With the initiative FEMtech the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT) supports women in research and technology and promotes equal opportunities in industrial and non-university-research, at universities of applied sciences and in focus areas of research and technology. Women should be specifically supported for this purpose and the framework conditions in industrial and extra-faculty research should be changed in such a way as to equally correspond to the needs of both women and men.

By increasing the share of women and by improving their professional position in these facilities, FEMtech strives to render a contribution towards the increased realization of female innovative potential and more equal opportunities for women and men in society.

FEMtech supports activities designed to raise awareness and enhance the visibility of women in research and technology. Activities include: FEMtech's database of female experts, FEMtech's female expert of the month, FEMtech's networking meeting, FEMtech knowledge

Further Detailed Information

Femtech's Database of Female Experts

The database is a service for all those who are looking for qualified female specialists. It supports the search for female experts for

expert juries and expertises,
project-cooperation,
speeches, seminars and discussions and
mentoring and youth actions.

The database’s focus is on natural sciences and technology. Among about 100 represented fields of expertise you also find female experts on law, social sciences and economics.

The FEMtech experts offer to pass on their expert knowledge and career experience.
Women who register as an expert

visualise their competence,
increase their chances of taking the next step in their career and
can be voted „Expert of the Month“.

The FEMtech´s database of female experts is an initiative by the Federal Ministry for Transport, Innovation and Technology (BMVIT) in cooperation with the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Environment and Water Management (BMLFUW) since July 2007. The database war developed by the Austrian Society for Environment and Technology (ÖGUT) in 2004 and since then it has been maintained by ÖGUT. The database has envolved to become the most comprehensive database of Austrian female experts.

Femtech's Expert of the Month

Since 2005, the achievements and expertise of successful women working in research and technology have been effectively highlighted in the media on a monthly basis. The “FEMtech Female Expert of the Month” is selected from amongst the experts registered in the database by an independent selection panel comprising representatives from science and industry, personnel consultants and the media. The profiles of the selected female experts are published each month at www.femtech.at.

Femtech's Networking Meeting

The regular networking meetings allow participants to get acquainted with each other and exchange relevant information on the topic "Women in research and technology". FEMtech provides information on news from the programme and highlights current topics. In addition, there is the possibility for an infor-mal exchange and funding advice by the FFG. Daycare services are also offered for each networking meeting.

Women and men who support FEMtech ́s vision and would like to work together to improve the frame-work and access conditions for women in the area of tech- nology and natural science, are sincerely invit-ed to exchange information and experience!

Femtech Knowledge

FEMtech delivers relevant data and information, presents studies and publications as well as thematic summaries on national and international research in the subject area. FEMtech KNOWLEDGE includes:

Data
Topics
Glossar

Data

This section provides statistical data on the shares of women and men in education and research in the form of diagrams and tables, subdivided in research and development (R&D), extra-faculty research, uni-versities, technical colleges and higher education as a whole.

Topics
National and international studies are organized and may be retrieved according to topics: Gender, Gen-der-Budgeting, Gender Pay Gap, Equal opportunity to labour market, in research and development, Uni-versities, business, Innovation, Work Life Balance, Mentoring, Careers in research and development, …

Glossary
Here you can find terms and definitions used at FEMtech Website.

Femtech's Funding

By introducing specific supporting measures, one can improve the attractiveness of businesses for women and thus help reduce the shortage of specialist personnel. Companies profit from the competence and utilize the potential of qualified women in mixed-gender teams. More qualified and motivated employees (including both women and men) means more innovative potential for the companies, which directly benefits Austria as an innovation hub.

In order to facilitate the access to jobs and the realizations of personal career goals of female researchers and technicians, we support industrial and extra-faculty research companies whenever they implement gender-specific activities.

Financial resources and consulting are provided along four programme lines:

FEMtech career check for SME

FEMtech career check for SME supports research- and technology-intensive small and medium-sized enterprises in natural sciences and technology when dealing with equality.

FEMtech Career

Within the program gender awareness should raise in R&D companies. Activities for equal opportunities: gender training, government action plans for women and work, mentoring, executive training for women, company kindergartens with scientific and technical focus - are promoted.

FEMtech Working Experience for female students

Within this program female students should be interested in starting a career in industrial and extra-faculty research.

FEMtech´s Research Projects

Approaching research activities and products under increased consideration of gender aspects diversifies the range of offers and provides additional market potential. Thus, we support the integration of the gender dimension in research and development projects