Introduction. Funded under the Horizon 2020 programme, the CHANGE project –Challenging Gender (In)Equality in Science and Research– aims to create and implement tailor-made gender equality plans (GEPs) in research performing organisations (RPOs). To make GEPs more sustainable, efforts are being made to stimulate institutional cultural change towards gender equal work environments and foster the gender dimension and inclusive research and innovation programmes in research funding organisations (RFOs) as well. The promotion of a gender equality culture is thus a key requirement for RPOs to maximise their potential. The CHANGE consortium is composed of seven institutions from six countries –Austria, Germany, Portugal, Slovenia, Slovakia, and Israel– of which five are GEP implementing partners and two are experienced partners (one coordinator and one internal evaluator). Objectives and Methodology. This paper approaches the methodology of the project and the structural and cultural challenges faced by the implementing partners so far, looking more specifically to the similarities and differences in the different national and institutional contexts. Results and Discussion. In all the five implementing partners organisations, successful steps have been taken in the implementation of GEPs. Regardless of these first successes, even with increasing women’s representation in management and decision-making positions in some specific cases, implementing partners and coordinators fear that this change may be merely circumstantial or only due and during the project duration. Contribution. The challenges and barriers faced so far to stimulate institutional and cultural change towards gender equal work environments in RPOs are diverse. While there are important social, cultural, and institutional differences among the partner institutions, there is a great similarity in the difficulties faced in implementing GEPs. Resistances and challenges that emerge during processes of change when gender equality policies are implemented in RPOs are more transversal to different national and organisational contexts than one could expect.

Gender equality has been placed at the centre of European research policy recently. The inclusion of gender and sex considerations into research and innovation (R&I) is an essential factor for scientific excellence and a key requirement for producing knowledge that can benefit society as a whole. However, the adoption of a gender/sex dimension is still a problematic issue in several Research Performance Organisations (RPOs) of European Union (EU) countries. Through the experience of implementing a gender equality plan (GEP) within the scope of a Horizon 2020 (H2020) project at a public Portuguese university (PPU), this study aims to explore the EU policies’ impact on the integration of the gender dimension in research, considering both institutional policies and scientific outputs. To achieve the purpose of the study, a mixed approach that combines a qualitative analysis of institutional documents and data collected through interviews with a quantitative analysis of secondary data is used. The implementation of the H2020 project brought the issue of gender inequality to the institutional agenda of the PPU under study and the formalisation of the GEP marked a transition point towards an integrated and intersectional approach that embraces gender dimension concerns in R&I. This transition coincided with a period characterised by an increase in the scientific outputs incorporating the ‘gender/sex dimension’, which may highlight the importance of European policies in stimulating and accelerating the introduction of the gender dimension in scientific practices in RPOs.

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