Publication
This plan is designed as a formal public document to be published on the organisation website and signed by top management.
Evidence: Website URL, PDF/PHP publication record, signed approval page.
EU Funding Aligned • Horizon Europe GEP Framework
Gender Equality Plan for responsible AI R&D.
This PHP document provides a publishable Gender Equality Plan framework for Qubitropy. It is structured around Horizon Europe gender equality plan process requirements and recommended content areas, with additional controls for agentic AI, quantum-inspired optimisation, data, and research governance.
Public CommitmentSigned, published, communicated.
R&I Gender DimensionScreen, evaluate, document impact.
Annual Evidence LoopCollect → monitor → report → improve.
GE
Mandatory Process Requirements
Eligibility alignment matrix.
Horizon Europe requires eligible public bodies, research organisations, and higher education establishments from Member States and Associated Countries to have a Gender Equality Plan covering minimum process-related requirements. This document is structured to support those requirements and to serve as a strong voluntary framework for private R&D organisations as well.
Dedicated resources
The organisation commits defined ownership, time, expertise, and budget for implementation, training, data collection, monitoring, and corrective action.
Evidence: Named owner, annual implementation budget, training records, working group minutes.
Data collection & monitoring
Sex/gender-disaggregated personnel data, where lawfully collectable, will be reviewed annually using indicators covering recruitment, career progression, leadership, pay equity, retention, and R&D participation.
Evidence: Annual GEP monitoring dashboard, anonymised indicator table, management review notes.
Training & capacity building
Staff and decision-makers will receive awareness raising and training on gender equality, inclusive culture, unconscious bias, harassment prevention, and gender-sensitive research and innovation.
Evidence: Training agenda, attendance logs, onboarding materials, annual refresher completion rates.
4Mandatory process requirements embedded into the document structure.
5Recommended content areas translated into concrete action areas.
100%EU proposals to receive gender-dimension and responsible AI screening.
1×Annual monitoring report and evidence review for continuous improvement.
Recommended Content Areas
Concrete measures, targets, and AI R&D safeguards.
The plan converts the five recommended thematic areas into operational commitments suited to a consulting and research organisation working on agentic AI, quantum-inspired optimisation, data-rich systems, and high-impact decision support.
Work-life balance & organisational culture
Create a flexible, inclusive, psychologically safe working environment for all staff, researchers, consultants, contractors, and collaborators.
- Offer flexible working patterns, remote/hybrid arrangements, and meeting-time norms that support caring responsibilities and international collaboration.
- Publish inclusive conduct expectations for client delivery, research sprints, conferences, workshops, and online collaboration spaces.
- Review workload, travel demands, and urgent-delivery practices to prevent hidden bias and unequal access to high-visibility work.
100% of staff informed of flexible work policyAnnual culture pulse survey completedAll critical meetings documented asynchronously
Gender balance in leadership & decision-making
Improve representation in leadership, advisory, technical architecture, research governance, and proposal decision roles.
- Monitor gender balance across management, principal investigators, technical leads, proposal teams, ethics reviewers, and advisory panels.
- Use inclusive nomination procedures for leadership opportunities, conference speaking, grant representation, and client-facing roles.
- Create mentoring and sponsorship pathways for underrepresented talent in quantum AI, agentic systems, safety, and R&D management.
Balanced shortlists for leadership roles where feasibleAt least one annual leadership reviewMentoring opportunities offered annually
Recruitment & career progression
Ensure transparent, fair, skills-based hiring, promotion, pay, and professional development practices.
- Use inclusive job descriptions, structured interviews, transparent scoring, and diverse review panels whenever practicable.
- Audit recruitment funnel, salary offers, promotion decisions, learning budgets, and retention data by sex/gender where lawful and proportionate.
- Provide career development planning for research, engineering, consulting, operations, and leadership tracks.
Structured hiring rubric used for all rolesAnnual career progression review completedPay equity review completed annually
Gender dimension in research, innovation & teaching content
Integrate gender and intersectional analysis into AI, quantum-inspired optimisation, agentic workflow design, datasets, evaluation, and stakeholder impact assessments where relevant.
- Include a gender-dimension screening question in every R&D project intake, proposal, and ethics review.
- Assess datasets, benchmarks, user journeys, model evaluations, agent behaviours, and decision-support outputs for bias and differential impact.
- Document when gender analysis is relevant, how it is addressed, or why it is not applicable for a specific technical scope.
100% of EU proposals screenedBias and impact notes included in R&D logsResponsible AI review before pilot deployment
Measures against gender-based violence, including sexual harassment
Maintain zero tolerance for harassment, discrimination, bullying, retaliation, and gender-based violence in workplace, client, field, conference, and online contexts.
- Publish confidential reporting channels, anti-retaliation safeguards, investigation principles, and escalation routes.
- Require all staff and decision-makers to complete harassment prevention and inclusive conduct training.
- Apply safe-event protocols for research workshops, user studies, client sites, conferences, and consortium meetings.
Reporting route published and reviewed annually100% annual training completion targetIncidents reviewed with corrective action logs
Governance & Dedicated Resources
Owned by leadership. Implemented through evidence.
The organisation commits to allocate adequate time, expertise, data governance support, training resources, and management attention to implement this plan. The GEP Owner maintains an evidence register suitable for internal review, funding due diligence, and ex-post checks where applicable.
Top ManagementApproves the plan, signs the public commitment, ensures resources, and reviews annual progress.
GEP OwnerCoordinates implementation, maintains evidence, leads monitoring, and prepares the annual report.
R&D / AI Governance LeadEnsures gender and intersectional analysis is considered in research design, datasets, model evaluation, and deployment risk reviews.
People / Operations LeadMaintains recruitment, progression, training, culture, and harassment-prevention processes.
All PersonnelContribute to inclusive culture, complete required training, follow reporting routes, and support implementation.
Data Collection & Monitoring
Annual indicators for accountable progress.
Data will be collected and reported in compliance with applicable privacy, employment, and equality laws. Where sample sizes are small, results should be aggregated or suppressed to protect confidentiality.
Workforce composition by role, seniority, contract type, function, and project leadership.Recruitment funnel: applications, shortlists, interviews, offers, acceptances, and salary bands.Promotion, retention, learning budget, leadership opportunities, conference participation, and proposal leadership.Training completion for gender equality, unconscious bias, harassment prevention, and gender-sensitive R&I.Annual culture survey results and qualitative feedback themes.R&D project screening outcomes for gender dimension, bias risk, and inclusive impact.Incident reporting data, response times, resolution status, and corrective actions, handled confidentially.
Responsible AI & Gender Dimension
From compliance to better research.
For each AI or quantum-inspired R&D activity, project teams should ask: who is affected, which groups may experience different outcomes, what data encodes social bias, what agent behaviours need evaluation, and which mitigation is documented before deployment.
Proposal stage
Screen gender relevance, stakeholder impact, data risks, and consortium balance.
Prototype stage
Evaluate bias, usability, autonomy boundaries, and human oversight.
Deployment stage
Monitor outputs, incidents, user feedback, and differential impact.
Reporting stage
Document decisions, limitations, corrective actions, and learning loops.
Implementation Roadmap
Quarterly operating rhythm.
The plan follows an annual improvement cycle: publish the commitment, embed processes, implement targeted measures, review progress, update the action plan, and preserve supporting evidence.
Baseline & publish
Approve and publish the signed plan; confirm owner, budget, evidence register, data fields, and confidentiality safeguards.
Training & process integration
Launch core training; embed gender-dimension screening in proposals, project intake, ethics review, and responsible AI reviews.
Implementation sprint
Run targeted actions across recruitment, leadership balance, culture, safe reporting, and R&D project governance.
Monitor & report
Review indicators, publish an annual progress summary, update actions, and archive evidence for potential EU funding checks.
Publication & Approval
Top management commitment.
Approval statement
On behalf of Qubitropy Ltd., top management approves this Gender Equality Plan and commits to the resources, governance, monitoring, and continuous improvement actions described in this document.
Website publication: https://qubitropy.com/gender-equality.php
Contact: hello@qubitropy.com
On behalf of Qubitropy Ltd
Director
Date: June 15, 2026
Director
Date: June 15, 2026
EU Reference Sources
Source-aligned structure.
European Commission — Gender equality in research and innovation
https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/strategy/strategy-research-and-innovation/democracy-and-rights/gender-equality-research-and-innovation_en
https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/strategy/strategy-research-and-innovation/democracy-and-rights/gender-equality-research-and-innovation_en
Horizon Europe Work Programme 2025 — General Annexes, Gender Equality Plans and gender mainstreaming
https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/document/download/9d9a75d4-6da8-4902-95c4-34a4de01ebe5_en
https://research-and-innovation.ec.europa.eu/document/download/9d9a75d4-6da8-4902-95c4-34a4de01ebe5_en
Publications Office of the EU — Gender equality plans (GEPs): How to be ready for ex-post checks
https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/5084e997-f356-11f0-b9bc-01aa75ed71a1/language-en
https://op.europa.eu/en/publication-detail/-/publication/5084e997-f356-11f0-b9bc-01aa75ed71a1/language-en
European Institute for Gender Equality — Horizon Europe GEP eligibility criterion
https://eige.europa.eu/gender-mainstreaming/toolkits/gear/horizon-europe-gep-criterion
https://eige.europa.eu/gender-mainstreaming/toolkits/gear/horizon-europe-gep-criterion