A look back at our webinar series – W4RES Capacity building for gender mainstreaming in the RHC sector
W4RES aims to offer a capacity building program for international stakeholders of the RHC sector through a series of 10 webinars during two rounds (May-October 2022 and November 2022 – June 2023).
The first round of 5 webinars has taken participants along different steps towards women empowerment and gender equality in the RHC sector. The first webinar has launched the series by introducing core knowledge on the understanding of the topic relevance, it has been followed by the introduction and the practice of selected gender tools for private sector (energy utilities, energy communities, etc.) and decision makers. Also, participants have been invited to participate in the selection of the last webinar’s topic by voting for their priorities /preferences which helped us to identify the most relevant tool to engage the RHC sector towards gender balance. This program has been delivered by WECF with different energy experts guests.
You can find the main results, examples of applied gender tools and recordings of the first round of webinars on this link.
In continuation of the W4RES webinar series, WECF (Women Engage for a Common Future) and ECWT (European Centre for Women and Technology) organised and delivered the second round of the 5-webinar series from January 2023 onwards. WECF conducted the two webinars, first on understanding how energy poverty and invisible energy poverty impact low-income households and gender and, more importantly, the mitigation strategies for the RHC sector and secondly to accelerate women and all-gender recruitment within the scope of the existing diversity recruitment methods. At the same time, ECWT organised three webinars focusing on Norway, Nordics and the European perspective providing a deeper insight into the strategies for gender equality in the sector as well as remaining challenges women must struggle with to carry out their research and entrepreneurship.
Given below are the main outcomes from the second round of the webinar series.
Webinar n°6 - Impact of energy prices on energy poverty, gender equality and RHC opportunities
WECF kickstarted the second round of 5 webinar series with the topic of increasing energy prices and how it affects the people and the economies of the countries, especially in the case of vulnerable groups. Hence the webinar focused on how energy poverty and invisible energy poverty impact low-income households and gender and, more importantly, the mitigation strategies for the RHC sector. Our speaker Louise Sunderland shared her publication focusing on low-income housing, followed by her recommended technical solutions to reach the 2030 goal. Later, WECF also shared some mitigation strategies for increasing citizens' participation along with energy poverty pillars and gender dimension of energy poverty.
During the second half of the seminar, the participants had breakout room sessions discussing the two highest-voted mitigation strategies: energy communities and women as agents of change, and finding ways of implementing them. The outcome of the discussion showed that women play a vital role in bringing change. Therefore, women are the agents of change to achieve the fossil phase-out by 2030 and push and achieve the much-awaited energy transition.
Link to the article and recording.
Webinar n°7 - Added value of women in innovation in RHC & RES
On 22nd February, ECWT organised webinar n°7 highlighting the importance of women in the energy sector, focusing on how women are assets in the RHC and RES sectors and how supporting women and diversity in general leads to more innovation, finally giving best practice examples to compare cases. The speaker, Dora Marosvölgyi, shed light on women-led innovating projects, institutional funding opportunities in the EU, KPIs of funding opportunities and how mentoring and role models can help to establish in the energy sector.
Link to the article and recording.
Webinar n°8 – Diversity recruitment strategies in the renewable energy sector
In connection with all the previous webinars, it became clear that there was a need to understand the gaps in the market and aspiring individuals. Hence WECF organised webinar n°8 related to diversity recruitment strategies for the renewable energy sector. Elisa Bußkamp, a psychologist, talent manager and career counsellor, shared her perspectives on which approaches and programs can help connect the job market to the young female in STEM professionals. While Dr. Julia Brugger, a strategy expert, shared her experience as a STEM student individual, followed by the strategies and programs that helped to build her technical workplace into a diverse and inclusive workplace. Our last speaker, entrepreneur Ashmita Krishna Sharma, dived deeper into diversity, equity and inclusion topics and shared nine implementation strategies. During the second half of the webinar, the participants were sent to breakout sessions to envision their ideal workplace. Both groups described their workplace as inclusive, diversified, appreciating, and ethical.
ink to the article for more details and resources and recording.
Webinar n°9 – Women in RES – SINTEF Norway
On 28th June 2023, ECWT organised the W4RES webinar n°9 introducing SINTEF, world-leading independent multidisciplinary research organization based in Trondheim, Norway with international top-level expertise in the fields of technology, the natural sciences, medicine, and the social sciences and with the vision: Technology for a better society. The two speakers, Sigrid Lædre and Marie-Laure Fontaine from SINTEF, shared their experience being part of the organisation, the projects SINTEF engaged into for social changes and sustainable society (e.g., EU taxonomi) and a glimpse of the gender equality plan of SINTEF and DEI approach. They also shared research project examples like building hydrogen vessels and hydrogen production for aquaculture use and building zero-emission fishing vessels.
Link to article and recording.
Webinar n°10 – Challenges of female entrepreneurs and researchers
ECWT conducted the final webinar on 12th July 2023, highlighting the issues female researchers and entrepreneurs potentially face and how to foster green transformation and achieve 2030 and 2050 goals. Considering the pay parity gap in the EU, Lydia Papadaki, first speaker, shared her experience as a researcher working on climate change projects, EU policy insights, guidelines like IPCC, the process of initiating a start-up and how to find funding, e.g. seed funds, angel investment. She also shared platforms for hackathons like EIT-climate -KIC and best practices from Greece. The second speaker, Anamaria Magri Pantea, highlighted skill-up courses, investment programs to find seed money, cascade funding, and other aspects. She gave tips on the evaluation process and support schemes as a professional.
Link to the article and recording.
At last, we would like to thank you all for your presence and active participation in our webinar series.
