBF framework programs FONA  (Research for Sustainable Development, 2018-2020) and the evaluation of the Austrian research funding organizations FFG and aws (com-missioned by the Austrian ministries bmvit and bmwfw, 2016-2017), she was and is involved in numerous projects on the topic of "Gender and Innovation", such as "Gender Opportunities. Exploiting the Potential of Gender in the Innovation System (BMBF, 2007-2009)"; "Changing Corporate Cultures - Avoiding Career Breaks (BMFSFJ, 2010-2012)" and "Diversity Future Perspectives of the Real Estate Industry (2018-2019) on behalf of the German Real Estate Fed-eration (ZIA). (ZIA). Most recently, she co-coordinated the EU project EFFORTI (Evaluation Framework for Promoting Gender Equality in R&I, 2016-2019), which developed a theory-based evaluation system to help analyze the effect of gender equality measures. The analysis of different gender equality aspects also plays a central role in the context of her RRI projects (MoRRI, Su-perMoRRI, NewHoRRIzon), for example as regards the development of macro- and meso-level indicators on this topic or a study on the link between gender diversity and eco-innovations.

Scientific production
The following list shows selected publications from 2016-2020:
•            Schmidt, Evanthia Kalpazidou; Bührer, Susanne (2020): Integrating context in the evalua-tion of gender equality interventions and beyond. In: fteval Journal for Research and Tech-nology Policy Evaluation, Vol. 51, pp 41-45. DOI: 10.22163/fteval.2020.490
•            Bührer, Susanne; Frietsch, Rainer (2020): How do public investments in gender equality initiatives and publication patterns interrelate? The case of Germany. In: Evaluation and Program Planning. Vol. 79, April 2020.
•            Bührer, Susanne; Kalpazidou Schmidt, Evanthia; Palmen, Rachel; Reidl, Sybille (2020): Evaluating gender equality effects in research and innovation systems. In: Scientometrics. DOI 10.1007/s11192-020-03596-1.
•            Bührer, Susanne; Wroblweski, Angela (2019): The practice and perceptions of RRI—A gender perspective. In: Evaluation and Program Planning. Vol. 79, April 2019.
•            Bührer, Susanne; Lindner, Ralf; Woolley, Richard; Mejlgaard, Niels; Meijer, Ingeborg; Wroblewski, Angela; Griessler, Erich (2019): Institutions matter - how to promote RRI by setting suitable institutional incentives. Konferenzbeitrag
•            Bührer, Susanne; Lindner, Ralf; Berghäuser, Hendrik; Wolley, Richard; Mejlgaard, Niels; Wroblewski, Angela; Meijer, Ingeborg (2018): Monitoring the Evolution and Benefits of Responsible Research and Innovation (MoRRI). Report on the researchers' survey on RRI benefits. ISBN 978-92-79-92854-3, DOI 10.2777/130485, Bericht, Luxembourg
•            Ribeiro, Barbara; Bengtsson, Lars; Benneworth, Paul; Bührer, Susanne; Castro-Martinez, Elena; Hansen, Meiken; Jarmai, Katharina; Lindern, Ralf; Olmos-Penuela, Julia; Ott, Cor-dula; Shapira, Philipp (2018): Introducing the dilemma of societal alignment for inclusive and responsible research and innovation. In: Journal of responsible innovation, 5, 3, pp. 316-331. DOI: 10.1080/23299460.2018.1495033
•            Mejlgaard, Niels; Woolley, Richard; Bloch, Carter; Bührer, Susanne; Griessler, Erich; Jäger, Angela; Lindner, Ralf; Bargman, Emil Madsen; Maier, Frederic; Meijer, Ingeborg; Peter, Viola; Stiloge, Jack; Wuketich, Milena (2018a): Europe's plans for responsible sci-ence. In: Science, 361 (6404), p. 761-762
•            Sarah Seus; Susanne Bührer; Eva Heckl (2017): The evaluation of the Austrian START programme: an impact analysis of a research funding pro-gramme using a multi-method approach. In: Journal of Technology Transfer. DOI: 10.1007/s10961-017-9606-
•            Seus, Sarah; Bührer, Susanne; Meyer, Niclas; Heck. Eva; Mandl, Mario; Zinöcker, Klaus (2016): Launching Careers and Breaking New Ground: Results from the Evaluation of the Austrian Science Fund's FWF START & Wittgenstein Programmes, fteval Journal for Re-search and Technology Policy Evaluation, 42, 31-34.