So, they really do still exist, the surprises about sex influences, which are highly relevant in medical research in particular, but also in sport and technology.

At the same time, there are also gender influences that may seem biological, for example, if men predominantly get skin cancer on their back or scalp. However, if other variables are added to picture, it can be seen that this form of cancer occurs predominantly in men in countries where the sun shines strongly and men spend time outdoors with their upper body exposed. This has nothing to do with biology, but with the fact that it is socially accepted in these countries for men - but not women - to show their bare upper bodies in public.

These social dimensions of gender – and the associated ideas of how people of the respective sex should behave – must therefore be treated and taken into account in research and technology development in a way that differentiates them from biological differences.

This is why, in the last two decades several research agencies started to include gender in their research funding programmes. In the beginning mostly to “fix the numbers” as Londa Schiebinger calls it, which means aiming for gender-balanced teams and to increase women in leadership positions. To make those numbers stick, it is crucial to change organisations to not only bring more women in, but to eliminate biases in career development and create inclusive cultures, this is “fixing the institutions”.

The third aspect is “fixing the knowledge”, by which we mean taking sex and gender into account whenever it has a potential impact in research.

Since 2011 the Stanford-based “Gendered Innovations ” website collects various examples and tools to showcase the “integration of the gender dimension into medicine, science and technology research”. And how do research and innovation projects actually include gender dimensions?

From November 6^th to 8^th Anita Thaler organized with Fraunhofer IAO colleague Clemens Striebing an impact workshop for their VOICES working group on “Gender as a Research Dimension” in Berlin. Two highlights of this meeting were a site visit the Chair Gender Research in Medicine of Gertraud Stadler and her team at Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin, and the participation of the VOICES delegation at the Falling Walls Science Summit.

Anita Thaler introduced and moderated a panel discussion at the Falling Walls Science Summit on “Unleashing Breakthroughs through Gender-Sensitive Research” presenting five real world impact stories from the VOICES network:

Gul M. Kurtoglu Eskisar (Dokuz Eylul University  and Columbia University), Jelena Grahovac (Institute For Oncology and Radiology of Serbia), Katerina Pastra (Institute for Language & Speech Processing, “Athena” Research Center), Margarita Zachariou (Bioinformatics Department, The Cyprus Institute of Neurology and Genetics) and Edna Costa (School of Economics, Management and Political Science, University of Minho, Portugal) provided well-founded and practical answers to questions about the causes of gender gaps in research and how these can be remedied.