Gender Equality @FIW München

At our Forschungsinstitut für Wärmeschutz e.V. München (FIW München), equal opportunity principles are the cornerstone of our innovative capabilities and a vital part of our organizational culture. We foster an open communication culture and maintain flat hierarchies, always embracing and recognizing the invaluable benefits of diversity. We support gender equality and actively counter violent extremism, hatred, and prejudice. Additionally, we promote social cohesion and diversity through various cultural and sports activities, both during and outside of working hours.
As a non-university scientific institution, we are committed to maintaining equitable and family-friendly structures and processes, while also striving to increase the proportion of women at various qualification and performance levels. Unlike other prominent institutions in the German non-university research sector, we only restrict the first employment contract to a two-year fixed-term period. The following contract is usually permanent, which provides our employees with a better basis for finding accommodation and planning their lives in general. A clear and timely decision on offering permanent employment will be made at least six months before the end of the first fixed-term contract.
We strive to eliminate the gender pay gap. All contracts and salary gradings at our institute adhere to the TVöD (public service wage agreement), ensuring equal and fair remuneration for all employees based on their experience level and area of work. Additionally, we are committed to ensuring equal career opportunities across all levels. To ensure that science and family life are compatible, we offer our employees family-friendly working hours and various part-time and teleworking models, thereby ensuring a good balance between career, family and leisure.
We conduct annual monitoring initiatives to analyse the current equal opportunities situation, identify untapped potential and areas of development in our overall policy and adjust targets, measures and programs and resources according to our needs. Our annual monitoring report transparently details our analysis and evaluation of figures, the definition of (new) targets, and the implementation and assessment of resulting measures.
It also provides an overview of the framework conditions and measures supporting work-life balance, recruitment, career advancement, and the development of our organizational culture. This systematic approach ensures internal transparency regarding our target figures and the strategies we employ to achieve them.
The monitoring report serves as a reference document for the Gender Equality Plan (GEP).