The University of Rijeka became a member of the selected Community of Practice called ”The Next Step of Diversity and Gender Equality Efforts in Europe and Beyond”, witrhin the scope of the Horizon Europe project INSPIRE (Europe’s Center of Excellence on inclusive gender equality in research and innovation ), which will last until May 2026.
The Community of Practice, with the support of the University of Southern Denmark, is coordinated by Lund University and the Weizmann Institute of Science, and in addition to the University of Rijeka, it also gathers the University of Zurich, CERN, University Sarajevo School of Science and Technology, Faculty of Science, University of Helsinki, University of Strasbourg, and Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion Research Group at Kadir Has University.
The community gathers invited representatives of the highest management levels and senior (experienced) staff in the field of diversity, equality, and inclusiveness (EDI) to share practices practices, transfer knowledge, and act at institutional levels, as well as to foster strategic thinking at national and wider European levels.
The first phase of the program will include senior staff and experts and their activities within institutions in the field of implementing EDI strategic activities, putting special emphasis on underrepresented groups, developmental topics, and organizational challenges, and finding common approaches and solutions at structural and individual levels, including overcoming obstacles to implementation positive changes. In the second phase, the programme has forseen strategic discussions with representatives of management levels, conducted to improve policies and promotion at the EU level and with a view to the future. The participation of external experts is also expected.
This Community is specific as it brings together representatives of the highest levels of management in an organization, as well as institutional experts-practitioners in the implementation of GE policies. By participating in this project, the University of Rijeka continues already established avenues of cooperation and results achieved in the SPEAR and UNIGEM projects.
To participate in the project’s implementation, the University of Rijeka has 3 invited representatives: Prof. Snježana Prijić-Samaržija, Ph.D., Rector, Prof. Sanja Barić, Ph.D., Chair of the UNIRI Gender Equality Council, and Daria Glavan Šćulac, Diversity Officer at the University of Rijeka.