The Gender Equality Program is focusing its activity in facing inequalities between men and women and discrimination against LGBTI people. The city has the legal responsibility to ensure the living conditions of citizens and ensure their vital development on an equal personal development and free from discrimination.

Two main actions are being undertaken to implement Gender Equality Program:
- Atenea Project: training actions for qualified women to improve their professional profile.
- Mobile Week Igualada: an activity program to approach ICT and STEM sector to schools.

The main objective of this policy instrument is to change perception and stigmatisation of STEM careers in order to:
- Increase the percentage of girls choosing scientific and technological curriculums in High School.
- Enlarge the percentage of female students in STEM University Degrees.
- Encourage female employment in STEM sectors.
- Promote inclusiveness and equal access to quality employment.
- Reduce gender pay-gap as women get access to higher remunerated jobs than those in traditionally female sectors.

Our mid-long term objectives are:
1. Reduce unemployment rates of highly-qualified women.
2. Increase by 10% in 5 years the number of girls choosing STEM post-obligatory studies.

The goal of the programme is to ensure long-term economic & social well-being of the population, and to strengthen the resilience & competitiveness of the Lithuanian economy. In order to achieve these objectives, the investments will focus on the following key areas:

- Innovation & digitisation, cooperation between science & business, commercialisation of knowledge;
- Education, capacity building, a skilled workforce able to innovate & respond to changing needs while addressing the challenges of social exclusion;
- Green transformation - promotion of renewable energy sources, sustainable mobility & circular economy;
- Strengthening the resilience of health systems;
- Smart, safe & intermodal connectivity, including the improvement of cross-border, national & regional mobility;
- Sustainable & integrated urban & regional development, based on regional solutions to increase attractiveness & economic potential, to attract
investments & to improve quality of life.

ERDF & the European Social Fund+ are broken down by the Central Western region of Lithuania & Capital region. Under the first priority, a specific objective 1.4 “Develop the skills needed for smart specialization, industrial transformation & entrepreneurship” will be targeted. Under this objective it is intended to develop support measures, which should help to solve the challenges related to the industry digitalization and economy transformation giving special attention to the gender aspect.

SNCISI 2021-2027 was developed under the coordination of the Ministry for Research, Innovation and Digitalization (MCID) and sets out Romania’s vision for 2030 in terms of RDI, digitalization and smart specialization. Overall, SNCISI aims to recognize and support excellence, to reward performance, to stimulate the development of public-private partnerships to address societal challenges, and to make science and innovation tools for advancing sustainable development.

The strategy targets 4 general objectives: (1) Development of the research system, (2) Supporting innovation ecosystems associated with smart specializations, (3) Mobilization towards innovation, and (4) European and international collaboration.
SNCISI will be implemented through a series of financing programmes, including the National Plan for RDI 2021-2027 (which will be at least partially managed by UEFISCDI), the RDI priorities within the Operational Programme for Intelligent Growth, Digitalization and Financial Instruments, the RDI priorities within the Regional OPs, and the RDI components in the National Recovery and Resilience Plan. SNCISI 2021-2027 is strongly correlated with the RIS3s developed by individual regions, including the RIS3 for Bucharest-Ilfov (BI). Both policy instruments (SNCISI and RIS3 for BI) address smart specialization areas related to STEM (e.g. digital economy and spatial technologies, biotechnologies), thus creating opportunities for synergies in the instruments’ implementation.

One of the main objectives of the Regional OP of RWG is “Enhancing the knowledge and skills of human resources, through education and training, which will serve the regional dimension of the National Strategy for Smart Specialization”. Strategic Objective 4 “Strengthening social cohesion in the Region” focuses on “Improving equal access to inclusive and quality education, training and lifelong learning services through the development of accessible infrastructure, including strengthening the resilience of distance and online education and training (Policy Objective 4)”.

Furthermore, the OP includes Priority 4B “Strengthening social cohesion and human resources in the Region of WG” and Specific Objective 4a “Improving access to employment and activation measures for all jobseekers, in particular young people through the implementation of guarantees for youth, the long-term unemployed and disadvantaged groups in the labor market, and for the financially inactive people, as well as through the promotion of self-employment and social economy”.

Main target audience of the Strategic Communication of the program for Western Greece 2021-2027 concerns Potential Beneficiaries of the OP including disabled, vulnerable groups, unemployed, women, etc.

European Funds for Podkarpackie Region 2021-2027 is one of the 16 Regional OPs in Poland co-financed by the ERDF and ESF under the EU cohesion policy. The main objective of the Programme is the development of the economy and improvement of the spatial accessibility of the Region.

The project fits exactly into priority VII. HUMAN CAPITAL READY FOR CHANGE (ESF +), which main aim is improving access to employment and activation measures for all jobseekers, in particular young people, in particular by implementing the Youth Guarantee, the long-term unemployed and disadvantaged groups on the labor market, as well as for the inactive, and by promoting self-employment and social economy.

It also assumes:

- support for employers in age management and employee competences (e.g., through mentoring, coaching sessions, employee self-
presentation and rotation programs, etc.), considering preferences in the development of talents leadership women;

- support all employers and employees in introducing flexible forms of employment (such as remote work);

- support and involvement of social partners and enterprises in solving problems related to gender segregation and closing the gender pay
gap;

- creating flexible career paths, office sharing places, with particular preferences for women, young and old people, with the possibility of
involving civil society organizations and local partners in these areas.

The instrument outlines a range of priority goals to identify & implement actions to strengthen and develop the economic & community dimensions of the County. Priority 5 aims to develop Donegal as a lead region for learning, research and innovation and priority 7 aims to promote entrepreneurship, investment, and enterprise in the county.

Under these priority goals, the LECP aims to increase the uptake of supports for female entrepreneurs, established entrepreneurs and immigrant entrepreneurs and to encourage the uptake of STEM subjects across the region. In addition, promoting and mainstreaming equality is identified as one of the core values underpinning the plan.

The policy instrument will be revised for 2023, posing a timely opportunity for the ATU to influence the development of the new plan, in building more targeted interventions to encourage the uptake of women in STEM.

The Department of Enterprise, Trade and Employment has published a Critical Skills Occupation List with engineering, science, ICT and Technology featured as disciplines with limited talent pools in Ireland. Addressing the low uptake of females in STEM would help to address these skill shortages. The ATU Donegal Gender Action Plan 2020 highlighted a gender imbalance among both the staff and student populations that is particularly pronounced in ICT & nursing, and outlined the need to develop a sustainable, intersectional approach to gender equality, diversity & inclusion.

The general objective of the Bucharest-Ilfov Regional Operational Program 2021-2027 (POR BI) is to contribute to the strategic vision of the BIR by supporting a smart, sustainable and inclusive economic development to improve living standards and increase resilience to societal challenges.

WeSTEMEU will address:

Priority 1: A competitive region through innovation, digitalisation and dynamic enterprises, SO (i): Development and the growth of research and innovation capabilities and adoption of advanced technology.

Priority 2 - A digitized region, SO (ii) recovering of digitization in citizens, companies, research organizations and public authority benefits

Priority 6 - An educated region, SO (iii): improving equal access to quality and inclusive services in education, training and learning throughout life through development of accessible infrastructure, including through promoting resilience for education and distance and online learning.