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EDIT’s family-friendly policies

Introduction

‘Work-Life balance’ programmes have for objective to help parents find appropriate and affordable childcare options while they are abroad attending EDIT international meetings.
The travelling and the participation to international meetings can sometimes be a problem for scientists with young children. In order to facilitate attendance, EDIT has decided to offer grants to its participants in order to ensure that those parents with babies and small children can organise adequate childcare for the duration of the meeting.

Two options are proposed:

  1. Parents who are unable to arrange for childcare at home

Scientists (mothers or fathers) who have children under the legal age and who are unable to arrange for childcare at home can bring their child with them at meetings or training workshops. Priority will be granted to those children who are not yet at school (babies, toddlers, young children – in general under 6 years old). They will receive an allowance based on childcare rates at the meeting place from an EDIT fund.
The maximum allowance will be 75 €/day and 300 € per grant. Travel days to and from the meetings or workshops are not covered.
It is up to parents to find the best childcare option during the meeting or workshop. If childcare possibilities exist at the host institution, EDIT will take every opportunity to make this known to parents. In some cases it may be possible for the local organiser of a workshop to make group arrangements with a babysitter. This will have to be worked out on a case-by-case basis.

  1. Parents who are able to arrange for childcare at home

EDIT will help cover childcare costs that directly arise from the attendance to an international meeting. It will not cover childcare costs that derive from usual working conditions. For example, eligible costs could be the hiring of a baby-sitter to help the parent staying at home make the link between school and evening. Childcare costs will be covered for children under legal age, but priority will be granted to those children who are not yet at school (babies, toddlers, young children – in general under 6 years old).
The allowance will be supported at local rates, with a maximum of 50 €/day and 300 € per grant. Travel days to and from the meetings or workshops can be covered.

 

Eligibility to the Work-life Balance Travel Grant

The selection committee will try to support as many persons as possible, within the limits of the budget. In the event that we have many applicants, we will apply selection criteria based on the need of the applicants:

  • single parents (mothers or fathers) will have priority over families
  • mothers travelling to meetings will have priority over fathers
  • junior scientists (PhD students, post-docs) will have priority over senior staff
  • staff under contract will have priority over permanent staff
  • EDIT partner institutions will have priority over non EDIT partner institutions (but non-EDIT partners participating in EDIT meetings – e.g. SAC, WP meetings – will still be allowed to apply).

Application procedure

Submit the application form no later than two weeks before the application deadline associated with the workshop you plan to attend. Applications will be reviewed by the selection committee within one week. Applicants will be notified by email.

The childcare selection committee

The selection committee is composed of 3 members of the Gender Awareness Liaison Group, together with one representative of the Network Office in Paris.

Contacts

editgenderactionplan@mnhn.fr