Strand 2 of the UKIERI Phase 4 programme, designed by the British Council in partnership with India's Department of Science & Technology, aims to design a women in leadership development framework and deliver a training programme to 200-250 early career researchers by March 2025.

The women in leadership development framework will support institutions to strengthen their gender-inclusive practices and policies, specifically around science and research. It will also support knowledge exchange and mentoring opportunities for up to 200-250 women early career researchers. The developed framework will build an understanding and provide guidance to their particular social and professional challenges. Mentoring and training workshops will provide pathways for rising the ladder and attaining leadership position in science and research careers.

The project will also support a strong network to contribute to enhanced productivity of science research and provide a gender perspective in Space related research,including themes such as remote sensing, astrophysics, astronomy, material acience, satellite, telecommunication and telescopes.

Scope of Work

British Council seeks to engage with an agency as a Knowledge and a training partner to implement the project as follows:

1. Convene a one-day face to face design workshop in India in July 2024 bringing together relevant stakeholders to discuss and agree the key aspects of the Women in Science Leadership Programme.
2. Review and analysis of current STEM sector portfolio policies/initiatives/programmes by the government of India and any other external/global agencies / government to promote better participation of women in leadership position in science and research domains.
3. Draw out from the global and the Indian context the best practices and lessons learnt and feed into the development of the framework
4. Review existing reports / analysis of the current STEM sector by the British Council or any published external research.
5. Consolidate all inputs from the secondary research and from all the relevant stakeholders to develop the women in science leadership framework.
6. Plan and deliver training and workshops for 200-250 early career researchers from India by March 2025. These capacity building activities will aim to equip project participants, leaders and faculty from institutions, with skills and knowledge to undertake self-assessment of the structures, systems and cultures in their institutions, that might be contributing to gender inequality at the leadership position.
7. For programme sustainability the training to follow a cascade approach and consist of a core group of Master Trainers. The agency is expected to train a group of 25 to 30 Master Trainers.
8. The agency will design the Women in Science Leadership programme comprising of - training module, master trainer training module, assessment tools, pre and post requisite for participants and deliver the training to upto 250 early career researchers on behalf of UKIERI-4. The final draft of the developed modules / programme to be shared with British Council and DST for final review and approval
9. The agency is also expected to conduct a face-to-face workshop for 20-25 Head of Institutions or leaders of Institutes to help them support women leaders.
10. Prepare a draft selection criterion for 200-250 early career researchers who would be inducted in this programme. DST will call for applications and shortlist the participants based on the selection criterion however, the final decision of selection will be of DST. The final selection criterion will be decided by DST

Deliverables:

• Curate and deliver one-day face to face design workshop in India as per an agreed activity timeline which will be developed by the British Council in consultation with the Department of Science and Technology.
• Develop a Women in science leadership framework with a focus on Space including themes (but not limited to) remote sensing, Astrophysics, Astronomy, Material Science, satellite, telecommunication, telescope etc.
• Develop the Women in Science Leadership Development training programme including training material, master trainer training module, assessment tools, selection criterion
• Delivery of training workshops to 200- 250 early career researchers from India
• Selection and training of 25 – 30 Master trainers
• Training of 20 -25 head of institutions/departmental heads
• Monitoring & Evaluation tool for the programme
• Quarterly review of project with British Council and Department of Science and Technology (remotely)

To know more about the Terms of Reference, please click here.

About UKIERI

The UK-India Education Research Initiative (UKIERI) started in April 2006 with the aim of enhancing educational links between India and the UK. Over the past 18 years, UKIERI has facilitated hundreds of mutually beneficial collaborations in education, research and innovation, and it has been instrumental in contributing to UK and Indian national priorities in science and technology

UKIERI-4 will catalyse high-quality, international collaborative research, bringing together wide-ranging disciplines such as STEM, behavioural sciences to take a 360-degree approach to solving the global challenges outlined in the UK and India’s strategies. UKIERI-4 programme will respond to the demand for enhanced research and innovation in both countries through supporting the mutual exchange of knowledge and ideas at the level of policy makers and system leaders, academics, and researchers. Moreover, UKIERI 4 will contribute to building a high-quality pipeline of talented researchers in both countries through focusing on the development of early career researchers.

UKIERI-4 will have a tripartite approach to promote stronger collaboration between UK-India in research-innovation and building people and systemic capacity through:

• Institutional research and mobility partnerships in multidisciplinary areas of mutual priority to address global challenges.
• Women Empowerment to mainstream gender in the leadership and governance roles in science and research
• innovation clusters for inclusive talent development to build a pipeline of talented researchers able to engage in international multidisciplinary research through capacity-building programmes, mentoring opportunities and providing access to professional development networks and resources, including our UKIERI alumni network.