Future challenges Inge Henningsen University of Copenhagen

1. Future challenges Inge Henningsen University of Copenhagen Women in Academia – barriers and good practice Århus 18-19 May 2009

2. Future challenges 4 challenges • Increase in resources for strategic research • Increase in temporary positions • Biased allocation of resources between disciplines • Excellence - the new science policy buzzword What are the gender implications?

3. Excellence - the new science policy buzzword • In the universities the traditional career track Assistant – associate – full professor is now only one of many trajectories and new power bastions are emerging • Excellence is one of the new difference defining notions that will influence the furture distribution of power and ressources in Ademia • The prevailing construction of excellence has profound gender connotations .

4. Gender and excellence • “(In research) excellence is not a ‘universal fact’ or a ‘natural given’, or a ‘supra-disciplinary’ fact. It is a social construction and, as such, it is open to many kinds of bias” • “Science as a social institution has been dominated by men (white and socially privileged) and their views of what are important and relevant. We can expect this to have a strong influence on dominant discourses and established research agendas and paradigms”. (EU: Gender and Excellence in the Making, 2004)

5. Gender bias, where? Gender bias were seen to occur • in the characterisation of scientific excellence, • in the criteria used to assess it, • in the choice of the explicit and implicit indicators for scientific excellence, • in the way the criteria are applied to men and women, • in the failure to integrate women in scientific networks, • in the procedures through which criteria are applied to people. (EU: Gender and Excellence in the Making, 2004) I would like to add • Academic disciplines

6. Excellence Prizes for old men

7. The Kavli Prizes This year (2008) three outstanding international scientific prizes in the fields of Nanoscience, Neuroscience and Astrophysics will be awarded for the first time.Each prize consists of a scroll, a medal and a cash award of US $ 1 Million. The prizes focus on the science of the greatest physical dimensions of space and time, the science of the smallest dimensions of systems of atoms and molecules, and the science of the most complex systems, especially living organisms. (Kavli prize Homepage)

8. The Kavli Prizes This year (2008) three outstanding international scientific prizes in the fields of Nanoscience, Neuroscience and Astrophysics will be awarded for the first time.Each prize consists of a scroll, a medal and a cash award of US $ 1 Million. The prizes focus on the science of the greatest physical dimensions of space and time, the science of the smallest dimensions of systems of atoms and molecules, and the science of the most complex systems, especially living organisms. (Kavli prize Homepage)

9. Excellence Prizes for young men

10. Young excellent investigators. Denmark 2007: 7 men; 2008: 5 men; 2009 3 men + 2 women Disciplines

11. Centres of excellence Denmark 1998-2009

12. Centres of excellence. Norway 2002-2007

13. Excellent research in human sciences

14. ERC Starting Grants 2008 Applications and grants. Percentage of women i brackets

15. The usual suspects A multi centered grants system is supposed to create diversity, but – • If everybody uses the same criteria the result is the opposite • Today, excellence tends to narrow the scope of research

16. UNIK – an example UNIK – a new Danish research program aimed at big programs. 80 mio. Euro. 4 projects were selected. UNIK expert panel • Professor Jarle Aarbakke, Tromsø Universitet, Norge • Rektor, professor Harriet Wallberg-Henriksen, Karolinska Instituttet, Sverige. • Akademiprofessor Leena Peltonen-Palotie, Helsinki Universitet, Finland. • Professor Bart de Moor, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven, Belgien. • Professor Klavs F. Jensen, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, USA. • Professor Martin J. Kropff, Wageningen University, Holland. • Professor Pär Omling, Lunds Universitet, Sverige. • Professor Olli Ikkala, Helsinki University of Technology, Finland. • Professor Geoffrey Channon, University of the West of England, UK. • Professor Lennart Hjalmarsson, Göteborgs Universitet, Sverige. • Professor Emeritus Helga Haftendorn, Freie Universität Berlin, Tyskland.

17. UNIK expert panel • Pharmacologi • Physiologi/ Pharmacologi • Molecular biology • Biology • Engineer / applied mathematics • Material sciences • Material sciences • Solid state physics • Industrial and economic history • Industrial economics • International politics

18. UNIK expert panel • Pharmacologi • Physiologi/ Pharmacologi • Molecular biology • Biology • Engineer / applied mathematics • Material sciences • Material sciences • Solid state physics • Industrial and economic history • Industrial economics • International politics Not very diverse!

19. Future challenges • Judging from the current European discussion on the futures of universities, excellence is likely to become the new agent of difference, affecting the distribution of power and resources in academia. • We witness a (slight?) increase in the number of women in Academia. • Do we also witness the creation of new arenas where inequality is restored.