Equal Opportunities and Diversity Unit

Projects at a glance

The Equality Innovation Fund, which is funded by the Women Professors' Programme (in german) supports innovative projects ideas from faculties and faculty-related institutions to improve the study, research and working conditions of female academics and students, with the aim of increasing the proportion of women in under-represented fields and preventing women from dropping out of academia. The fund's areas of support are:

The University of Göttingen strives to recruit female students for subjects and courses in which women are underrepresented. Preventing talented women from dropping out of science, the transition to graduate and doctoral studies should be optimally supported. Measures to recruit female students and increase their motivation to study (natural) scientific subjects are implemented in projects funded by the Equality Innovation Fund.

    The Faculty's Equal Opportunities Team, in collaboration with the Dean's Office, developed the idea of an image film that opens up a more diverse perspective on forestry studies and careers to break down outdated stereotypes, counteract common clichés and attract more women to study forestry. The film presents role models (e.g., foresters, scientists) who show the opportunities in the field of forestry, from research to harvesting, in order to arouse the interest of the young target group in particular. The film makes a small contribution to a cultural change in society as a whole by gradually abandoning the stereotype of the forester with the dachshund and the loden coat.

    Responsible institution: Faculty of Forest Sciences and Forest Ecology
    Contact: Dr. Michaela Dölle
    Duration: 01/2017-12/2017
    Target group: Prospective students, especially female students

    The project aims to provide authentic insights into studying maths at the University of Göttingen. The campaign #mymathesommer, which took place during the summer study programme in mathematics, was organised to encourage students to reflect on their first experiences of studying mathematics and post them on social media. Several attractive prizes were offered as an incentive. Immediately afterwards, a student position was created for the winter semester 2019 / 20 to continue offering blog and Instagram posts on various topics and events related to studying. Since January 2020, a mathematics student has been regularly contributing content to the new social media channels.

    Responsible institution: Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science; Mathematical Research Institution
    Contact: Dr. Denise Krempasky
    Duration: 06/2019-07/2020
    Target group: Prospective students, especially female students

    The project responds to the subject-specific problem that women are strongly underrepresented in physics and chemistry courses, especially at the University of Göttingen by offering a science camp for female students in which the girls experience themselves as self-effective and competent in dealing with chemical and physical problems. They meet female role models, as the project involves female students and scientists who inspire and excite the girls. Accompanying social activities are offered to get to know Göttingen as an attractive place to study. The experimental courses take place in the XLAB, the Göttingen Experimental Laboratory for Young People, and there are accompanying specialist and career events in the faculties.

    Responsible institution: Faculty of Physics, Faculty of Chemistry
    Contact: Mona Maaß
    Duration: 06/2019-12/2020
    Target group: Students in grades 11-13
    Cooperations: XLAB-Göttinger Experimental lab for young people, Excellence-Schulnetzwerk MINT-EC SFB 1073: Control of energy conversion on atomic scales, SFB 803: Functionality controlled by organisation in and between membranes

The University of Göttingen aims to improve the study conditions for female students by taking gender equality and diversity into account, especially in the initial and transition phases. Projects funded by the Equality Innovation Fund aim to prevent students from dropping out of their studies, especially in the first semesters, by offering support and advice, orientation, networking, propaedeutics and help in organising their studies. Incentives are provided for female students to try out modules without obligation. Female students are to be addressed by broadening the teaching content with regard to gender-reflective perspectives on course content, stereotypes in the natural and life sciences and role models.

    The project aims to support female business students (Business Administration or Economics at Bachelor level) by offering a scholarship of €350 per month for one semester to try out studying a module in Computer Science and Business Informatics. If the students successfully pass such a module, the scholarship will be extended for another semester. This is intended to increase the visibility of women in the programme and may lead to a pull effect, motivating other female students to study Business Informatics. Based on the feedback from the scholarship holders on their experiences of entering Business Informatics and on individual courses, structural changes in Business Informatics and Computer Science have been initiated.

    Responsible institution: Faculty of Business and Economics
    Contact: Dorothee Konnings
    Duration: 07/2018-09/2020
    Target group: Female students of Business Administration and Economics
    Cooperation: Institute of Computer Science

    The project supports women in the initial phase of their studies in a protected and motivating social context (Students' Study Group - with tutorials) and, if necessary, also with advice to individual challenges and problems (Students' Consultation Hours). It also offers opportunities for empowering exchange and networking (Students' Network).

    Responsible institution: Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, Institute of Computer Science
    Contact: Dr. Anne-Katrin Schultz
    Duration: 07/2018-04/2020
    Target group: Female students of Computer Science

    The project deals with the organisation and implementation of a block seminar in the area of key competences on "Gender aspects in Computer Science". The aim is to highlight historical and current role models in computing and to critically examine gender discrimination, stereotypes and clichés in school and university. Students can use their exam results to enter an internal competition in which a jury of experts will award €1,000 for the best presentation and the best essay.

    Responsible institution: Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, Institute of Computer Science
    Contact: Simone Münz, Dr. Anne-Katrin Schultz
    Duration: 06/2019-12/2020
    Target group: Students, espcially of Computer Science

The University of Göttingen aims to support female students and researchers in their personal development as much as possible and to support them at an early stage and according to their needs on their academic career path up to professorship. The projects funded by the Equality Innovation Fund focus on supporting female researchers who face different challenges and have to meet different requirements, e.g., doctoral students with disabilities or chronic illnesses, female researchers with caring responsibilities or international female postdocs entering the German science system. The projects also focus on other important success factors for a career in science, such as financial support for publication activities and equality-oriented selections processes with regard to appointment procedures, including active recruitment of women scientists. Other projects focus on gaining more knowledge about career obstacles, such as the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and the reasons why female scientists dropping out of academia, in order to develop targeted recommendations for action.

    The project aims to improve the study conditions of female doctoral candidates with disabilities, chronic illnesses or special needs such as caring responsibilities. Expert talks will be held in which female doctoral students and supervisors will share their experiences and act as role models. In addition, lectures on the topic of "Gender Equality and Inclusive Doctoral Studies" will be held to provide impulses for the reduction of structural barriers.

    Responsible institution: Graduate School for Social Science (GGG)
    Contact: Dr. Britta Korkowsky
    Duration: 07/2018-08/2019
    Target group: PhD students with disabilities or chronic illnesses
    Cooperations: Göttingen Graduate School of Humanities (GSGG), Representative for Students with Disabilities and Chronic Illnesses, Equal Opportunities and Diversity Office, Hildegardis e.V.

    The project includes the implementation of various modules that focus on the specificities of the disciplinary culture of the faculties of natural and life sciences. It also identifies and strengthens the personal competences of the participants to facilitate the entry of young international researchers into the German science system. The aim is to support young international researchers in the early stages of their careers and thus prevent them from dropping out of academia.

    Responsible institution: Faculty of Agricultural Science
    Contact: Dr. Nina Härter
    Duration: 01/2018-09/2020
    Target group: International postdoctoral researchers in the natural and life sciences

    Female scientists with a doctorate or in the final stages of their doctorate can apply for a publication support fund. The aim is to improve the conditions for publishing in high-impact journals to prevent young researchers in the Geosciences and Geography from dropping out of academia.

    Responsible institution: Faculty for Geoscience and Geography
    Contact: Katrin Kranz
    Duration: 01/2017-04/2020
    Target group: Doctoral and postdoctoral researchers in Geosciences and Geography

    The project addresses a key challenge in agricultural sciences, where few women apply for advertised professorships. The project includes the development of concrete tools for the implementation and professionalisation of active recruitment in order to improve appointment procedures in the faculty, and to develop recommendations for action for an equal opportunities appointment policy.

    Responsible institution: Faculty for Agricultural Science
    Contact: Dr. Nina Härter
    Duration: 01/2017-04/2020
    Target group: Female scientists on the verge of professorship

    The project consists of a quantitative study of the effects of the COVid-19 pandemic on the working conditions and future opportunities of junior researchers with caring responsibilities at the University of Göttingen. Based on the results, concrete measures for gender equality and compatibility of work and family will be developed and proposed for faculties and faculty-related institutions (e.g. graduate schools). The study focuses on the situation of young researchers (mid-level faculty, junior professors, tenure-track positions). The aim of the study is to map the current impact of the situation and, on this basis, to develop concrete and rapidly implementable recommendations.

    Responsible institution: Faculty of Social Science, Göttingen Diversity Research Institute
    Contact: Dr. Yvonne Franke
    Duration: 09/2020-12/2020
    Target group: Researchers, especially those with care responsibilities

    The project is dedicated to an in-depth analysis of the quantitative data collected in the previous project Care, Career, Corona. The study showed that researchers with care responsibilities were affected differently by the COVID-19 pandemic. The project will contribute to understanding the causes of the tension between gender and care by developing university-wide recommendations for action.

    Responsible institution: Faculty of Social Science, Göttingen Diversity Research Institut
    Contact: Prof. Dr. Andrea D. Bührmann, Elena Futter-Buck
    Duration: 08/2021-02/2022
    Target group: Researchers, especially those with care responsibilities

    The project aims to update the findings of the first study and to investigate how the Corona pandemic has affected the working conditions and career prospects of young researchers, in particular those with caring responsibilities. The focus will be on the perspective of young researchers in their qualification phase during the period 2020-2023, as well as on the perspective of established or senior researchers with leadership responsibilities. The aim is to derive concrete and applicable recommendations for the University of Göttingen to support young researchers in crisis situations.

    Responsible institution: Faculty of Social Science, Göttingen Diversity Research Institut
    Contact: Prof. Dr. Andrea D. Bührmann, Elena Futter-Buck
    Duration: 04/2023-02/2024
    Target group: Researchers, especially those with care responsibilities; leaders with caregiving responsibilities

    The project comprises the organisation and performance of two workshops to raise awareness of the occurrence of the Impostor phenomenon in the scientific environment. The aim is to strengthen the participants' self-efficacy and to teach them methods to break through stressful impostor thinking patterns.

    Responsible institution: Faculty of Geoscience and Geography
    Contact: Dr. Johanna Kerch
    Duration: 04/2022-03/2023
    Target group: Female students and scientists

    With regard to the leaky pipeline, the project includes the analysis of the conditions for doctoral studies and the reasons why doctoral students drop out of the three social science faculties at the University of Göttingen. The aim is to develop gender equality measures to improve the conditions for doctoral students, reduce the number of dropouts, and increase the number of women who remain in academia.

    Responsible institution: Faculty of Law, Faculty of Business and Economics, Faculty of Social Science, and Göttingen Graduate School of Social Sciences
    Contact: Timo Pietsch (Law), Christina Klöckner (Social Science), Dorothea Konnings (Economics), Bettina Ross (GGG)
    Duration: 04/2022-02/2025
    Target group: Doctoral students, especially female doctoral students from the three faculties
    Cooperation: Prof. Dr. Steffen Kühnel, Prof. Dr. Maria Pohn-Lauggas, Kristina Meier,
    Dr. Julia Lischewski

    The aim of the project is to make international women theologians visible as role models and to facilitate networking in the form of a "human library". A total of 16 speakers, most of whom are in the early stages of qualification, will present their research and career path. Existing challenges in undergraduate and doctoral studies will be highlighted and personal hurdles will be discussed. The event will end with a networking meeting of all speakers and participants to discuss future cooperation possibilities and exchange ideas.

    Responsible institution: Faculty of Theology
    Contact: Elena Romashko, Chevy Hiceta
    Duration: 09/2023-08/2024
    Target group: To whom it may interest

    The project involves the organisation of a four-day conference. The conference will start with keynote speeches given by women only. In addition to mathematical research topics, the conference will focus on gender equality aspects such as gender studies and gender bias in mathematics. The aim is to make women in mathematics visible as role models, to break down stereotypes and to raise awareness of issues such as gender studies in mathematics.

    Responsible institution: Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, Institute of Mathematics
    Contact: Dr. Roberta Anna Iseppi
    Duration: 08/2024-11/2024
    Target group: Scientists in the field of mathematics

The University of Göttingen is working towards an organisational structure and culture based on equality, compatibility and diversity. This includes critically examining and reflecting on current procedures and practices with a view to redesigning structures and processes in a needs-based and participatory manner. The projects increase the visibility of women's academic careers or qualify gender equality in the study context - also in connection with other diversity categories. They prepare findings from social science research on equality and gender in a way that is understandable to groups of people from other disciplines, work on a more gender-equitable design of studies and teaching, and investigate the gender pay gap in the W-pay scale at the University of Göttingen. Their overall aim is to reduce inequalities and create more equal opportunities.

    Increasing the visibility of women's academic careers both within the university and for the non-academic public, an interdisciplinary film project was developed by the Equal Opportunities Officer of the Faculty of Philosophy. In the film, several academics describe their careers and report on special stages and key moments. This visualisation, especially of women's perspectives in academia, is intended to initiate a discourse on gender-related career obstacles and opportunities and to contribute to attracting more women to the career goal of professorship.

    Responsible institution: Faculty of Philosophy
    Contact: PD Dr. Victoria Hegner
    Duration: 10/2018-04/2020
    Target group: Female scientists
    Cooperations: Faculty of Physics, Faculty of Business and Economics, Faculty of Agricultural Science

    The project, developed by the Equality Opportunities Teams of the Faculties of Physics and Chemistry, aims to present findings from gender research and social science research on gender equality in a way that is understandable and exciting for scientists. The project consists of two components: an interactive display (standee), providing information on gender equality and scientific findings on gender issues in physics and chemistry, and textual material on relevant gender equality research, presented in an understandable and appealing way for transfer to non-disciplinary contexts. The aim is to sensitise relevant actors to factors of disadvantage and to increase the proportion of women at all career levels in the long term.

    Responsible institution:Faculty of Physics, Fakulty of Chemistry
    Contact: Dr. Sophie-Charlotte August, Dr. Ingo Mey
    Duration: 06/2019-12/2020
    Target group: across the board

    The project deals with a differentiated analysis of the gender pay gap at the University of Göttingen since the introduction of the W salary scale. Since various forms of performance pay (appointment, retention, special performance pay) have been added as negotiable components to the binding basic salaries, the gender pay gap for professorships is increasingly being discussed. The aim of the project is to derive recommendations for action to reduce the gender pay gap and to develop routine analyses for gender equality controlling by defining standard operating procedures (SOPs).

    Responsible institution: Faculty of Business and Economics
    Contact: Prof. Dr. Thomas Kneib
    Duration: 09/2021-06/2024
    Target group: Female scientists, especially professors
    Cooperation: Prof. Dr. Krisztina Kis-Katos, Anika Werkmeister, Aline Georgi, Dr. Doris Hayn

    The project is dedicated to advising lecturers and students on issues related to appropriate gender-equitable design of exercise cases, including gender-equitable language. A website will be set up with information about the project, a contact point for advice and guidelines for gender-equitable language. It is also planned to run a multi-part training programme for lecturers to raise awareness of gender-equitable issues in legal studies.

    Responsible institution: Faculty of Law
    Contact: Prof. Dr. Sina Fontana, Ronja Westermeyer
    Duration: 10/2022-09/2024
    Target group: Students and scientists of the faculty of law

    The project involves conducting of two one-day unconscious bias training sessions with a focus on 'gender equity' for managers and scientists with leadership responsibilities at the Faculty of Geosciences and Geography. The aim is to raise awareness of the negative effects of bias in everyday professional life and to present alternatives for creating an appreciative attitude towards women and a pleasant working environment for (female) scientists.

    Responsible institution: Faculty of Geoscience and Geography
    Contact: Dr. Johanna Kerch
    Duration: 07/2021-09/2022
    Target group: People with leadership responsibilities

    The project comprises the organisation and implementation of a training course in the area of key competences for tutors in gender- and discrimination-sensitive teaching and learning spaces. The aim is to strengthen the relevance of gender and diversity, responsibility and (self-)reflection of power-based inequalities in the university context and to establish them as an elementary part of learning and training structures at the university.

    Responsible institution: Faculty of Philosophy
    Contact: Jana Pasch
    Duration: 04/2023-03/2024
    Target group: Students with teaching responsibilities

    The project involves the creation of a bilingual (self-)learning tool with an integrated application concept, tailored to the needs of the Faculty of Forest Sciences and Forest Ecology. The accompanying concept will be developed by considering its implementation and use by other faculties. The aim is a long-term, university-wide use of the tool to raise awareness of and protection against sexualised violence. As a pilot project, it serves the practical implementation of the policy on the prevention of and protection against sexualised violence.

    Responsible institution: Faculty of Forest Sciences and Forest Ecology
    Contact: Dr. Simone Pfeiffer, Jana Pasch
    Duration: 02/2024-02/2025
    Target group: Members of the University Göttingen