Summary of the project

WOMEN in COnstruction scientific REsearch, identified by the acronym WOMEN-CORE is a project of the Sixth Framework Programme of the European Community for research, technological development and demonstration activities.

This project started in April 2006 and will continue until September 2008.

The Consortium of the project is composed of six institutions from five different countries across Europe.

Project Cordinator: Labein-Tecnalia, Spain

Contractors:

• Fundació Centre d'Iniciatives I Recerques Europees a la Mediterrània (CIREM), Spain
• Arbeitsgemeinschaft Sozialwissenschaftlicher Institute e.V., Informationszentrum Sozialwissenschaften, Center of Excellence Women and Science (CEWS), Germany
• Ceské Vysoke Uceni Technicke v Praze, Czech Republic
• Loughborough University, United Kingdom
• The Copenhagen Institute for Future Studies (CIFS), Denmark

The WOMEN-CORE project focuses on the construction sector because it is one of the most male-dominated sectors in industrial research; in most EU Member States, the percentage of women in construction research is far below the percentage of women in the industrial research as a whole.

Very little is known on the role of women in construction research and the factors that are hindering a more equal presence of women and men, whilst awareness on the need to attract, retain and promote women researchers seem less among the stakeholders in the construction sector than in other industrial sectors.

The overall objective of the WOMEN-CORE project is strengthening women scientists' participation in Construction Research in Europe by means of:

• Enhancing the knowledge of women scientists situation and their influence in construction research
• Identifying the main research areas attractive from women's perspective
• Identifying and assessing gender-specific needs of Research &Development (R&D) in construction sector
• Exploring new opportunities and anticipating tendencies for empowering women in construction research
• Providing recommendations for empowering women in construction research
• Disseminating results and establishing a network of women scientists in construction

The objectives will be reached through a work plan that incorporates six different work packages (WP), one of which is dedicated to management (WP6).

WP 1: State of the art and methodological approach (leader CIREM, Spain) 
duration: April 2006 to September 2006

WP 2: Improving the knowledge base of Women in construction research: exploiting (leader Loughborough University)
duration: June 2006 to July 2007

WP 3: Improving the knowledge base of Women in construction research: exploring new sources (leader CEWS, Germany) 
duration: October 2006 to March 2008

WP 4: Driving forces, new opportunities and recommendations for empowering Women in construction research (leader CVUT, Czech Republic) 
duration: November 2007 to July 2008

WP5: Awareness, dissemination and exploitation (leader CIFS, Denmark) 
duration: April 2006 to September 2008

WP6: Project management (leader LABEIN, Spain)
duration: April 2006 to September 2008

This summary information is also available to download: press_corner_factsheet.pdf

Contact person of the Women Core Project:

Begoña Sanchez
Head of Regional Development (EU)
LABEIN (Spain)

bsanchez@labein.es