D4.1 Recommendations on how to evolve the OTMR Toolkit under a gender lenses

Open, transparent and merit‐based recruitment (OTM‐R) ensures that the best person for the job is recruited, improving the effectiveness of national research systems, guarantees equality, especially for under‐represented groups, and boosts international and transnational co‐ operation. The OTM‐R toolkit has been developed to support research organizations in reinforcing their recruitment practices. The Charter for Researchers and the Code of Conduct for the Recruitment of Researchers is key policy designed to contribute to an open labour market of researchers, which is a priority of the European Research Area. It is composed by 40 principles providing the rights and obligations of researchers and researcher employer organizations. The uptake of the principles is fostered through the implementation process known as the Human Resources Strategy for Researchers (HRS4R) which guides researcher performing organizations in a continuous process for improving the management of their human resources. This process applies as key step of their self‐assessment the OTM‐R checklist, which facilitates the organizations to evaluate their recruitment practices in order to identify gaps and plan improvements. This reports presents the rationale and the work done within the GEARING Roles project which has led to the publication of an OTM‐R checklist proposal with a strengthen gender dimension, which could potentially contribute to improving gender equality in the recruitment procedures, as well as to harmonising the HRS4R process with the preparation of institutional Gender Equality Plans