Established in 2011, the Gender Summit has become the foremost forum for engaging top-level researchers, policy makers, science and innovation leaders, and other and stakeholders in STEM, to address gender issues in research and innovation.

The aim of the 3rd Gender Summit, which is focused on North America, is to interconnect all relevant stakeholders in a Call to Action to achieve positive change towards greater diversity in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) workforce and leadership, and greater inclusion of biological sex and gender considerations or the “gender dimension” in research content and process.

The Gender Summit will bring together a diverse group of national and international experts and stakeholders from various types of institutions to discuss the new perspectives emerging from studies of sex and gender differences and how they create opportunities to be specific about what it means for science to be “gender neutral,” that is, to show that the study design has taken into account the needs of both women and men as equally important. The benefits are considerable, not only for the quality and outcomes of research, but also for new opportunities to apply research findings to create new markets for science knowledge.

The Summit will address the following questions:

• What is the compelling research evidence that demands immediate response?
• What are the most appropriate, beneficial and impactful actions that different stakeholders can take?
• What mechanisms are needed to strengthen inter-stakeholder collaboration?
• What strategy is best to achieve global impact?