Session 11: Engaging the Public: Communication and Advocacy

Sergi Corbalán, from one of our partner organizations Fair Trade Advocacy Office (FTAO), defined fair trade as “a way of doing business that contributes to greater equity” and demonstrated the role of FTAO in this movement. He briefly presented the ongoing campaigns, such as the International Fair Trade Towns Campaign with more than 2000 local authorities from all over the world participating.

“Fair Trade is a way to localize the SDGs”

He illustrated the FTAO’s recent works that are aligned with the objectives of the SAPIENS Network. He emphasised their support to the EU human rights and environmental due diligence legislation, the Farm to Fork Strategy and the Circular Economy Action Plan. He stressed that circularity should build on existing sustainability concerns rather than replacing them.

Watch Corbalán’s full presentation below

Session 12: Team working, Leadership and Networking skills

Maurizio Mariani from Eating City, another SAPIENS partner organisation, walked us through the importance of public procurement within the public food sector. He criticised the industrialization of the public food sector, as well as its financialisation through the use of voucher systems. He held that the human right to healthy food should not be compromised for lower prices and that profit maximization at the expense of consumer health and the fair share of the producers should not be tolerated. On the importance of team-working and networking to fuel the change, Mariani affirmed:

“if you want to lead the change you need to empower people and to do that you need to establish empathy”

Watch Mariani’s full presentation below

Session 13: Open Science

Professor Elena Giglia, from University of Turin, explained to the audience what open science is and its advantages. She reminded the researchers that the final work is just the summary of the research, whereas the process as a whole constitutes science.

“Open science is science done right”

She explored how open science has evolved and how Covid-19 highlighted its significance. Prof. Giglia criticised the notion that open science should be limited to certain situations, such as the pandemic, and only cover specific time periods by arguing that the answers to complex issues can come from anywhere at any time. 

“You write papers, you review the papers, why should you pay to read them?”

With the help of scientific data, she demonstrated the amount of public money spent in academia and how this money is used to lock up the research content. She informed our newly appointed researchers on FAIR (Findable, Accessible, Interoperable and Reusable) Data and Data Management Plans.

Watch Giglia’s full presentation below

Session 14: Introduction to Interdisciplinary Research: the Best of two Worlds

Professor Tünde Tátrai, one of our Lead Researchers from Corvinus University of Budapest, warned the ESRs about the importance of understanding the legal concepts and the economic context connected to a specific research topic, as well as to understand the methodology and the terminology used in sources such as studies, guidelines and indexes.

When doing a comparative study, she explained, it is crucial to find the definition of relevant terms and to understand the regulatory background behind those terms. A thorough analysis of the CJEU case law also adds value to the research, often providing relevant practical knowledge.

Prof. Tátrai then advised researchers that public procurement-related literature should also be considered, to become familiar with different terms and other researchers’ opinions and critics.

“Be critical […], try to get as much information as you can and be very open-minded, this is the interdisciplinarity of our work”

Watch Tátrai’s full presentation below

Session 15: Integrating Gender in Research

Bridging with the previous session, the sociologist Cristina Solera, from University of Turin, opened her presentation by affirming the interdisciplinary nature of gender studies. After clarifying the definition of gender, she focused on how to include a gender perspective into academia and research. She presented scientific data about the gender gap and the phenomena of the leaky pipeline of women in science, the vertical segregation or “glass ceiling” and the “glass door”.

Solera explained that gender asymmetry has both supply-side explanations, related to individual self-selection mechanisms, and demand-side explanations, based on discriminatory behaviour of employers and cultural-institutional barriers.

She provided some examples of women that contributed to science and were invisibilised and also of gender blind or gender-biased research. She then introduced the Gender Equality Plan, emphasising that to tackle gender inequality we need a combination of both cultural and structural actions:

“You don’t have to fix women but to fix institutions”

Watch Solera’s full presentation below

Session 16: Digital skills

With Ayanna Coleman of Quill Shift, the session aimed at taking academia to the 21st century with the help of digital marketing.

“Marketing is all about getting as many ideal people as possible to know about your product, service or research across various channels so you have the best possible opportunity to have those people take the action you want”

Social marketing is not only efficient and focused but also makes the impact of the research measurable. Coleman explained why social media, e-mail marketing and websites suit researchers’ online presence. She walked us through the importance of web presence to improve the visibility of the research, as a significant component of the process.

To help us create our online profiles she encouraged us to answer questions such as “What type of research do I want to be known for?” “What type of information do I want to be connected to?” “How do I want to show up as an academic and as a person?”

Watch Coleman’s full presentation below

Session 17: Research Ethics

Our Ethics, Open Science and Equal Opportunity Champion Prof. Małgorzata Koszewska, from Lodz University of Technology, illustrated the principles of research ethics and integrity. She explained the importance of data management in academia and specifically within the SAPIENS Network, in particular for ESRs researching sensitive topics such as minorities and gender. She provided us with examples of research misconduct and unacceptable practices. Prof. Koszewska warned our researchers to be careful not only in their research, but also in deciding where to share their works by identifying the characteristics of predatory practices.

Watch Koszewska’s full presentation below