The European Chemical Society (EuChemS), as a member of the TIER – Towards an Inclusive Evaluation of Research Working Group, has endorsed TIER’s official response to the European Commission’s public consultation on the Gender Equality Strategy 2026–2030.
TIER, launched in 2024 under the Coalition for Advancing Research Assessment (CoARA) unites universities, learned societies, representatives from both natural and social sciences, and policy actors. Its mission is to address unconscious bias in research assessment, propose concrete actions for mitigation, and produce guidelines to ensure equal opportunities, inclusiveness, and the valorisation of diversity.
In its consultation response, TIER welcomes the EU’s continued commitment to gender equality and highlights the effectiveness of Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) with minimum standards, such as monitoring, impact evaluation, and disaggregated data, as a powerful policy lever shaping national and institutional practices in research and higher education.
The response emphasises the need for systematic ex-post evaluation of GEPs in Horizon Europe projects and advocates maintaining GEPs as a mandatory requirement for future funding eligibility. It stresses stronger integration of intersectionality into policy design and evaluation, addressing factors such as ethnicity, disability, and socio-economic background. TIER also calls for adequate human and financial resources to implement and monitor the strategy across Member States, alongside targeted training to tackle conscious and unconscious biases in recruitment and evaluation. Furthermore, policies supporting individuals across all stages of parenthood are encouraged.
TIER’s recommendations underline that gender equality is inseparable from broader equity, diversity, and inclusion goals, and is closely linked to challenges such as precarious research careers, wage equality, and fair representation in decision-making bodies.
EuChemS is proud to support these recommendations and remains committed to advancing diversity and inclusion in the chemical sciences, in close collaboration with partners across disciplines and sectors. This commitment is also reflected in EuChemS initiatives such as the Global Women’s Breakfast, which brings together scientists worldwide to foster dialogue, collaboration, and equality in research.
