Gender asymmetries in academic careers 

The University of Trento has been taking action to support women's academic careers, for it is of the view that women's talents and contribution to the scientific world must be enhanced.
A first step in this direction is the adoption of a gender perspective to data monitoring, which has continued uninterruptedly since 2006 through the publication and dissemination of the University’s Annual Report on Equal Opportunities.
The awareness of the need for concrete action aimed at rebalancing the existing gender asymmetries relies on significant planning and monitoring activities, which translate into tools such as the Positive Actions Plan, Gender Budgeting, the Annual Report of the Committee for Equal Opportunities (CUG) and, more recently, the Gender Equality Plan (GEP).

One of the most innovative policies at national level, which was firstly introduced by the University of Trento in order to overcome gender imbalances in scientific careers, is a system of economic incentives aimed at the recruitment, from-abroad calls and ERC (European Research Council) calls, of professors and assistant professors of the less represented gender, impacting on so-called “staff points”. Staff points, which refer to the average annual cost of different personnel types, constitute the basis to calculate the budget allocated for new recruitments.

UniTrento's strategy 

As of 2014, the University of Trento has adopted measures aimed at ensuring the gender re-balance in scientific careers, by, on the one hand, providing an incentives system, and, on the other hand, providing that the need to 'rebalance the less represented gender among full professors' is taken into account, inter alia, in the overall planning for the recruitment of professors and assistant professors.

Currently, following a further, July 2021 decision of the Academic Senate, academic departments and centres intending to recruit, or call from abroad or through ERC, a person belonging to the less represented gender shall not only benefit from the co-financing quotas normally provided by the University, but also from additional gender incentives - the value of which varies depending on the type of recruitment or call - with the effect of making it more economically advantageous for academic departments and centres to recruit a person of the less represented gender.

By way of example, if a Department wished to recruit, through a national competition, a full professor belonging to the most represented gender, 70% of the cost of recruitment would be borne by the Department and 30% by the University; if, on the other hand, the Department wished to recruit a person of the least represented gender, the University would bear 70% of the cost and the Department 30%, by virtue of a gender incentive of 0.4 "staff points" (corresponding to 40% of the cost of the position) (see Table 1).

Gender incentives can be added to incentives for calls from abroad and for ERC-winners.

Table 1 - Costs for academic departments and centres after the Academic Senate decision of July 2021:

Notes:
** The cost includes the provision of 0.2 “staff points” for the upgrade to associate professor.
For more details, please contact the Equality and Diversity Office at equitadiversita [at] unitn.it.