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A COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH COMMUNITY  MAKING A DIFFERENCE

The University of Birmingham’s Institute of Global Innovations (IGI) is dedicated to supporting research that aims to solve the world’s most challenging problems.

The IGI Gender Equality group comprises over 40 academics across life and health sciences, technology, social sciences, and humanities, covering 6 interconnected interdisciplinary research workstreams: 

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Maternal health led by Prof Arri Coomarasamy & Dr Adam Devall

Reducing miscarriage and maternal morbidity and mortality using high quality clinical trials, influencing policymakers and healthcare systems to implement effective solutions.

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Sexual and reproductive rights, led by Dr Atina Krajewska & Dr Louise Jackson

Improving sexual and reproductive rights through the identification and challenge of legal, political, cultural, social, and economic barriers and inequalities of access.

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Gender barriers within and into work led by Dr Christian Darko

Achieving equality for women and girls in access to education and meaningful employment, to improve access to decent jobs, earnings, and career progression.

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Political rights and participation (currently vacant)

Understanding how citizenship and political systems are gendered, learning lessons from women who have secured more equitable  participation in public life.

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Quantitative approaches to understanding gender equality led by Dr James Rockey

Using novel quantitative approaches for the study of gender inequality, especially aspects that are hard to measure directly, such as sexual violence or inequality in the home.

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We provide funding, guidance, and support for research and activities to bring the findings and outcomes of research to stakeholders and communities that can help make real world change for gender equality. Although we generally focus on the topics outlined above, we are open to ideas for any research related activities, provided the work has University of Birmingham led interdisciplinary research at its centre. Our current funding and other opportunities can be found here, and you can find out more about how we carry out our work and what we've achieved below. 

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Our Approach
We identify opportunities  at the intersections of key indicators of inequality. Importantly, this means that our work addresses key components of the gender inequality index and can develop solutions at the systems level. We take into account data, evidence and relevant processes for change as well as context, nuance and the lived experience of those affected by inequality.  
 

GEI Figure.png

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Our Impact

Key activities and outputs for the Gender Equality theme to date include:

  • Securing funding for 17 pilot projects, which have led to 20 successful external funding bids worth over £20 million

  • Supporting interdisciplinary studentships, projects, academic outputs and external awards

  • Developing a network of over 30 partners including, Tommy’s, Oxfam GB, Jhipego, the Wangu Kanja Foundation, West Midlands Police, the World Health Organisation (WHO), Physicians for Human Rights and UN agencies.

  • Hundreds of research outputs, including 95 peer-reviewed publications, 6 policy papers, and changes to NICE, Crown Prosecution Service and WHO guidelines

  • Dozens of stakeholder engagement events and widespread international media coverage that has reached over 1 billion people worldwide

Find out more:

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