BALANSE-Kjønnsbalanse i toppstillinger og forskningsledelse

The work on gender balance at top positions at the University College of Southeast Norway began spring 2013. At that time a promotion project for female researchers, was launched at the former university college in Vestfold, Norway (HiVe). The goal was to increase the number of female professors and docents at the university college, and approximately 20 candidates attended this first year. On January 1st 2014 HiVe merged with the university college in Buskerud (HiBu) and the new university college was called the University College of Buskerud and Vestfold (HBV). At the time of the merger, the project was expanded to include the entire new college, and the number of participants increased rapidly to 58. The promotion project was phased out in March 2015, and was then defined as a preliminary project for Female researchers, Learning, Organization and Gender balance (KLOK) - which was established under the auspices of The Research Council of Norway's BALANSE program. In the transition between the pre-project and KLOK, a perspective shift occurred. In other words a turning from an individual perspective into an organizational perspective. Structural and cultural changes became an important focus in the project, although KLOK also offered individual-oriented measures. KLOK started up on April 1st 2015 and initially had a time frame of two years and nine months. The main objective was to increase the proportion of women in leading academic positions and research management at the University College of Buskerud and Vestfold. The KLOK project has taken up new participants throughout the entire project period. Both recently promoted and more experienced associate professors and senior lecturers. During the two project years, 78 female researchers have participated. This number includes three participants who have applied and received promotion and eight participants who have deregistered for various reasons (mobility, changed plans and new challenging management tasks). At the time of termination, the number of participants was 67. Of these, 20 were in the category "Professor / docent within 1.5 years". 58 of the 78 participants worked to gain a professorship, while 19 aimed to become a docent. One of the participants had an unclear status from the start and ended the participation quickly. The six academic gatherings in KLOK have been very important to the project. Participation in each gathering has varied from 31 to 42 project participants. In addition, a number of Heads of departments and other leaders were invited to several of the academic gatherings. The involvement of leaders was an important step in contributing to cultural change, information and knowledge about gender perspective in leadership. In addition, the project from the start opened up to a certain participation by men who were in a career path towards professorship or a docent role, by offering them the opportunity to attend some of the academic gatherings. This was based on the assumption that occasional cross-gender participation would be stimulating for a common cultural development in the university college - without interfering with the project's gender perspective and goals. The subjects in the academic gatherings were based on the projects objectives and goals, the participants' direct and indirect input to both the project management and the research team, and through analysis of logs written by the participants. These logs had status as individual reflections, as well as input to project management, and as project data. Many of the participants in KLOK have made use of the individual measures that the project has offered, but not to the degree that was expected from the beginning. - 25 participants have had a mentor. - 2 participants conducted a mock assessment during the project, while 4 participants had started a process related to this at the end of the project. - 13 participants completed an assessment of their CV before the end of the project, while 4 participants had started this process. - 14 participants sought funds for redemption and internationalization. Action research was an important element in KLOK. The research team consisted of four associate professors: Sigrun Svenkerud, Brit Bolken Ballangrud, Irmelin Drake and Jorun Ulvestad. They were also participants in the project, and the latter worked as the project manager. The participants of the research team took turns as team leader. Throughout the project period, the research group in KLOK presented three abstracts at international conferences, one article was published and several are in process at the time of the projects termination. The KLOK project terminated nine months prior to plan, following a decision by the Equality and Anti-discrimination Tribunal (LDN). The decision asserted that the KLOK project breached the prohibition of discrimination in the Gender Equality Act, §5 ref. §7.

Karriereløp mot faglige toppstillinger og forskningsledelse har inntil nylig vært en individuell og privatisert prosess ved Høgskolen i Buskerud og Vestfold (HBV), og kunnskap om hva som skal til for å bygge en karriere og skrive en opprykksøknad har fram til nå vært uklar og vanskelig tilgjengelig. HBV har gjennomført et forprosjekt, med tiltak som i stor grad ble rettet inn mot individnivået. KLOK-prosjektet baserer seg på en analyse som viser at høgskolen har behov for å utvikle hensiktsmessig lederkultur, støttende strukturer og ny kunnskap på kollektivt nivå, slik at kvinnelige forskere kan hente nødvendig støtte, gjøre prioriteringer og arbeide målrettet mot professor- og dosentkompetanse. Instituttnivået er nytt ved HBV, og lederne på dette nivået vil gjennom KLOK-prosjektet få mulighet til å utvikle og systematisere kunnskap om utfordringene i et forskerkarriereløp. Tiltakene i KLOK-prosjektet er i stor grad rettet mot organisasjonsnivået, men tar også sikte på kunnskapsutvikling på individnivå. Tiltakspoolen innebærer bl.a. lederutviklingsprogram i et kjønnsperspektiv, samlinger for kvinnelige forskere m.fl, medie- og formidlingstrening, nettverksgrupper, mentorordning, CV-vurderinger, frikjøp og prøveevaluering av opprykkssøknader. Det gjennomføres forskning på utvalgte problemstillinger og på lokale prosesser ved HBV. Dette er et nyskapende OU-prosjekt, delvis basert på medvirkning og aksjonsforskning, og innrettet mot kunnskapsutvikling, kultur- og strukturendring innenfor en stor nyfusjonert høgskole fordelt på fire campus. KLOK-prosjektet legger opp til utvikling av både forsknings- og erfaringsbasert kunnskap, med formidling internt i HSN (HBV) og eksternt gjennom vitenskapelige artikler, populærvitenskapelige tekster og rapporter, i tillegg til en antologi. Det er etablert en referansegruppe. Den består av fire dekaner, prosjektleder, leder av forskergruppen og en kandidat i prosjektet . Etter at stillingen som prorektor ved HBV opphørte fra 1. januar 2016, vil prosjektet forankres i rektoratet ved at viserektor for forskning ved HSN trer inn i referansegruppen så snart denne stillingen blir besatt.HSN (