Studies have been published which reveal that hiring committees often have an unconscious bias against the recruitment of female scientists(1). Therefore LIBRA decided to choose Recruitment as one of the four areas of intervention. CeMM in collaboration with the MDC will coordinate LIBRA's centralised activities to first, learn how to recruit without gender bias, and second, disseminate the gained knowledege to all participating research centres, and to the broader research community.

Objectives:

1. Provide inspiration, knowledge, resources and network-wide activities for the GEPs in this specific area of intervention
2. Support scientific research excellence by searching for and hiring the best and most suitable candidates without the effect of unconscious gender biases
3. Define new HR policies and implement recruitment strategies aimed at increasing gender diversity amongst all groups of researchers in EU-LIFE partner institutes
4. Increase the number of female candidates applying for group leader positions in EU-LIFE partner institutes
5. Identify opportunities and barriers in female staff recruitment, and establish monitoring and evaluation procedures that facilitate adjustments of current recruitment initiatives

Deliverable:

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The LIBRA recruitment handbook compiles a series of recommendations for a more fair, objective, and transparent recruitment process for senior leadership positions in science research institutes. These recommendations can also be applied more broadly to include the recruitment of PhD students, postdocs and technical staff. 

Download handbook.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Reference:

(1) Moss-Racusin CA et al, Proc Natl Acad Sci U S A. 2012; van den Brink M, Benschop Y (2012), Slaying the Seven-Headed Dragon: The Quest for Gender Change in Academia Gender, Work and Organization. Vol. 19 No. 1 January 2012