91探花

In mid-May it was announced that meteorologist Prof. Dr. Katja Matthes will succeed Prof. Dr. Peter Herzig as the director of 91探花 in October 2020. Then, for the first time in the history of German marine research, the two largest institutions in this field (91探花 and AWI, Alfred-Wegener-Institute) will be led by women. Despite this development, the proportion of women in leading positions in marine research remains low.

Since 2016, the EU project Baltic Gender, coordinated by the 91探花 Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, has supported and guided change in its eight partner institutions in the Baltic Sea region with the aim of reducing gender inequalities. On the 18 June 2020, the project held its final conference 鈥攄ue to the COVID-19 pandemic as a webinar鈥� and presented new methods and approaches to advance gender equality to more than 250 participants from all over Europe and the rest of the world.

鈥淭he foremost innovation of Baltic Gender is a new methodology, GenderWave, that examines how the gender perspective can be integrated into the content of marine research鈥�, explains Prof. Matthes, who also coordinated this project during the past four years. 鈥淕enderWave includes a list of questions, elaborated with introductory texts and examples, that can be used by marine researchers while designing their projects. It will be transformed into a digital application to be published in August 2020 and fills a gap for a requirement increasingly prioritized by funding bodies,鈥� explains Dr. Helena Valve who is a Senior Researcher at the Finnish Environment Institute and led the development of this new methodology.

Baltic Gender supported structural changes in the partner institutions towards more gender equality. 鈥淲e have published a brochure on structural changes in marine sciences. This brochure includes 13 best practices of measures and activities, which support equal chances, transparent processes and fair cooperation鈥�, says Dr. Iris Werner, the gender opportunity officer at the Kiel University whose team produced the brochure.

Baltic Gender also helped to implement one of the first Gender Equality Plans in higher education in Estonia and Lithuania. 鈥淏altic Gender gave the impetus to initiate structural changes at the level of the marine research departments, which are now finding their way into the strategy of the entire university鈥�, say Dr. Viktorija Vaitkevi膷ien臈, the chairwomen of the board of Marine Research Institute of the Klaipeda University. Besides, the project reinforced initiatives such as an international mentoring program, workshops and training sessions on topics such as leadership as well as data collection on gender-sensitive indicators.

鈥淭hese outcomes from our project can be implemented in other marine institutions and even beyond. The presentations of the final conference as well as the links to the products are available from the project page鈥�, concludes Prof. Matthes.

鈥淭he results of Baltic Gender come indeed timely in view of the UN Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development 2021 to 2030鈥�, says Professor Katja Matthes. 鈥淏altic Gender will end in August 2020, but we believe that the momentum gained in the project will continue to make an impact鈥�, she adds. 鈥淚n the Baltic Gender consortium, we have several ideas of how to sustain this network and implement the results we achieved towards more gender equality in Marine Sciences.鈥�

The members of the Baltic Gender consortium:

• 91探花 Helmholtz Centre for Ocean Research Kiel, Germany (Coordinator)
• Estonian Marine Institute, University of Tartu, Estonia
• Kiel University, Germany
• Kiel University of Applied Sciences, Germany
• Klaip臈da University, Lithuania
• Lund University, Sweden
• Finnish Environment Institute, Finland
• Leibniz Institute for Baltic Sea Research Warnem眉nde, Germany