United European Gastroenterology Equality and Diversity Plan

EQUALITY AND DIVERSITY PLAN

In 2015, the United European Gastroenterology (UEG) established the Equality & Diversity Group (E&D Group). The group's responsibility is to assist, oversee, and announce the organisation's efforts in promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion and to address areas throughout the organisation where inequalities may exist. Following a thorough review of activities and working procedures which is available on the UEG Website (https://ueg.eu/equality-and-diversity-plan), the group has developed a comprehensive Equality and Diversity Plan (E&D Plan) that outlines UEG's commitment to creating an equitable, diverse, and inclusive environment for all stakeholders. The E&D Plan complements the UEG Strategic Plan 2023–2026 ¹ and therefore reflects and builds on the organisation's core values and is bound to the same timeframe of 4 years. The E&D Plan provides a framework for implementing diversity and inclusion initiatives, clearly articulates related goals, and thus allows us to put our core values into action. We emphasise that concerted equality and diversity efforts are proven to be of strategic significance to any organisation that wishes to excel professionally, and that it is our role to engage and develop diverse talent to sustain our standards of highest scientific quality and prepare the organisation for the future. The E&D Plan was carefully designed and reviewed to complement and enhance our mission of promoting science, research, education, and quality of care in digestive health, and shall therefore dispel any concerns that actions taken to ensure equality, diversity and inclusion might compromise our culture of excellence.

Objectives

UEG supports all digestive health professionals in Europe and beyond regardless of individual characteristics or personal beliefs. To improve equality indicators and promote diversity, UEG will systematically address related issues in all its activities. In this effort, we will be guided by the following objectives:

1. Adhering to the principles of equal treatment and promoting diversity and equity.

2. Raising awareness regarding equality, diversity, and inclusion among UEG Member Societies, members of boards, committees and groups, scientific panels, staff as well as the individual myUEG Associates.

3. Establishing an adequate representation regarding gender, age, nationality, and diverse backgrounds among the members of boards, committees and groups, scientific panels, and review panels.

4. Improving the balance of gender, age, and nationality among applicants and recipients of awards and grants, and ensuring that a diverse range of perspectives and experiences is included and represented in our community.

5. Increasing the awareness of the gender dimension in research by providing appropriate methodological tools to include gender analysis in research.

Measures

UEG has already implemented a lot of measures to promote equality, diversity, and inclusion within the reach of our organisation and has achieved measurable successes. In this section, we outline the specific measures that UEG is taking to continue promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion and mentions how we will complement them in the future:

1. Targeted recruitment and retention efforts: We will continue to implement and adapt targeted efforts to increase the diversity of members of boards, committees, groups, and staff. The focus of these efforts will be on increasing the representation of women, people of diverse gender identities, and people of diverse ages and nationalities at all levels of the organisation, in all disciplines, functions, and contractual relations.

2. Consideration of childcare responsibilities in career progression: To provide equal access to opportunities that are limited by age restrictions, taking into consideration the effect that parenthood, especially motherhood, has on the career progression of our applicants, we allow applicants of all genders to request an age extension of 2 years for one child and max. 4 years for two or more children, if they can confirm that they have been the main carer of their child/children.

3. Innovating working time models to allow for the balance of work, life, and family: We will initiate a broad discourse and exchange concepts on how to integrate and balance gainful employment, care work, family life and social life, as well as personal interests and needs. This measure is vital to safeguard the physical and mental wellbeing of digestive health professionals, and to retain early and mid‐career professionals in the medical and academic fields who otherwise might move on to adjacent professional spheres (industry, pharma, business administration, etc.) that currently offer more attractive working time models.

4. Offering a comprehensive training and development programme linked to outreach (and recruitment) initiatives: We will continue to improve professional development opportunities for all myUEG Associates and myUEG Young GI Associates. We are currently increasing our efforts to provide Continuing Medical Education accredited certificates for our educational activities, so that personal time taken to develop professionally is rewarded and acquired skills and qualifications are certified. The myUEG Community constitutes an outreach programme on the global level and offers a plethora of online and blended resources that are freely available.

5. Offering networking and mentoring opportunities: We will continue to offer and innovate networking and mentoring opportunities and involve experienced experts to provide guidance and support to mentees. We will continue to facilitate participation of young talent and mentees in committees and groups and/or their related projects to enhance diversity and inclusivity across the organisation.

6. Efforts to diversify the application to awards, grants and opportunities: We will continue to use targeted postings, announcements, and networking events to attract and inform diverse applicants and provide support and resources to improve success rates in the processes. We are monitoring applicant data and will initiate a review and adaptation of application criteria if deemed reasonable and likely to be effective. Additionally, we will enhance stakeholder collaboration and identify new collaborators and communication channels.

7. Impactful campaigning and communication strategies to empower women and minority groups in gastroenterology: We will continue implementing a sensitive communication strategy that takes into account the diverse backgrounds and experiences of individuals engaged with UEG, using inclusive language, and engaging role models to empower women from all age groups as well as other underrepresented groups, for example, individuals coming from middle to low‐income countries, or belonging to ethnic and religious minority groups.

8. Anti‐bias and awareness training: We will add to our existing resources on equality, diversity, and inclusion topics and start offering concerted anti‐bias and awareness training to top leadership and members of boards, committees, and groups. Subsequently, our aim is to develop tools that can easily be shared with and used by our staff and our stakeholders, specifically our Member Societies, as well as any individual who is in the position to improve the equality of opportunity within the digestive health community.

9. Efforts to increase the awareness of the gender dimension in research as well as in our scientific and educational output: We will ensure that gender aspects are included in the content of scientific and educational activities whenever relevant. We aim to provide researchers with appropriate methodologies to explore and understand how sex and gender differences potentially affect the design and the implementation of research projects to (1) ensure the validity of their research results, (2) improve patient care, and (3) better allocate resources. In addition, we aim to develop guidelines for authors and reviewers on how to include sex and gender analysis in research, reporting, and evaluation/peer‐review.

Indicators

Monitoring progress towards diversity, equality, and inclusion is crucial for the success of the proposed E&D Plan. Therefore, we have identified relevant indicators where we frequently read out our key indicators gender, age, nationality, and geographical distribution (as well as expertise, where relevant). These indicators will be reviewed and updated/amended as needed to ensure that they accurately reflect the progress towards our objectives and the effectiveness of our measures. The indicators are tracked and reported on an annual basis; we will use the current levels as benchmarks to assess progress towards the organisation's goals. The defined indicators include:

1. The percentages of members on boards, committees, and groups

2. The number and percentage of participants in our educational activities

3. The composition of scientific and educational faculty

4. The diversity of review panels

5. The number and percentages of applicants to awards and grants

6. The number of research projects, educational contents, and guidelines in which a gender dimension was included

Targets and responsibilities

Under objectives, we outlined the strategic direction by which we are led in our efforts, and with measures, we identified our frame of action and spheres of influence. Under indicators, we listed the specific data sets that allow us to read our progress. Finally, we are setting targets to identify specific actions that need to be taken, and address responsibilities. By pursuing the following SMART (i.e. Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, and Time‐Bound) ² targets we will create a more inclusive and diverse organisation and community while living and promoting a culture of excellence.

1. Increase the participation of women in boards, committees, and groups where it is currently below 40%. This responsibility is shared by all stakeholders.

2. Increase the nationality and age diversity among candidates applying for volunteer positions as well as among representatives directly appointed by our Member Societies. We depend and count on the collaboration with the nominating UEG Member Societies.

3. Increase the diversity among participants of educational activities, especially regarding nationality. The National Societies Committee is responsible for analysing gaps and collaborates with the National Societies Forum to enhance communication. Correspondingly, the Education Committee is responsible for upholding the gender balance, nationality and age diversity of their faculty, defining appropriate and inclusive criteria for application/participation to educational activities and being open to feedback and recommendations by other boards, committees, and groups.

4. Increase the representation of women and individuals from diverse nationalities among applicants to UEG awards and grants. Specifically, we aim to attract applicants to the prestigious Rising Star Awards that have another nationality than the frequently represented and successful countries Belgium, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Spain, and the UK. We will pursue this target by releasing targeted promotion in good time, calling National Member Societies to identify and support eligible candidates, proactively offering consultation to interested persons, and importantly, by amplifying early stage opportunities that help individuals progress towards a competitive level of expertise and professional experience. The responsibility to take the lead lies with the National Societies Committee.

5. Improve feedback processes by including means for our volunteer officers as well as individuals from underrepresented backgrounds to provide feedback related to equality, diversity, and inclusion. The E&D Group is responsible for reviewing our processes and developing recommendations to the operating committees and/or UEG Headquarters Management.

6. Provide targeted training for officers in UEG boards, committees, and groups on equality, diversity, and inclusion efforts. The E&D Group is responsible for developing recommendations and outlines the needed resources to further discuss with the Council.

7. Enhance or establish strategic collaborations with international medical, research oriented and patient organisations to encourage the participation of underrepresented groups and further promote diversity and inclusion in international collaborations. According to different angles of action, the responsibility is shared by all boards, committees, groups, and stakeholders.

8. Reach out to young leadership of UEG Member Societies to share our platform, connect them to experienced professionals and encourage the underrepresented younger population to participate in UEG events and activities. The responsibility to take the lead lies with the Young Talent Group, who will require support from other UEG committees and groups as needed.

9. Explore and find means and tools to overcome language barriers in our educational output and activities and reach out to the professional community in middle‐ and low‐income countries where intermediate to high levels of English language proficiency are not widespread. Moreover, we aim to provide means to overcome language barriers in abstract and proposal writing.

10. Develop and implement strategies for increasing the diversity of research applicants and awardees; specifically, we need to attract more female applicants to research opportunities. The responsibility to develop impactful outreach strategies lies with the Research Committee. The responsibility to communicate research opportunities is shared with our Member Societies.

11. Improve the diversity of nationalities represented by UEG Week faculty, not only per session panel but also for the overall programme, and intentionally look for and include excellent faculty members that are from nationalities that are currently underrepresented. The responsibility lies with the Scientific Committee in collaboration with the National Societies Committee.

12. Increase the diversity of individuals and communities represented in guidelines as well as other research and quality improvement initiatives. Specifically, the E&D Group recommends considering the gender dimension where it is of scientific and/or clinical relevance. The responsibility lies with the Research Committee, Scientific Committee, Education Committee, and Quality of Care Committee.

Conclusion

At UEG, we believe that the diversity of thought, experience, and perspective is essential for driving innovation, creativity, and success, and we are committed to maintaining a community where everyone feels valued, supported, and included.

By promoting equality and inclusivity in all our activities, we have created a welcoming and supportive environment for all stakeholders and individuals of the community, regardless of their background or identity. Importantly, we have established working procedures and regulations that have yielded measurable successes in increasing gender and age balance and participation of diverse nationalities. This not only upholds the core values of UEG but also ensures that the diversity of experiences and perspectives within the community are represented and considered, leading to more innovative and effective approaches to research and collaboration. To provide a stable and transparent framework for our continued efforts in promoting equality, diversity, and inclusion, we have developed this comprehensive plan. The UEG Equality and Diversity Plan outlines specific actions and responsibilities and will allow us to monitor progress over an appropriate timeline.

To summarise, we aim to anchor gender equality and diversity at all levels including leadership, decision‐making bodies and procedures, and to further improve mobility for researchers; therefore, we will continue to focus on recruiting, retaining, and advancing women and individuals from diverse backgrounds and intentionally include them. Furthermore, we prioritise international outreach and will give special consideration to low‐income countries in Europe and beyond where individuals face difficulties accessing certain opportunities in research and training due to lower local budgets, and intentionally include them. The recruitment and involvement of junior talent connects to both efforts, with the aim of helping them develop their full potential and grow their expertise and professional network. Regarding research activity, clinical guidelines development, and educational content, we will promote the integration of the gender dimension to effectively pursue our mission of preventing digestive diseases and lessening their burden. Ultimately, our goal is to create a more inclusive and diverse organisation that attracts and develops talent and is therefore better equipped to serve the needs of the gastroenterology community and to advance the field of digestive health.

Esposito I, Simsek C, Nowak A, Tiniakos D. United European Gastroenterology Equality and Diversity[Ace1] Plan. United European Gastroenterol J. 2023;11(5):484–7. 10.1002/ueg2.12415

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.