Change towards Gender Equality (GE) is slow, insufficient, and varies across European countries. There is a consensus in policy and academic discourse on the pressing need to expand efforts to address gender and intersectional inequalities using an inclusive and intersectional approach.

The SEE-ERA project aims to drive a structural change process through the sustainable transformation of Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) in five Research Performing Organisations (RPOs) and two Research Funding Organisations (RFOs) operating in four South-East European (SEE) countries. From the outset, the project actively involves both internal and external stakeholders. SEE-ERA activities seek to address existing needs in research organisations in SEE countries, where GE activities and GEPs have only recently been introduced.

The project's objective is to intensify efforts and enhance gender capacities for the implementation of sustainable GEPs, transforming RPOs and RFOs, along with their respective innovation ecosystems, towards inclusive GE. This will be achieved through the development and delivery of tailored and reflexive mentoring and training programmes. The project extends the GE agenda beyond RPOs and RFOs, aspiring to connect inclusive and intersectional GEPs with inclusive innovation. Through this approach, SEE-ERA contributes to fostering new research careers, better integrating the gender dimension in research and innovation (R&I), enhancing knowledge valorisation, and strengthening R&I communities and ecosystems—particularly in countries that often lag behind in knowledge creation and innovation.

SEE-ERA has a geographic focus on SEE countries while simultaneously adopting a broader perspective by involving partners from Northern Europe. This facilitates a space for participating institutions to learn from one another and reflect on how to make their organisations more inclusive in an effective and sustainable manner.

The project ensures successful implementation by adopting a holistic approach that includes capacity-building support to develop and sustain internal gender+ knowledge, skills, and expertise; mutual learning among partners; participatory co-design of mentoring and training schemes; and a thorough monitoring and developmental evaluation mechanism, leading to durable institutional changes. Based on a context-specific state-of-the-art review, national and institutional needs and opportunities—along with common challenges and strengths regarding GEP conceptualization and implementation—will be assessed from an intersectional and intersectoral perspective.

SEE-ERA will produce tangible, usable, and reproducible tools that will be freely available on an interactive platform. This platform will support the creation of inclusive and diverse workplaces, ensuring that equality enables all individuals to thrive, irrespective of gender, ethnicity, age, class, sexual orientation, or other characteristics.

SEE-ERA is a Horizon Europe project running from 2025 to 2028. It involves 10 partners: Vilabs (Coordinator), Oxford Brookes University, Hellenic Foundation for European and Foreign Policy, University of Crete, Aarhus University, the Executive Unit for Financing Higher Education, Research, Development and Innovation in Romania, University of Bucharest, University of Zagreb Faculty of

Electrical Engineering and Computing, University of Tirana, and the Hellenic Foundation for Research and Innovation.

The project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon Europe Research and Innovation Programme under grant agreement No. 101188467.