(2023/2025)
The International Platform for Science, Technology, and Innovation in Health – PICTIS constitutes a centre for research, teaching, innovation, technological development, and entrepreneurship in health. It operates through a collaborative arrangement led by the University of Aveiro (UA/Portugal) and the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation (Fiocruz/Brazil). Its mission is the production and dissemination of new knowledge in health and technological innovation while promoting the creation and improvement of processes, products, and services through the development of international cooperation networks and scientific and technological entrepreneurship. PICTIS operates through collaborations between researchers, professors, and collaborators in favour of scientific and technological research to innovate contributions to health systems in Portugal, Brazil, and worldwide with partnerships and support from institutions in several countries.
We commit to promoting diversity by valuing each member´s potential in an intersectional way, where gender identity, ethnic-racial origin, sexuality, nationality, age, and disabilities/functionalities compose the social belonging and scientific knowledge that each person brings when joining us. Diversity and intersectionality in team building favour that their shared knowledge produces synergy, resulting in new and innovative scientific and technological contributions in research and projects developed jointly with world partners to improve education and global health.
We present the PICTIS Gender Equality Plan to support equal opportunities for work, professional careers, and leadership in accessing, producing, and disseminating scientific and technological knowledge by teams working in partnerships and networks. This demonstrates our personal and institutional commitment to diversity in all PICTIS teams and leading institutions in the gender perspective, collaborating for Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 5 in the 2030 Agenda of the United Nations Organization. This plan conforms with the Gender Equality Plan of the University of Aveiro and the Ethnic-Racial and Gender Equity Policy of the Oswaldo Cruz Foundation.
Gender inequalities resulting from various historical and cultural factors are a hallmark of society and appear in different forms of oppression in everyday life: discrimination, violence, exclusion, and violation of rights. The progress achieved in recent decades was slight: the European gender equality index in 2021 advanced by only 0.6 points once compared to the previous year.
In the work field, namely in Academia, it is necessary to act with concrete actions to confront inequalities and violence against women in its various expressions, such as moral and sexual harassment, production and maintenance of unequal relationships in the daily work of professional activity, exclusion from decision-making environments and institutional power (glass ceiling). Managers must encourage and effectively implement actions and monitoring strategies contained in the Equality Plan to reduce socially ingrained inequalities.
The existence of gender inequalities and their intersections, such as discrimination based on sexual orientation, ethnic-racial origin, nationality, age, disabilities/functionalities, as well as other arbitrary practices in the institutional routine, affect the health and impact the productive conditions of the people who constitute any institution. In view of this, fighting and overcoming all forms of prejudice, discrimination and oppression is urgent for the defence of human rights and the appreciation of diversity for equality – principles that all people in the institution must reaffirm as an institutional commitment.
The PICTIS Gender Equality Plan is the document that will guide the institution internally and externally towards gender equality as a driver to tackle gender inequalities. The plan aims to strengthen institutional actions with a direct impact on the way people, teams, and collaborative networks act. According to the guidelines of the European Commission expressed in the Horizon Europe (2021) gender equality plans guide document, four essential pillars must be guaranteed by the institution:
The Plan follows the national guidelines in Portugal, the country where PICTIS has its headquarters, namely, in line with the National Strategy for Equality and Non-Discrimination 2018-2030 – Portugal + Igual (ENIND) in accordance with the Council Resolution of Ministers n. 61/2018.
The PICTIS Gender Equality Plan covers four thematic areas and is similar to the Gender Equality Plan of the University of Aveiro:
The objectives, actions, and mechanisms for disseminating information will be presented in a separate session in this plan and serve to expand knowledge. Subsequently, according to the established schedule, when the collected data are compiled and analysed, the results will be presented and discussed through internal dialogue with the teams in the laboratories that compose PICTIS. Dialogues will be carried out through face-to-face and/or remote communication (online) such as talks, workshops, scientific events for the internal public and society. They will also be invited to participate as representatives of society organizations and associations whose purpose is to promote gender equality in a dialogue between academia and social movements.
Last update: August 10, 2023