Life at CeMM

At CeMM, we recognize a critical issue: while approximately half of PhD students in Europe are women, the number of women researchers significantly declines at the postdoctoral level and drops dramatically in leadership positions. This trend reflects a major loss of talent and resources in education, scientific research, and the broader labor market.

To address gender imbalance in leadership roles, CeMM joined the H2020-funded project LIBRA. Together with 12 leading European research institutes of the EU-LIFE alliance, we are committed to improving our institutional policies across four key areas:

1. Recruitment policies and procedures
2. Career development and training
3. Work-life balance initiatives
4. Integration of sex and gender dimensions in research

With the support of a gender expert organization, we first conducted a comprehensive evaluation of gender equality at CeMM. Based on this analysis, we have developed a customized Gender Equality Plan, featuring concrete actions to:

•  Eliminate gender bias in recruitment processes
• Provide mentoring and training to all scientific staff to foster awareness and career advancement
• Promote work-life balance for CeMM employees
• Enhance research excellence by integrating sex and gender perspectives
• Increase CeMM’s attractiveness as an employer for female scientists

By implementing these initiatives, CeMM is taking proactive steps to ensure a more inclusive, equitable, and innovative research environment.

Diversity is a key feature of a modern, innovative, and successful workplace. It provides access to a broader talent pool, introduces a wider range of viewpoints and experiences within teams, and ultimately leads to greater productivity and personal growth for all members. To truly enhance workplace diversity, it is crucial to assess and redesign recruitment processes to ensure they are objective, inclusive, and equitable.

This recruitment handbook was developed to guide the institutes participating in the LIBRA project, helping them hire the most suitable candidates while actively promoting workplace diversity—a foundation for creativity, innovation, and long-term success.

One of the greatest challenges in recruitment is overcoming unconscious bias and bringing structure and transparency to hiring processes. To address this, the handbook presents a series of best practices and recommendations for creating a fair, objective, and transparent recruitment framework, particularly for senior leadership positions in scientific research institutes. These recruitment strategies can also be broadly applied to the hiring of PhD students, postdoctoral researchers, and technical staff, helping to foster diversity and excellence across all levels of the scientific workforce.