Equal Opportunity

Our policy

Image: © Amac Garbe

ct.qmat is highly committed to equal opportunity and diversity, striving for inclusive excellence by promoting a research and teaching environment that supports careers regardless of gender, gender identity, sexual identity, ethnic origin, religion or belief, disability or health condition, or age.

ct.qmat’s basic principles of equality are outlined in the Joint Würzburg-Dresden gender equality and diversity commitment developed based on the policies and procedures followed by the Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, Technische Universität Dresden, and the DFG’s appropriate recommendations. The action plans of both universities—JMU’s gender equality plan (2015—2020) and TUD’s diversity strategy 2030, including an updated equal opportunity concept 2014—aim to attract, recruit, and develop the best talents for the advancement of their strategic research areas.

Our equality measures

In line with its founding universities, the Cluster of Excellence works towards gender equality using a comprehensive and continuously extended set of measures to encourage females to pursue an academic career.

However, we are also aware that it requires a broad spectrum of sustainable measures to spark the interest in physics among younger school students first and to attract prospective students, particularly girls, to study physics. Once recruited into physics studies, the next important issue is to keep young women motivated to continue on a physics career path. This is why our package of measures ranges from those aimed at

- - attracting more girls to physics
  - fostering career development of women in academia
  - facilitating the return to work from parental leave
  - creating family-friendly conditions for an academic career,
  - and finally to raising awareness of unconscious bias.

To facilitate the return to work from parental leave, the Cluster of Excellence launched a structured contact-keeping and re-entry program keep in touch.

Our podcast "Family-Friendly Leadership" showcases inspiring role models who successfully implement family-friendly leadership practices. Discover stories and experiences from leaders demonstrating how a balanced work-life approach in research is achievable. Get inspired and learn from the best on how to lead with family-friendliness in mind.