Goals of the 2nd funding phase
In the implementation phase, an incubator for gender aspects and diversity dimensions on/offline is to be developed, which is to have model character for other universities (cf. Raudonat et al. 2019). This can be a contact point for all those who either want to exchange ideas and develop new ones or have identified problems in the realization and adaptation of their research projects and can find advice and solutions here.
This Gender & Diversity Ideas Lab aims to realize a peer-to-peer environment for initialization, conceptualization and support/implementation of research and projects with gender, diversity and inclusion perspectives. Such topics or method-focused labs have shown great success in the university, especially in the technical field. The GDI Lab can be understood as an incubator that bundles gender, diversity, and inclusion projects in research and teaching at the university and generates synergies. Based on our current preliminary knowledge, we would initially design the Lab with 3 rooms:
GDI Lab with three rooms
Room 1 - GDI Information Hub
as a digital space where all information and resources needed for the integration of gender, diversity & inclusion are available. In addition to free navigation, an interactive tool is to be developed in which interested parties can enter data in order to obtain suitable starting points for their own research and implementation. Here, the use of the GERD model (Draude et al.) as a reflection foil seems to make sense and should be successively further developed or adapted with regard to emerging needs. In particular, questions regarding the digitalization of the tool or the combination with IT process or meeting tools are being considered here. In this way, the tool should also support the finding of suitable peers and experts, offer the planning of exchange opportunities and also lead to relevant meetings in Room 2.
Room 2 - GDI Exchange Platform
Through the partial use of an existing conference and lecture room, stakeholders, active and potential, are to be brought together here beyond faculty boundaries in order to talk about core topics in the area of gender, diversity & inclusion at regular intervals and to communicate these movements, but also news, to the entire university in the form of digital newsletters, conceptualization of information events and fairs, but also through teaching formats such as lectures, workshops, etc.
Room 3 - GDI Design Hub
A dedicated space for design sprints shall be created to implement discussed focal points from room 2 via a collaborative concept. By supporting inductive guiding principles, the peers themselves shall be empowered to find goal-oriented solutions, to develop ideas or to develop general recommendations for action for this kind of problems. These contents are processed and continuously included in room 1. Dedicated work on research projects can also be done in this room. The information is carried back to room 2 to be communicated to the public from there.
Implementation phase
In the implementation phase, in addition to supervising the realization of the first concrete projects, methods and structures are to be created that will anchor such a GDI Lab permanently at the university. In this way, the creation of the three rooms and the adaptation of the GERD model can respond to the demands of the university and further diversity aspects. In the implementation phase, pilot projects from research and knowledge transfer will be proactively recruited in the GDI Lab and systematically tested.