Success Story: Integrating the sex and gender dimension in life sciences research

The recent EOSC-Life Train-the-Trainer course on June 28-29 in Barcelona, Spain, on integrating sex and gender in research was an absolute triumph according to participants!

This free F2F Train-the-Trainer course was organised by BSC (Bioinfo4Women programme), BBMRI-ERIC, INB/ELIXIR-ES, and EATRIS with funding from EOSC-Life.

Access the course slides here

This course gave participants the chance to:

• Understand appropriate applications of the terms “sex” and “gender” in biomedical research in training actions.
• Identify, understand, and think critically about complex aspects of sex and gender dimensions in biomedical research and how to communicate these in training activities.
• Identify how sex and gender categories affect the life sciences and LS training, and especially research data generation, collection, and use.
• Select, compile, and synthesise information that helps include the sex and gender dimension in research and integrate it into their training portfolio.

A total of 12 participants joined this F2F event. Discussions among the participants were vivid, and all the participants were fully engaged in the activities proposed by the trainers. A helpful handbook is being prepared which integrates information shared in the course; this will be made available in Fall 2023.

Due to the high degree of interest expressed in a future online training, an online follow-up session is being planned in Fall 2023, so watch this space!

Special thanks to go out to the lecturers (pictured here, left to right):

Mónica Cano Abadía (Senior Scientist, ELSI Services and Research, BBMRI-ERIC),

Davide Cirillo (Principal Investigator, Life Sciences Department, Machine Learning for Biomedical Research, BSC),

and Àtia Cortés (Recognised Researcher, Life Sciences Department, Social Link Analytics, BSC)

who provided expert training and a set of methodological tools and case studies that illustrated how the sex and gender dimension can be successfully integrated into key Research and Innovation areas.