On this webpage you will find a collection of initiatives that demonstrate how we keep diversity and inclusion (D&I) high on our agenda. In addition to rolling out relevant policies, each year we award a fund to the best initiatives. You will also find links to relevant 果冻传媒 news items. Finally, you can read more about the roles and members of our D&I Committee.
News
HAPPY INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY 2024
#InspireInclusion: this year鈥檚 theme for International Women鈥檚 Day was celebrated by 果冻传媒 together with Fontys School of Engineering. Our entire campus community was welcomed to join.
Cindy de Koning, moderator of the event, asked the guest speakers interesting questions about their perspectives on women with tech backgrounds and career opportunities in tech companies or science.
A warm video welcome from Karien van Gennip, our Minister of Social Affairs and Employment, followed in which she spoke out that it should be International Women鈥檚 Day all year round and also she encouraged our young female tech student or scientist to follow their dream.
'Our' own role model, Rector Magnificus Silvia Lenaerts, talked about her first year at 果冻传媒 and about the wish that even more women come to study, continue to work as scientists and that 果冻传媒 should pay even more attention for this development.
As booster of this event, Robert-Jan Smits, President of the Executive Board, had to explain why he (as a man) thinks it is exactly so important. The Netherlands lags behind other countries when it comes to female leaders and researchers with a scientific background. That is why it is still important to draw as much attention to this theme as possible.
Director of Fontys School of Engineering, Ella Hueting, was pleased to also see more attention from Fontys to welcoming female students entering engineering programs. In the upcoming years, the goal is to increase the percentage of female students to at least 25%.
We were awed by the contribution of Evangelia Demerouti, Professor at IE&IS and Chief Diversity and Inclusion. She told us what programs and attention there is at 果冻传媒 for encouraging and supporting female scientists and their careers. The Irene Curie, the Marina van Damme Grant, the WISE (Women in Science) network are great examples of this.
All our guestspekers had an inspiring keynote:
- Associate professor and gynecologist dr. Bas van Rijn emphasized that we need to close the gap in medical scientific research. He highlighted that we have to learn much more from women who are pregnant and their health.
- Professor dr. Margriet van der Heijden told us in great detail that 鈥榳e鈥� women need to draw more attention to our contributions to scientific research, which we sometimes failed to do in the past.
- Simac Techniek N.V.鈥檚 female CEO, Maartje van Schagen, inspired our role models of the future by saying that you have to believe in yourself and 鈥榖e you鈥�, to become a female leader.
And on top of all this, the role models of the future were also on stage, such as the award winners of the Marina van Damme Grant and the creator of the beautiful series about young women starting out in a tech environment: Driven by Challenges.
Hope to see you next year on International Women鈥檚 Day March 8, 2025!
In 2020, Chiara Treglia submitted her to 果冻传媒鈥檚 Diversity Fund as a proposal. She won a grant and used it to turn her tool into an online platform. The tool has now become accessible to a much larger group of people. Since the Diversity Contest 2022 is open, we would like to know from Treglia what happened with her idea after winning one of the prizes in 2020.
鈥楢 contest is a nice opportunity to leverage a healthy dosage of competition and fun in order to put a serious subject even more on the spotlight.鈥�
Chiara Treglia: 鈥楩rom piloting the Multiverse Toolkit, a lot of people from different departments started to be interested in the subject, but mainly in the approach: the Multiverse Toolkit is not your usual D&I training, it鈥檚 very interactive and lets people explore a difficult, touchy subject in a creative way.
Now the Multiverse Toolkit is an official training for teams within the 果冻传媒 and four demo sessions are planned for staff and students during the Diversity Week 2022. Chiara: 鈥業n the meantime, I have developed other toolkits for teams and departments within the 果冻传媒. One of these is a psychological safety serious game, called Full Circle, which can also be found on the 果冻传媒 intranet.鈥�
The Diversity Fund has opened a world of opportunities and the need to get everyone onboard on the theme of D&I has become very visible. Chiara: 鈥業 think it鈥檚 a nice idea to stimulate people to think along on the topic. In the end, we need everyone to join the conversation if we want to see lasting change in our organization and in society at large. A contest is a nice opportunity to leverage a healthy dosage of competition and fun in order to put a serious subject even more on the spotlight.鈥�
Chiara Treglia is one of the people behind , which is located at Sectie-C and Strijp-S. She also works as 果冻传媒 Designer at innovation Space 果冻传媒 and she teaches the course Design Innovation Methods in Industrial Design.
Inclusion and diversity is more than trying to establish numbers and increase the diversity of our 果冻传媒 community. It has to be in our behavior! How we can improve teaching, research or other organizational processes in a way that increases the sense of belonging.
Prof.dr. Evangelia Demerouti, fulltime professor (IE&IS) and Chief Diversity Officer (chair)
GENDER EQUALITY PLAN
Over the last decade 果冻传媒 has shown commitment towards gender equality within our academic community. The university has developed many measures and activities to address gender equality: from raising awareness on gender equality to training opportunities and policy measures to ensure inclusive recruitment, career progression and decision making. In this Gender Equality Plan you can find the measures, activities and policies that have been developed and implemented to support our goals, as well as planned initiatives for 2021 to 2025.
There is overwhelming evidence that diverse teams are more creative and productive.
Read the "Female academics are too scarce. So their applications are going to the top of the pile" by Frank Baaijens in The Guardian.
Prof.dr.ir. Frank Baaijens
Communities
Diversity & Inclusion Committee
Tasks
The Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Committee submits proposals to the Executive Board concerning (policy) measures in order to stimulate diversity, inclusion and gender equality at the university.
Moreover the committee has the following tasks:
- To review the university鈥檚 performance and progress in promoting diversity, inclusion and equality.
- To support the university in meeting the diversity and gender-related targets in its strategic plan.
- To evaluate the impact and promote the sharing of university-wide good practice initiatives in diversity, inclusion and equality.
- To (further) develop a vision on diversity, inclusion and equality and a yearly action plan.
Members
The scientific members are appointed by the Executive Board for a period of 3 years.
- C.M. (Corlien) van Dam MA MHR, HR policy advisor (HRM)
- Prof.dr. E. (Evangelia) Demerouti, full professor (IE&IS) and chief diversity officer (chair)
- L. (Lara) Hofstra, Student Wellbeing/Diversity Officer
- Ir. E. (Erik) de Jong, community manager (ESA)
- Prof.dr.ir. I. (Ines) Lopez Arteaga, full professor (ME) and dean bachelor college
- Dr. E.M. (Elena) Mas Tur, assistant professor (IE&IS) and representative of Plural
- Prof.dr. G. (George) Papafotiou, full professor (EE)
- Prof.dr. A. (Alexander) Serebrenik, full professor (M&CS) and representative of Compass
- Dr. S. (Sandra) Simaria de Oliveira Lucas, assistant professor (BE) and representative of WISE Network
- Prof.dr. C. (Kees) Storm, full professor and dean (AP)
- Dr. E.A. (Monica) Zakhari, assistant professor (ME)
The student members are appointed by the Executive Board for a period of 1 year.
- A (Ari) Sibiescu (student ID)
- J.R. (Jeroen) Oerlemans (student M&CS)
More information about diversity and inclusion
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Corlien van Dam