Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts (ZRC SAZU) published a new website – Gender and Science (in Slovenian), dedicated to gathering and disseminating information on research and promotion of gender equality in science. The website and the activities of involved researchers support the culture of (gender) equality and institutional policies in the scientific, research, and higer education environments.

In addition to various activities and publications of ZRC SAZU that explore and support gender equality in science, the website also features a collection of projects, institutions, and research groups in Slovenia that deal with these topics. IRI UL is included in the list with its international research project IRIS, which ran between 2009 and 2012 within the EU 7th Framework Programme (FP7). IRIS addressed the challenge that few young people in general, and women in particular, choose to pursue an education in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, STEM. The project’s objective was to develop knowledge and recommendations informed by evidence on how young people, and women in particular, may come to see STEM as an educational choice that is right for them and to persist in their STEM education until graduation. Among other issues, the project addressed the following questions:

1) What are the priorities, values and experiences on which young people base their educational choice?

2) What are the success factors for interventions aimed at recruiting more young people (women in particular) to higher STEM education?