AUTUMN 2015 ISSUE 31 Emerging Biotechnologies Making the killer mosquitoes kill themselves PAGE 7 cademia A in uotas Interview Q The EMBO Detlef Meeting 2015 Weigel PAGES 4 – 5 PAGE 3 xploring E Focus on Women in Science News iBG-izmir: the largest public In perspective Short history of the EMBO Laboratory Management Course research investment in the history of “Arolla workshops” – a series of for Female Leaders in Science and new Turkey – with strong EMBO ties EMBO workshops held since 1972 report on gender quotas in academia PAGE 2 PAGE 6 PAGE 9 www.embo.org FOCUS ON WOMEN IN SCIENCE How to become an accomplished lab leader Third EMBO Laboratory Management Course for Female Leaders in Science Some take-home messages: ©EMBL photolab | Marietta Schupp ➔ Awareness is the frst step toward change MBO has offered more than 100 Laboratory confident way, how to deal with superiors and Management Courses since their launch in how to reach the people in the lab,” comments ➔ Know your values and strengths and be E2005. The courses are designed for post- co-trainer Damjana Kastelic, who is also a scien- clear in what you want doctoral researchers and group leaders. The one tist at the German Cancer Research Center. ➔ Understand what you can infuence (and that took place in mid-October near Heidelberg The course started with exercises on disman- what not) – either personally or at work addressed a more specific audience. Only female tling stereotypes and contrasting them with real- scientists were targeted this time. It was the ity. This module was followed by a discussion ➔ Be aware of hidden biases third Laboratory Management Course for Female about the existence of hidden biases, to which ➔ Personality often explains behaviour Leaders in Science since 2013. 16 participants both men and women are likely to succumb. better than gender does “Such topics could and should also be discussed in a mixed gender group. It is a different experi- ➔ Be confdent in your communication ence though to discuss them with women only,” and decision-making “One of the things I implemented outlines Janssens. ➔ There are different leadership styles – A session on strengthening self-confidence immediately after coming back develop your own from the course was that I started followed on the second day. Dealing with guilt, with rejection or with a negative behaviour were to prepare myself better for group on the agenda. One of the exercises involved and one-on-one meetings with a role-play on active listening, which aims at understanding the different layers of a conflict. Women remain under-represented in posi- individual team members,” says “Scientists are used to focus on solutions,” says tions of scientific leadership – even though they Jacqueline Jacobs, group leader at Janssens who worked as a researcher for 19 years. make up a majority of PhD graduates in scien- Yet in a conflict situation, a lab leader needs to tific disciplines – for a variety of reasons. Lack the Netherlands Cancer Institute, take a step back and give some thought to what is of self-confidence and the fear of not being able who attended the very first course really being said. The examples discussed during to combine family with a career in academia are in 2013. “I am now better at that exercise were actual situations taken from the main hurdles. “There are still big inequali- day-to-day lab life. ties when it comes to gender in career progres- making clear what I expect from The morning session on day three of the course sion. We all know that. Providing secure and people in such meetings.” focused on developing an individual leadership quality childcare and proper mentoring is crucial style. A lot of attention was put on body language, to change this,” says course participant Renata confident voice and positive language. The train- Basto who is also a member of the EMBO Young ers encouraged the participants for example to Investigator network. The Portuguese scientist came to Heidelberg for this three-day-session rephrase answers so that they sounded confi- leads a laboratory of eight young researchers at from all over Europe – with various expectations. dent and convincing. At the end of the exercise, the Institute Curie in Paris, France. Her goal was “Self-confidence, conflict management and attendees were asked to present themselves. The to learn more about improving work-life balance, communication in general were the central topics,” emphasis on non-verbal communication was new dealing with guilt, time management and differ- says Hilde Janssens, who ran the course for the to this course and specifically requested. “It was ent leadership techniques. “I wish I had done this third time now. “The most frequently asked ques- not such a burning topic in previous courses,” course earlier,” she says. tions were how to get your message across in a recalls Janssens. 2 EMBOencounters | Autumn 2015 | [email protected] ©2015 EMBO FOCUS ON WOMEN IN SCIENCE The report, published in September, looks Exploring quotas at the potential benefits and challenges that could arise from the use of quotas as one way in academia to achieve better gender balance in academia. It describes options for introducing quotas and Gender quotas are one tool that provides information for decision makers who could improve gender balance at the might consider implementing them. The year-long study involved interviews with highest levels of academia. Their a wide range of stakeholders followed by a closed use is controversial. workshop in Berlin, where options for the use of gender quotas were analyzed. The working group e it on scientific boards, on hiring commit- included gender researchers, heads of research tees, or at the top of hierarchies in univer- institutes, funders and scientists (see also Bsities and other research organizations: interview with Detlef Weigel below). The group women are still under-represented. The overall discussed measures such as cascade models for numbers and ratios of women to men in senior hiring, quotas for the composition of committees, academic positions are much smaller than would and equal success rates in funding schemes. be expected given the number of female univer- Exploring sity graduates in the last decades. The full report is available at quotas One tool that could diminish disparities in www.embo.org/documents/science_policy/ in academia the number of women and men in academia exploring_quotas.pdf Gerlind Wallon, Sandra Bendiscioli, is the use of gender quotas. Exploring quotas and Michele S. Garfnkel, EMBO in academia is the report of a study conducted by EMBO in collaboration with and funded by the Robert Bosch Stiftung. Sandra Bendiscioli, Michele Garfinkel and Gerlind Wallon from EMBO are the authors of the final report. interviewing a wide range of people in executive positions who had direct experience with quotas. The numbers I particularly appreciated the workshop that they organized together with Ingrid Wünning Tschol from the Bosch Foundation, to help identify best speak for practices in implementing quotas. One of the greatest challenges is that hiring or funding deci- themselves sions are generally made at such a fine-grained level that bias, be it conscious or not, is difficult Interview with DETLEF WEIGEL, to detect. The report describes a series of possible Chair of EMBO Council for solutions to this issue. 2013 – 2015 and Director at In your various leadership roles as scientist, the Max Planck Institute for director at the Max Planck Institute and Chair Developmental Biology in of EMBO Council, what do you think about using quotas? Tübingen, on the representation Although I thought that I was already quite well of women in academia and his informed, the workshop drove home the point that quotas are not only an appropriate, but ©Max Planck Institute role in the EMBO-led study. also in my view essential tool to accelerate the pace with which women are hired in academic leadership positions. That progress has been too You were one of the motivators of the gender quite a few conferences over the years, and I had modest so far has many reasons, one being that quota study. Where did the idea come from? noticed that male names surfaced much quick- performance criteria are often skewed and do not Like many others, I was initially sceptical about er than female names when my colleagues and take the entire breadth of academic work, such as quotas, not least because of the concern that I started to think of potential speakers. Once I departmental responsibilities, teaching, mentor- women would be branded as “quota candidates”, had identified this as a problem and made it a ing and supervision, properly into account. whose success was not merely due to their scien- personal rule not to be satisfied with an unbal- Finally, I do not accept the excuse that “academia tific achievements. However, it was clear that the anced list of speakers, I was surprised how easy is simply different” and that quotas are therefore Max Planck Institute and other organizations it was to come up with lists where half or more not workable. Large corporations and parliaments were increasing the number of women in leader- were women, without any compromise in quality. can do it, and we should be up to the task as well. ship positions too slowly, and that new measures After all, as scientists we often pride ourselves were required to change this situation. While it What did you think about the process and the in being in the avant-garde. This is certainly one is rare these days to encounter blatant discrimi- methodology used in the project? area where we have not always shown such lead- nation, the numbers speak for themselves.