The importance of participation in academic conferences is well known for members of the scientific community. It is not only for the feedback and the improvement of the work, it is also about career development, building networks and increasing visibility. Nevertheless, women continue to be under-represented in these academic events and even more so in the most visible positions such as speaking roles. This paper presents the development of a tool based on performance indicators, which will allow monitoring and evaluating gender roles and inequalities in academic conferences in order to tackle the underrepresentation of women. The study identifies relevant perspectives (participation, organizational structure and attitudes) and designs specific lists of performance indicators for each of them. The tool is based on a combination of two multicriteria techniques, Analytic Hierarchy Process and Analytic Hierarchy Process Sort, and a qualitative analysis based on in-depth interviews and information gathered from a focus group. The use of the AHP multi-criteria decision technique has allowed us to weight the indicators according to the opinion of several experts, and with them to be able to generate from these weightings composite indicators for each of the three dimensions. The most relevant indicators were for the participation dimension. Additionally, the tool developed has been applied to an academic conference which has been monitored in real time. The results are shown as a traffic light visualization approach, where red means bad performance, yellow average performance and green good performance, helping us to present the results for each indicator. Finally, proposals for improvement actions addressed to the red indicators are explained. The work carried out highlights the need to broaden the study of gender equality in academic conferences, not only regarding the participation but also the performance of different roles and functions.

The importance of participation in conferences and events is well known for members of the society. It is not only for the feedback and the personal experience, it is also about career development, building networks and increasing visibility. Nevertheless, women continue to be under-represented in these events and even more so in the most visible positions such as speaking roles. This paper presents the development of a tool based on performance indicators, which will allow monitoring and evaluating gender roles and inequalities in conferences and events in order to tackle the underrepresentation of women. The study identifies relevant perspectives (participation, organizational structure and attitudes) and designs specific lists of performance indicators for each of them. The tool is based on a combination of two multicriteria techniques, Analytic Hierarchy Process and Analytic Hierarchy Process Sort, and a qualitative analysis based on in-depth interviews and information gathered from a focus group. The use of the AHP multicriteria decision technique has allowed us to weight the indicators according to the opinion of several experts, and with them to be able to generate from these weightings composite indicators for each of the three dimensions. The most relevant indicators were for the participation dimension. Additionally, the tool developed has been applied to a conference which has been monitored in real time. The results are shown as a traffic light visualization approach, where red means bad performance, yellow average performance and green good performance, helping us to present the results for each indicator. Finally, proposals for improvement actions addressed to the red indicators are explained. The work carried out highlights the need to broaden the study of gender equality in conferences and events, not only regarding the participation but also the performance of different roles and functions.

The paradigm proposed by Responsible Research and Innovation in the European Commission policy discourse identifies Public Engagement as a key area for exchange and dialogue among multiple actors following an inclusive and participatory process. Two definite set of indicators have already arisen at European level to monitor Public Engagement activities in the Science and Innovation realm. Our study aims to propose a deliberative participatory process, which involves selected stakeholders, for the adaptation of the European indicators to the specific Spanish scientific and innovation context. The methodological procedure is of exploratory nature and will be based in a combination of, on the one hand, qualitative content analysis techniques for the in-depth study of the deliberative process and the generation of indicators; and, on the other hand, a multi-criteria decision analysis technique such as the Analytic Hierarchy Process for the prioritization of the indicators. The discussion will focus on the procedure to articulate stakeholders' values and use them as the basis for creating a context-based improved list of indicators. Two types of research questions arise: (i) Is the proposed methodology adequate for the adaptation of the European indicators to the Spanish context? (ii) What are the main indicators to monitor and to expand reflection on the public engagement in the Spanish science and innovation?