On March 2, the RESET team had the honor to present its draft of a Joint Statement on Equality, Diversity and Scientific Excellence to the Rectors, Vice-Rectors and a Director of seven partners universities, namely:

• Dean Lewis – Rector of the University of Bordeaux, France
• Martin Paul – Rector of the Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany
• Nikolaos Papaioannou – Rector of the Aristotle University Thessaloniki, Greece
• Agnieszka Kurczewska – Vice-Rector for External Relations at the University of Lodz, Poland
• Pedro Rodrigues – Vice-Rector for Research, Innovation and Internationalization at the University of Porto, Portugal
• Taina Pihlajaniemi – Vice-Rector for research at the University of Oulu, Finland
• Mathias Vicherat – Director of Sciences Po Paris, France.

This document aims to reaffirm the engagement of RESET universities to define, achieve and increase equality, diversity, and scientific excellence within leadership practices, institutional culture, occupational equality, and knowledge production and transfer. The next steps are – a signature of the statement before June 2022 and its subsequent dissemination.

During the meeting, the RESET team of the University of Bordeaux presented the main ideas of the content and specified a need for the elaboration of such a joint statement. Then representatives of all the universities were able to share their thoughts and opinions concerning this ambition. Consequently, all seven RESET universities supported the ideas of the statement and confirmed their engagement in terms of achieving gender equality, diversity, and scientific excellence within their institutions. Despite their different cultural, political, institutional contexts, all partners found a common agreement on the importance of values of equality, diversity, collective excellence, and work-life balance in academia.

RESET team members are extremely grateful for the support and encouragement received from the participants. This institutional commitment represents a milestone in the progressive and sustainable establishment of equalitarian and inclusive institutional culture.