"I welcome the Summit’s objective to discuss how gender continues to be addressed in Horizon 2020, as well as how to further gender mainstreaming in my 3 priority areas of open innovation, open science and open to the world. The future of Europe’s knowledge economy will be entirely dependent on women reaching their full potential in STEM careers. My services have therefore created an Action Plan on Gender Equality in research and innovation, for implementation of the Council Conclusions of 1 December 2015, which addressed gender imbalances in research institutions and decision making.” Commissioner Moedas, Research, Science and Innovation, European Commission 

The Gender Summit is a platform for evidence-based and consensus-focused dialogue between scientists, policy makers, gender scholars, and key stakeholder groups in science endeavours. The Gender Summit Europe 2016 coincides with important policy developments in Europe and globally that look towards science knowledge and technological innovation to create a better future for all.  Significant here are: the new EU Gender Action Plan and Horizon 2020; the UN Sustainable Development Goals; the African Union’s Africa 2063 and Continental Education Strategy Africa agenda; and the OECD vision for Inclusive Innovation and Creating Our Common Future through Science and Technology.  Therefore this year’s Gender Summit opens up dialogue on how an understanding of sex/gender issues in research and innovation can also ensure sustainable and effective development.

Themes

1. New research on when, why and how sex-gender issues impact on quality of research, innovation, and development outputs and outcomes
2. How gender continues to be addressed in Horizon 2020
3. How to mainstream gender into the EU new vision for ERA of Open Innovation, Open Science, Open to the World
4. How the global policy agendas to make the world a better place for all can benefit from incorporating scientific understanding of sex-gender issues
5. New efforts to develop reliable, and region and sector sensitive, performance metrics and gender equality indicators and statistics, and to integrate them into research, innovation, and development policy actions
6. The contributions made by the Gender Summit platform, and its global community of experts and practitioners, to advance gender-sensitive and responsive research, innovation, and development.