EU Projects Office

Diversity is a core value at CERN.  Our rich, collaborative environment features a diverse pool of talented individuals from all over the world, working together towards a common goal. Incorporating this value across all aspects of our work is key for CERN as an international organisation, both towards its Member States and the wider community.

Demonstrating its early commitment to nurturing a diverse working environment, CERN appointed its first Equal Opportunities Officer in 1996, and in 2011 the Organization established the Diversity and Inclusion programme. Since that time, CERN has seen many actions and initiatives to promote gender equality and inclusion.

In March 2021, CERN’s Senior Management (the “Enlarged Directorate”) endorsed a new D&I strategy called, “25 by ’25”.   The 25 by ’25 strategy was a CERN-wide aspirational target to boost gender and nationality diversity within the employed members of personnel (MPE) population. 

The nationality objective led to the creation of the Conscious Hiring policy, which aims to ensure that a Member State’s financial contribution is reflected in a more balanced representation among the personnel. For gender, at just 0.3% away from the target, the aspirational goal exceeded expectations. Women currently make up 24.7% of the staff and graduates/fellows population, compared with 21% at the start of the initiative.

Find out more about the “25 by ‘25” strategy here, and the full final results here. 

Meeting the EC’s mandatory requirements

As set out in the EC’s Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025, the following declaration underpins the European Union’s gender goals:  “In all its activities, the Union shall aim to eliminate inequalities, and to promote equality, between men and women.”  In this spirit, as of January 2022 all public bodies, research organisations or higher education institutions established in an EU Member State must have in place a Gender Equality Plan (“GEP”) “or equivalent” to be eligible for participation in Horizon Europe projects. This requirement applies to all Horizon Europe calls with a deadline in 2022, and beyond.

The European Commission defines a GEP as: “a set of commitments and actions that aim to promote gender equality in an organisation through a process of structural change”.

The EC has set out four mandatory requirements (or building blocks) which must be fulfilled (Ref. Gender equality in research and innovation) to satisfy Horizon Europe / GEP eligibility requirements.

Through its past and ongoing actions and initiatives, including the “25 by ‘25” strategy, CERN fully meets the GEP criteria, making CERN eligible for participation in Horizon Europe project proposals within this time frame.

Below are the four Gender Equality Plan mandatory requirements and a summary of the actions and activities CERN has in place to satisfy these requirements:

1. Public document: “The GEP should be a formal document signed by the top management, and disseminated within the institution. It should demonstrate a commitment to gender equality, set clear goals and detailed actions and measures to achieve them.”

A consolidation and presentation of CERN’s GEP-related processes and actions was endorsed by the Organization’s senior management – the “Enlarged Directorate” – in July 2022.

Previously, in March 2021, the Enlarged Directorate also endorsed the 25 by´25 strategy, the Organization’s flagship strategic action toward improving gender representation at CERN.

2. Dedicated resources: “Resources for the design, implementation, and monitoring of GEPs may include funding for specific positions such as Equality Officers or Gender Equality Teams as well as earmarked working time for academic, management and administrative staff.”

The current Diversity & Inclusion Programme (formerly, “Diversity Office”) was established in  2011. 

The D&I Programme is situated within the Human Resources Department, reporting to the Head of Human Resources. More about the history of the Programme and its activities is available here. The D&I Programme Leader reports annually to the Member State representatives at the Tripartite Employment Forum.

In addition, under the 25 by ’25  initiative, CERN’s Department Heads are appointing Diversity & Inclusion Officers, to be allocated a small percentage of time to handle, promote, and share D&I matters relevant to their respective Department.

3. Arrangements for data collection and monitoring: “GEPs must be evidence-based and founded on sex or gender-disaggregated baseline data collected across all staff categories. This data should inform the GEP’s objectives and targets, indicators, and ongoing evaluation of progress.”

CERN gender (and other) disaggregated data are consolidated on an annual basis in the Annual Personnel Statistics exercise. 

In addition, the Reporting and Analytics team has designed Gender and Nationality dashboards for each Department. The dashboards are a valuable tool to inform the departments in which areas they should make additional efforts, in particular when it comes to recruitment exercises.     

 4. Training and capacity-building: “Actions may include developing gender competence and tackling unconscious gender bias among staff, leaders and decision-makers, establishing working groups dedicated to specific topics, and raising awareness through workshops and communication activities.”

CERN’s Learning Hub includes a number of offers to raise awareness around unconscious bias in relation to gender in recruitment and career progression exercises.  Below, a sample of the learning offers (links accessible only by CERN personnel):

1/  Selecting the Right person for CERN includes content on unconscious bias.

2/  Getting to Grips with Supervision includes content on gender inclusive leadership style.

3/ Taking the Lead (directed at all senior managers): how to recognise and prevent misconduct in the workplace, with a particular focus on gender-based harassment.

4/ Active Bystander (directed at all members of the personnel): how to respond to, or to call out, misconduct in the workplace. 

5/ Respect in the Workplace : online resources for all members of the personnel to support learning on bias, diversity, and inclusion. 

Further to the above and in addition to the communication and awareness-raising activities, the D&I programme organises ad-hoc working groups on specific topics, such as during the implementation of “25 by ‘25”.

Diversity and Inclusion programme

Since the establishment of the Diversity and Inclusion programme in 2011, several initiatives have taken place at CERN to promote gender equality and inclusion. For more information on this, please see the website of CERN’sDiversity and Inclusion programme here.