The women professorship programme established in 2008 is intended to promote equality between men and women in the academic world and counteract the under-representation of women, particularly at higher qualification levels ('leaky pipeline'). To this end, the State and Federals provide funding for the start-up financing of newly appointed female scientists and for measures to increase equal opportunities. Already in the first funding phase of the programme, the HNU had successfully applied and used the funds to appoint three women scientists to new professorships.
Positive evaluation of the gender equality concept provides a basis for gender equality work in the coming years
182 universities participated in the current call for proposals of the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (BMBF). The HNU is one of the 50 universities applying for the second round of submissions which were able to assert their equality concept before an independent panel of experts and qualify for funding.
The new HNU gender equality concept, which was developed under the project management of the HNU Women's Representative Prof. Dr. Claudia Kocian-Dirr, should set the decisive course for the coming years. "We are pleased that our concept has been positively evaluated - equal opportunities are a central concern of the HNU", said HNU President Prof. Dr. Uta M. Feser. "The fact that we have been selected for the second time shows us that our continuous equal opportunities work pays off".
Of the total programme volume of 200 million euros that will be made available in the third funding phase of the Women Professorship Programme, 280,142 euros will go to the HNU.
Against the 'leaky pipeline': appointing more women scientists and giving more support to young researchers
Among other things, the funds are used for a first appointment: The new professorship will be held by Prof. Dr. Sonja Köppl, who was recruited by the HNU for the focus on Business Informatics. "Women need female role models. I would like to take away the possible shyness of my female students with regard to IT, digitisation and the new technologies associated with it," explains the engineer specialised in automation, software development and data science her motivation to work for equality at the HNU.
Prof. Dr. Köppl is the fourth female professor to be appointed at the HNU since 2010 through the Women Professorship Programme. With a proportion of women in 25% of professorships, the university is currently already above the Bavarian average, but this proportion is set to increase significantly in future.
This is also to be achieved through the equal opportunities funding available through the State and Federals programme: "We want to invest these funds in particular in the professionalisation of our young scientists - and these are our female scientists. They are the professors of tomorrow," says Prof. Dr. Claudia Kocian-Dirr.
- Information on the Women Professors Programme of the Federal Government and the Länder (in German)
- Further information on gender equality work in science at the HNU (in German)
