Gendered Innovation Living Labs to increase gender responsive smart innovation and enterpreneurship in EU
TIME
Friday 22 September
11.00 – 12.30
TRACKS
Living Lab Transition: Methodologies and Impact
ORGANISER
LOCATION
AGORA
DESCRIPTION
Challenges. The EU and the UN actively promote gender equality and gender mainstreaming at all levels. Despite this, Europe shows a strong under-utilisation of female talent and still reports a high disproportion in the representation of women and those from diverse and minority groups in innovation and entrepreneurship activities and outputs.
For instance, SheFigures (EC, 2018) reported the under-representation of women in STEM education, a high drop-out rate of women at postgraduate level in STEM, the presence of discriminatory practices (e.g., pay gap and ostracism), lower career progression, and under-representation of women among innovators and start-up entrepreneurs. This is a missed opportunity for Europe’s economy and for European society that needs a serious counteraction to create gender equality in innovation and entrepreneurship to stop the large-scale, systemic undervaluing of female knowledge and potential.
A gender responsive smart approach means “going beyond acknowledging and raising awareness of gender gaps, to making sure that women’s and men’s experiences are equally integrated in the design of innovative products and services and that due consideration is given to gender norms, roles and relation.” (She UN, 2019) This requires that gender and gender issues play a key role in every phase of the innovation cycle.
How we aim to solve the issue. In the ambitious EC funded project coordinated by ENoLL, GILL will go beyond the state-of-the-art of “fix the numbers, fix the institutions, and fix the knowledge” and address the main obstacles as identified by ERAC (2019): It creates tools and methods to “fix” the culture around innovation and entrepreneurship – a 4th fix, to change the practice (as a bottom-up approach which can enable EU strategies and policies to be enacted) – to create the environment and skills needed to support Gender Responsive Smart Innovation and Entrepreneurship (GRSIE) in the OIEs.
To achieve this 4th fix, GILL will develop a pan- European, virtual, learning, and collaborative hub – embodying and built on Living Lab (LL) principles – providing information, tools, methods, and a collaborative environment to transform individual, team, and organizational practice. The 4th fix will ensure that gender responsive innovation and the culture to support this are fully integrated at all stages of the innovation process, rather than simply an added extra, and ensures gender and diversity into product design, technologies and innovation.
Goal of the debate. This session will provide attendees with insights into how effectively the Living Lab approach and methods/tools can support the transition into a more just world, not only for women, but also looking into diversity and inclusion of minorities into STEM careers. The debate will present the EC policy perspective on gendered innovation, as well as some concrete approaches from the ENoLL Living Lab community and GILL sisters projects on addressing the challenges of our current times on both organizational and cultural changes needed in the workplace to support not only professional development and educational practices to be improved towards gendered innovation approaches, but also for developing technologies and innovation which are fairer and more inclusive. The speakers will share their expertise on the initiatives and projects they are involved in and offer diverse perspectives on the challenges and opportunities identified on gendered innovation and Living Labs.
Link with our AOTFs and Working Groups
- Social Impact of AI
- Social Innovation & Digital Rights
- Health & Well Being
- Energy & Environment
Audience
- Policy makers
- Companies and entrepreneurs
- Researchers & Academics
- Living Lab representatives and practitioners
- Innovators
AGENDA
11:15 – 11:25 The ENoLL approach on Gendered Innovation through Living Labs (Martina Desole, Director of ENoLL)
- 10′ The GILL contribution to the Gendered Innovation methodological context through Living Labs (Andree Woodcock, GILL Scientific Lead and Professor at Coventry University )
- 10′ Advancing gender equality in STEM Research in the EU (Marcelo Mora, Human Resources Project Manager at IRB Barcelona and CALIPER Project partner)
- 10′ The educational perspective to support Gendered Innovation of girls in STEM (Melissa Rancourt, Founder and Board President of Greenlight for Girls)
- 10′ The business perspective of gendered innovation Living Labs (Andra Tanase, Senior Green and Digital Strategist and Project Manager, Transilvania IT by ARIES Transilvania)
SPEAKERS
Dr. Francesca Spagnoli
Head of Capacity Building & Research at ENoLL and GILL Project Coordinator

Dr. Francesca Spagnoli
Head of Capacity Building & Research at ENoLL and GILL Project CoordinatorDr. Spagnoli is a Science & Technology enthusiast, constantly seeking for new ways to enact Social & Open Innovation through the support of digital technologies and Living Labs. With over 15 years of experience in managing more than 35 complex digital transformation projects in Europe, she is supporting the Living Labs passionate community in growing through thrilling Open Innovation and Digital Transformation initiatives. Francesca is currently leading the GILL European Commission funded project with the aim to develop a pan-European collaboration and learning hub as a one-stop-shop for tools, methods, and knowledge to reduce gender barriers in innovation and entrepreneurship, by helping transformation in individual, team, and educational practice. Email - francesca.spagnoli@enoll.org
Martina Desole
Director ENoLL

Martina Desole
Director ENoLLMartina Desole is the Director of ENoLL, the European Network of Living Labs, based in Brussels, promoting globally the Living Lab concept and methodology and the Network of our certified Members. She has a degree in International Law and a Postgraduate in European Policies. Martina is an expert in European policies and programs for research and innovation, has been officially appointed by the Ministry of Research, Education and University as the National Contact Point of the European Commission in Italy, for Industrial Technologies (Nanotechnologies, Advanced Materials, Advanced Manufacturing and Processing, and Biotechnology) since 2002. She has been working in the field of science diplomacy and promotion of research and innovation, helping researchers and entrepreneurs to find a way to be funded by Europe for their ideas, and Europe to implement International Cooperation policies in science and innovation with other countries.
Melissa Rancourt
Founder Greenlight for Girls

Melissa Rancourt
Founder Greenlight for GirlsInspired by possibilities, fueled by passion, Melissa Rancourt is an avid creator of new ideas and companies. Melissa Rancourt is a public speaker, educator, and entrepreneur. Recently been named one of the Top 100 Women in Social Enterprise in Europe and Women who Advance Associations Award, she is the Founder and Board President of an international non-profit that she began in 2010, as well as an owner of a wellness company with a spa & yoga studio, creator of her own Engineering/Training consultancy, and a Director & University faculty member leading a Master’s degree in Strategic Design for Global Leadership at Parsons School of Design in NY, Paris & Seoul. The international non-profit, greenlight for girls, began when she posed one small idea to make a difference to educate and inspire young girls around the world to discover STEM studies and explore their future potential. Within moments and then years, one idea grew to amazing proportions, now inspiring more than 58,000 girls on 6 continents, and continues to soar.
Andree Woodcock
Chair of Educational Ergonomics and Design

Andree Woodcock
Chair of Educational Ergonomics and DesignI am a longstanding member of Coventry City lab, and a member of ENOLL executive committee and the Land C subcommittee. I have worked at Coventry as a researcher since 1999 and am Chair of Educational Ergonomics and Design, Driving my research is the belief that applying systems-thinking and user-centred design principles drawn from ergonomics and design research can be applied to and solve many of the wicked problems we face today. In this, the key for greater inclusion and recognition of the needs and contributions of all sectors of society is paramount. This requires the development and application of inclusive methods to understand these needs, empathy fed by an in depth understanding of the lived experience and a willingness on the part of stakeholders (such as designers, municipalities and agencies) to use this information in the application and development of inclusive approaches, systems and products. Most of my research has been located within design departments, looking at applying systemic design research to wicked problems in health, education, mobility, sustainability and gender. I have led successful national and EU funded projects in excess of £15m, all featuring ‘hard to reach groups’ most recently within the field of transport. The proposal builds on the following projects. H2020 TInnGO (2019-2021): to develop a Pan European Transport innovation Gender Observatory and 10 hubs across Europe creating a step change in gender and mobility across transport through use of gender action plans and gender mainstreaming. (approx. 3 million euros): role PI WEMOBILE (2018-2019) project to understand the lived experiences of women in Malaysia and Pakistan and the effects of gender transport poverty and everyday harassment (approx. £45 K): role PI H2020 CIVITAS SUITS 2016-2020): capacity building to develop sustainable mobility projects in small to medium local authorities (approx. 4 million euros) : role PI Empathic design and elders: Frank Jackson Foundation (2016-2019) looking at ways to encourage transport design and engineering students to be empathic in consideration of older transport users. (approx. 30K). Role PI FP7 METPEX: (2013-2016) project to develop pan- European tool to measure the quality of multimodal, end to end traveller journey (approx. 3 million euros) P1: role PI Elder’s mobility needs University pump priming (2016) to deliver co-design workshops in UK and USA. PI: £10K Evaluation of early adopters experiences of the use of e-vehicle: EPSRC, n/d A multistakeholder evaluation of a full scale, working electric bus: Consultancy: 2010 Developing intelligent zero-emissions vehicles, Science city project with Birmingham, RDM and Microcab, 2009 Investigating the safety and security of women drivers and their passengers DETR (2001): PI £100K
Barbara De Micheli
Head of the Social Justice Unit in Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini

Barbara De Micheli
Head of the Social Justice Unit in Fondazione Giacomo BrodoliniBarbara De Micheli is Head of the Social Justice Unit in Fondazione Giacomo Brodolini. She is Senior Researcher on projects dealing with gender equality, anti-discrimination, access to employment, social and labour policies and fundamental rights. She has designed and coordinates since its first edition the advanced training course Master in Gender Equality and Diversity Management (15 editions in 11 years). She has over 20 years of experience in training multi-cultural groups on diversity and inclusion, business development and business planning, she is used to coordinate cross national projects funded by European Agencies (EIGE, EUROFOUND, FRA), taking care of all different steps including overseeing project delivery, quality control of delivered services, client orientation and conflict resolution. Since 2012 she has been working on research projects funded by DG Research and focusing on the implementation of Gender Eqaulity Plans (Genis Lab, Genport, Target); in the last two years she has been leading the teams supporting several institutions in the definition of their Gender Equality Plans (Institute Pasteur, Ospedale San Raffaele, Università Vita Salute, Fondazione Regionale Ricerca Biomedica Regione Lombardia). She holds a PHD Labour Innovation and development from – Università di Modena e Reggio Emilia; she is fluent in Italian, English and French.
Marcelo Mora
Human Resources Project Manager at IRB Barcelona and CALIPER Project Partner

Marcelo Mora
Human Resources Project Manager at IRB Barcelona and CALIPER Project PartnerMarcelo Mora is the Human Resources Project Manager for the Institute for Research in Biomedicine ( IRB BARCELONA). He is currently overviewing the implementation of Gender Equality and Diversity institutional policies in the framework of the H2020 Caliper Project, Linking Research and Innovation for Gender Equality.
Andra Tanase
Green and Digital Strategist and Skills and Future Competences Programme Manager at Transilvania IT

Andra Tanase
Green and Digital Strategist and Skills and Future Competences Programme Manager at Transilvania ITCurrently serving as Senior Project Manager at Transilvania IT Cluster by ARIES Transilvania and expert consultant on peacebuilding and conflict transformation, education and development cooperation, Andra works on strategic programme design, capacity building, intercultural intelligence, policymaking and organisational and civil society development from mainly the perspective of collaborative leadership, innovation and conflict transformation. Her passion is to create environments of personal, organisational and societal strategic and systemic learning and development, and this only sounds complicated it is only complex and at the same time extremely feasible and magically rewarding when there is a will.