Kick-off to increase business capacity through inclusiveness
The DEBUTING project kick-off took place in May in Karlstad, Sweden, with approximately 40 participants. Already the first meeting offered an excellent learning experience for the project partners on gender equality and inclusiveness.
Karlstad University will support the partners with analyses and knowledge dissemination and generate conditions for better policies. The project will contribute to the exchange of experience and transfer of good practices, and also provide recommendations for policies at EU level based on the lessons learned in the project.
"We started the project with a perfectly planned and organised project meeting in Karlstad, Värmland. It was an intense but also very interesting agenda, through which the project partners were able to gain an incredible number of new impressions and ideas on the theme of gender inclusiveness and gender awareness already at the first project meeting. It is truly impressive what has been worked on and done in this field in Värmland for many years! I believe we as project partners can learn a lot from these experiences", says Judith Bartschat, representing the RegioClusterAgentur for innovation and transformation in Baden-Württemberg, Germany.
The programme of the kick-off meeting was filled with inspiring examples from Värmland. Anders Olsson introduced their methodology of integrating the gender approach in the Smart Specialisation Strategy including the cluster policy. Another good example is Gender Academy, a project established within the framework of this collaboration and presented by process leader Manuel Almberg Missner. The goals for the participating companies were to develop their ability to challenge norms and power structures based on their own situation, and to use diversity and gender equality as tools for leadership, innovation, recruitment and business advantages.
"I felt at home being far from my region. Equality on Gender shedding light on the manufacture and the industrial sector makes all of us closer to each other in a challenging mission. Coming back to the office of the Institute of Gender Equality we enjoy sharing our experience from the working trip”, comments Pedro Lacunza Clemente from the government of Navarre, Spain.
Throughout the DEBUTING project, 11 interregional meetings will take place across all ten regions. In addition, minimum 80 meetings with regional stakeholder groups will be held to analyse and transfer good ideas into new actions for better policy instruments and practical advice for successful change management. Also, Karlstad University will organise 6 digital thematic seminars, and staff exchanges between the partners will take place in 2025/2026.