The mining industry is an important part of society and is influenced by the norms that exist both within and outside of the mine’s activities. By applying a norm critical and gender aware perspective you can create conditions for a long-term sustainable industry that maintains global competitiveness by attracting skills from both women and men.
Therefore, an initiative was taken to carry out a strategic project aimed at these issues. The purpose of the strategic project Inclusive Innovation for the mining industry was to increase the knowledge and willingness to work more inclusively to speed up innovation and at the same time contribute to gender equality and diversity of all projects financed by Swedish Mining Innovation. In the long term goal is to advance inclusive and flexible workplaces and enable more innovative companies. We commissioned experts at RISE to develope a platform and training package consisting of self-instructive e-learnings and individual coaching for those who will write and apply for projects financed through Swedish Mining Innovation. The platform is built to engage and provides tools and training materials on the website, for the innovation and strategic projects that have been granted funding through us, but also for those who apply to our innovation idea competition.
“If you want to achieve the best possible results, you need to field the best possible lineup. To have a competive industry, we must attract a diverse mix of women, men, people with different backgrounds and of different ages to meet todays and tomorrows challenges. This includs recruiting to education to meet the growing demand for competence”.
Niclas Dahlström, Senior Project Manager
Swedish Mining Innovation
In the end of 2022 the nine-year evaluation of the programme was published. One important result brought forward in the evaluation was our work with inclusive innovation and gender equality which we consider in our daily work. It is very important to us but it’s also important for the industry and for the world at large, for that matter. We recommend everyone who is seeking funding with the program to take a digital course regarding gender equality and inclusive innovation. So far, it has proven to be an appreciated feature that many have found valuable when working on their application. An excerpt from the nine-year evaluation;
”Since the beginning, the program has worked comprehensively and successfully with gender equality. A clear result of the work carried out is that the project portfolio as a whole has achieved 40 percent female project managers, which is impressive considering the otherwise male-dominated sector.” and continues, ” The program office was early in undergoing training in writing inclusive programme and call texts and has since then worked in various ways to promote inclusive innovation”.
