CIC energiGUNE, the Basque research center of reference in battery storage, thermal energy solutions, and hydrogen, and member of the Basque Research & Technology Alliance-BRTA, has approved its first Equality Plan, with the objective of consolidating the current situation of balance in the center on this matter. Presently, CIC energiGUNE is the only Cooperative Research Center in the Basque Country that counts with absolute parity on all the levels, from the research team to the managerial committee.
“This was an agreement that we wanted to make visible”, has assured General Manager Nuria Gisbert. “Our policy of professional development has always been tied to the merits of each person, without conditions of any kind, and naturally we have reached a situation of complete balance. With this Plan we make all the structure a participant in our position towards equality, we guarantee the maintaining of the reached achievements and we open the door to possible improvements”, has remarked, by his part, Asier Urzelai, Director of the People Area at CIC energiGUNE.
Previous to approving the Equality Plan, CIC energiGUNE has carried out a diagnosis on matters of equality, based on quantitative and qualitative indicators. The survey that has been done to the workforce about gender equality has resulted in an outstanding assessment, of 83.7 points over 90. Likewise, the average assessment of the Equality Commission has been of 8.7 points over 10.
Moreover, the quantitative indicators reflect a total parity in the composition of the staff in all the levels, and the absolute equity on a salary level as well as on career opportunities and development for all the people in the center. Consequently, a series of objectives have been defined in order to guarantee the maintaining of the reached equality levels and to make possible the access to further improvements; and which shape the Equality Plan 2021-2024.
Regarding the Managerial Committee, CIC energiGUNE is the only center of these characteristics in the Basque Country that counts with a female General Manager, Nuria Gisbert- one of the first women to ever access this responsibility position- and an equal Scientific Committee. In fact, the two principal areas of research, thermal and electrochemical, count at this time with a female Scientific Director: the doctors Elena Palomo and Montse Casas-Cabanas.
