Measuring progress on gender balance in ELIXIR leadership

A new case study from ELIXIR’s leadership and diversity mentoring programme, ELEAD, shows early evidence that the initiative is supporting women’s progression into leadership roles and contributing to culture change across the ELIXIR infrastructure. The impact work for ELEAD, including the assessment of the pilot outcomes, is being led by ELIXIR-UK as part of the second edition of the programme.

ELEAD supports women’s leadership development through structured mentorship, peer support and professional training. The programme addresses the persistent underrepresentation of women in senior roles in STEM by strengthening leadership confidence, supporting career progression, and encouraging more inclusive leadership practices within research infrastructures. The pilot launched in 2023, and its early success informed the design and launch of a larger second edition in 2025.

The report explores the experiences of four women from the pilot cohort using qualitative analysis of reflective case stories and self-assessments mapped to the ELIXIR impact framework. The findings indicate increased leadership confidence, more reflective leadership practices, and the establishment of trusted peer networks across ELIXIR Nodes that have continued beyond the pilot. In several cases, these developments were accompanied by increased visibility, expanded responsibilities, and career progression.

The ELEAD pilot was co-led by ELIXIR Spain and ELIXIR Germany. The report was authored by Xenia Perez Sitja, Community Manager at ELIXIR-UK and a member of the ELEAD leadership team for the second edition, together with colleagues from across ELIXIR contributing to it. It draws on the experiences of Katharina Heil (ELIXIR Hub), Mallory Freeberg (EMBL-EBI), Laura Portell Silva (ELIXIR Spain) and Maria Doyle (ELIXIR Ireland).

	Human Capital	Relationship Capital	Resource Uptake/Legacy	Infrastructure Research Efficiency
Katharina F Heil	(2) ⏹⏹	(2) ⏹⏹	(0)	(1) ⏹
Mallory Freeberg	(3) ⏹⏹⏹	(3) ⏹⏹⏹	(3) ⏹⏹⏹	(1) ⏹
Laura Portell	(3) ⏹⏹⏹	(0)	(1) ⏹	(0)
Maria Doyle	(3) ⏹⏹⏹	(2) ⏹⏹	(1) ⏹	(1) ⏹

Impact scores by participant and impact area on a scale of 1-3 to indicate the strength of evidence observed, from indirect evidence to concrete evidence with direct impact. 

For ELIXIR-UK, the pilot and its follow-on impact work demonstrate a clear leadership development pathway in practice. Xenia Perez Sitja participated in the pilot cohort as a mentee and subsequently joined the leadership team for ELEAD’s second edition, where ELIXIR-UK now leads the impact evaluation. In this new cohort, two further members of ELIXIR-UK – Wendi Bacon and Saskia Lawson-Tovey – have also been selected as emerging female leaders and are participating in ELEAD 2.0.

ELIXIR-UK’s contribution to ELEAD spans both emerging and senior leadership. Two senior female leaders from the UK Node, Carole Goble (Joint Head of Node)  and Susanna-Assunta Sansone (Interoperability Platform Lead), are participating in the programme as mentors, supporting the next generation of women leaders across the ELIXIR community. Together, these activities reflect ELIXIR-UK’s commitment to strengthening gender balance and inclusive leadership in research.

The authors note that these findings represent early-stage impact from a small cohort but point to strong potential for longer-term structural change as ELEAD continues to scale.

Pérez Sitjà, X. (2025). Impact case study. Investing in women’s leadership in ELIXIR: early impact of the ELEAD pilot cohort. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.17597799