The Leibniz Institute for Financial Research SAFE has been awarded the TOTAL E-QUALITY award for an outstanding culture of equal opportunities for the third time in a row. Following the awards in 2018 and 2021, the research institute has now received renewed confirmation for exemplary personnel development, equal opportunities and diversity.
The jury praised SAFE's convincing equal opportunities strategy, which is an integral part of its personnel and organizational policy. The jury particularly emphasized the measures to promote women in science. SAFE has now achieved gender parity with 51 percent of all employees being women. Particularly noteworthy is the increase in the proportion of women among scientific employees from 29% at the end of 2020 to 43% at the end of 2023.
“The renewed award is a great confirmation of our efforts to promote women and diversity and at the same time an incentive to continue on our path,” says Muriel Büsser, Managing Director of the Leibniz Institute SAFE. “We are particularly proud of the progress we have made in promoting young female scientists. We see it as our task to address talented women at an early stage and to create optimal conditions for their career development.”
Specifically, SAFE was able to increase the proportion of women among its doctoral students from 25 percent to 42 percent and among postdocs from 20 percent to 50 percent. These successes are due in part to the targeted recruitment of young female scientists and the targeted provision of scholarships for women in the graduate program.
SAFE is also involved in “Mentoring Hessen” with mentors and mentees and offers young female academics the opportunity to network and receive feedback on their research and career planning with the “Women in Law and Finance” workshop.
The jury also emphasized the integration of equal opportunities into research at SAFE. With the appointment of Christine Laudenbach, SAFE has expanded its research program to include analyses of gender-specific differences in wealth and the discrimination of women in investment advice and equity investments. A series of lectures with external experts in the “SAFE Women's Network” sensitizes (junior) female researchers to these aspects of research.
The current TOTAL E-QUALITY award is valid until 2026 and has been awarded to a total of 60 organizations this year, 32 from economy/administration and 28 from the sciences, including SAFE.
Further information on the TOTAL E-QUALITY award and the sponsoring association can be found here.
