The European STEP project: Integrating EDI into STEM disciplines

Over the past decades, the EU, its Member States and national funding organizations have taken steps to assist higher education and research institutions to include equality, diversity and inclusion (EDI) principles in their research and in all their teaching and operational activities. However, despite the undoubted relevance of EDI principles, in many segments of EU societies and even in the most prestigious top universities in the world, their concrete application often lags behind. Especially in relation to academia reports and position papers that identify good practices and approaches, relevant to support institutional growth and capacity building towards a more inclusive academia. Inclusion is known to be a strategic issue for the higher education sector, as it impacts institutional culture, research and learning and teaching. Therefore, HEIs must learn to be more open and inclusive and find new ways to enable people from traditionally underrepresented backgrounds to participate and progress in their employment or training careers without discrimination. Moreover, diversity is a proven condition for excellence, and fairness in competition attracts talent at all levels: on the contrary, non-diverse research environments are less creative and produce fewer and worse results. The STEP project addresses the development of the research profile in the fields of Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) through cross-fertilization with the Social Sciences and Humanities, in particular by introducing into the STEM fields the principles of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI), which have considerable potential to solve global challenges of well-being and quality of life.