What Works in Gender Equality and Diversity? Lessons from Research Organisations

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About event

This webinar will focus on practical approaches to advancing gender equality and diversity in research organisations. Speakers from Alliance4Life partner institutions will share concrete practices, implementation experience, and lessons learned from their institutional contexts. 

The webinar will provide a space for exchange on what works in practice, common challenges, and institutional pathways towards more inclusive research environments. Please register below.

Targer audience: Representatives of research organisations, HR professionals, research managers, and institutional leaders

About Speakers

Sandra Četrauskiené

Vilnius University, Head of the Community Wellbeing Division

Sandra is psychologist, REBT and Gestalt psychotherapist, career counsellor, and lecture. With more than 20 years of professional experience in counselling, training, and higher education, her work bridges individual psychological support and systemic wellbeing development within academic institutions. She works with adults, adolescents, couples, and groups, and actively contributes to the design and implementation of wellbeing, resilience, and inclusion initiatives across the university community. Her professional focus integrates psychological wellbeing, personal development, and systemic approaches to fostering healthy learning and working environments. In her practice and leadership, she combines Gestalt principles of dialogue, awareness, responsibility, and contact with Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy (REBT) and organizational psychology perspectives.

Baiba Švalbe

LIOS, Chair of Gender Equality Committee, Research Group Leader

Baiba is a Principal Researcher at the Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis. She has extensive experience in designing and supervising in vivo studies in rats and mice. Her research has addressed metabolic and neuronal energy processes and the molecular mechanisms of novel pharmacological agents, with a current focus on novel biomaterials and drug testing in cancer models. Her scientific achievements have been recognized with the Werner von Siemens Excellence Award for her doctoral thesis in 2014 and the L’Oréal Latvian Fellowship “For Women in Science” in 2011, supported by the Latvian National Commission for UNESCO and the Latvian Academy of Sciences. In parallel with her research activities, she has served for the past two years as Head of the Gender Equality Committee at the Latvian Institute of Organic Synthesis, where she has organized educational lectures, coordinated data collection for the Gender Equality Plan, and analysed employee satisfaction survey data, actively contributing to the promotion of gender equality and inclusive research environments.

Eliška Handlířová

CEITEC MU, GEDI Coordinator, Head of Department of Communication and Strategy

Eliška is the Head of Deparment of Communication and Strategy and serves as the Coordinator of the Gender Equality and Diversity agenda at CEITEC Masaryk University. She leads the preparation and implementation of the institution’s Gender Equality Plans and has established CEITEC’s internal know-how in this field. CEITEC was among the first research institutions in the region to adopt a Gender Equality Plan, publishing its first plan in 2016. Her approach focuses on implementing gender equality in a systematic and sustainable way, drawing on principles of organisational culture change and long-term institutional development. She works to integrate gender equality into governance structures, HR processes and leadership practices rather than treating it as a stand-alone initiative. At the European level, she represents CEITEC in alliances such as EU-LIFE and Alliance4Life, contributing to working groups focused on gender equality and HR development across research-performing organisations.