Main goal

The Simula group (SRL, SSRI, SI and Kalkulo) has one main goal regarding gender equality and diversity:

Simula will increase the percentage of women in amongst the employees. By December 2015, Simula should have at least 25% female employees within the categories of scientific and support staff.

Simula has signed Code of Best Practices for Women in ICT[1]. In general, commitment related to this document shall be followed up, and this action plan details what Simula will focus on during the next five years.

Measures to achieve the main goal

To achieve the main goal, Simula has defined a list of measures for recruitment and hiring, and for the working environment. Some measures may not be gender-specific, but are expected to have particularly good effect in helping to attract and retain female scientists.

It is important to be aware that retaining talented female students may be an effective contribution to fulfilling the goal.

Responsibility, follow-up and improved processes

The management is responsible for the implementation of the Gender Action Plan. After the period 2010—2015, the administration will evaluate, review, and make a new five-year action plan based on the experiences that have been made. The educational components of the action plan will be implemented in close collaboration with the Simula School of Research and Innovation.

The administration shall establish a procedure that ensures that all hiring processes are managed with gender and diversity awareness. Recruitment processes shall make it clear that female students and researchers are needed in Simula’s fields of competence. To make the process transparent regarding the applicants’ qualifications and gender, the procedure will also define a system for producing statistical reports.

The administration shall provide yearly salary reports categorised by gender and position to ensure no gender related differences in salary. The status of the Gender Action Plan will be presented in the annual report. 

1. Recruitment and hiring

Simula shall:

• Highly qualified women should be headhunted directly to research positions.
• In general, one should search for qualified female candidates and encourage them to apply for available research positions. When a woman has the same qualifications as a man, the woman should be given priority on the short list.
• Take part in or organize recruitment opportunities and promotional events addressing students at Norwegian universities.
• Continue and expand promotional events and activities that encourage students in upper secondary schools to graduate in natural sciences. At least two such events for students in the final year at upper secondary schools in the Oslo and Bærum region should be arranged at Simula every year.

2. Working environment improvements

Simula shall:

• Provide management training that enables leaders to focus on important measures to recruit women and create a working environment that promotes awareness about gender issues. 
• Establish a mentoring programme for general advice and support for PhD students, postdoctoral fellows and researchers. A relevant number of the mentors in the programme are female. 
• Ensure that both genders are represented in boards and committees, and when external assessments are conducted.
• Provide flexible working conditions and family-friendly benefits as needed to support the combination of professional development and family responsibility. 
• Arrange an annual seminar series aiming at helping researchers in learning the necessary crafts and skills needed to become successful in academia or industry. Such seminars may include providing help in securing funding, project management, career planning, networking, etc. To ensure gender equality among senior researchers, it is important that leaders encourage participation in such seminars regardless of gender.
• Engange in discussions with other high-profile research institutions regarding measures designed to reach gender equality, and regarding assessment of such measures.