Amidst tough competition, the Norwegian gender researchers received NOK 32 million (EUR 3,2 million) from the European Union. They will research how the modern women's movement has contributed, challenged and altered how women and men participate in society.
23/02/2006 :: Tone Hellesund is the project coordinator and Beatrice Halsaa is the research coordinator for the project "FEMCIT Gendered Citizenship in Multicultural Europe: The Impact of the Contemporary Women's Movement".
The team secured the grant money in tough competition with other researchers in the Citizen and Governance Programme, which is part of the EU's sixth Research Framework Programme. The Norwegian-led project is one of 14 projects that receive grant money from this source.
- There are a great number of applications to the Citizen and Governance programme, so this has been a very comprehensive process, said Tone Hellesund, who is a researcher at the University of Bergen.
The financial framework for this project is NOK 32 million (EUR 3,2 million) over a period of four years. This is a very significant amount in the Norwegian gender research context. The researchers will focus on the concept of citizenship, where they will compare the Norwegian experience with at least two other countries, one of them being England.
- We emphasize how citizens' lives are affected by and contribute to the development and implementation of policies in a range of societal arenas. For it is important to investigate what creates the premises of democratic participation, said Hellesund.
The results will be presented before 2010, when the project will be completed.
Beret Bråten (Kilden)/ Norwegian Ministry of Foreign Affairs