Diversity and Inclusion highlighted at INESC TEC

Within the scope of the European Diversity Month, in May 2022, INESC TEC’s Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Commission initiated a set of training initiatives related to these topics. The objective was to share knowledge and foster a discussion around questions like intercultural dialogue, cultural diversity, interpersonal relationships, and behaviours in society.

Training in “Intercultural Dialogue”

Entitled “Intercultural Dialogue” and led by the High Commission for Migration (ACM), this training action addressed topics like understanding cultural diversity and interpersonal relationships in the current world. According to the Commission, “the people who participated had the opportunity to address fundamental themes related to diversity, namely how intercultural dialogue could be crucial to the relationships that are established, and to the way each person perceives reality and behaves as member of society.”

The Commission pointed out that, above all, “it was a way to start understanding the degree of openness and engagement of the community to this type of events and themes”. “From the interactions we had and the feedback we received, it became clear that the INESC TEC community has a genuine interest in learning more about these topics”.

The main objective of these initiatives is to promote specialised training for the members of the Commission and for the INESC TEC community. These are free, topical and certified training courses, which contribute to broaden knowledge on these topics and draw attention to issues considered quite relevant nowadays.

First activities of the Action Plan for Diversity and Inclusion

This were only the first steps of an Action Plan that includes new training actions, suggestions for concrete measures to change some of the institution’s practices, as well as initiatives to raise awareness of certain topics, which relate to the scope of the Commission’s activities, but also to the daily activities carried out by the institution’s services and Centres.

In this sense, a training course on “Cultural Diversity” took place on May 31, in cooperation with the Plano i. Another action worth highlighting is the event “Women in STEM”, which will take place on July 6, with Melyssa Fratkin (Texas Advanced Computing Centre) and other important guests.

The role of the Commission at INESC TEC

According to members of the Commission, there are numerous studies stating that diversity and inclusion in the workplace benefits the well-being of all employees and are tools to achieve better results in the workplace. “In this sense, our role is to help INESC TEC in its mission to preserve an inclusive and welcoming culture and environment”, they added.

The D&I Commission was created by the INESC TEC Board of Directors in September 2021, after the presentation of the Report of the Working Group on Gender Equality + Diversity and Inclusion, which took place on July 15, 2021. The main mission of the D&I Commission is to propose and implement a D&I programme, with gender equality as a priority.