Report of the Diversity and Inclusion Working Group

M. Névant (FR), Chair

This report details the activities of the D&I Working Group’s since the C97 Council meeting. Four online meetings of the WG took place on 1 July, 18 September, 15 October and 21 October 2024, and one in-person meeting took place in the epi Secretariat on 11 December 2024 (see picture below).

1. Since it was established by a Board decision in September 2021 (B117, decision 4), the D&I Working Group has worked to promote the values of diversity and inclusion within epi. To name a few achievements: having a D&I policy adopted by Council in C92; co-organizing and participating to the Pre-seminar on the eve of C92 (“Why is everyone talking about diversity and inclusion?”); publishing articles in epi Information (issues 1/22, 3/23 and 1/24); giving a presentation at the conference organized by epi in October 2023 (“Half a century of EPC, 44 Years of EQE and opening a New Chapter”); working with the EQE Secretariat to include for the first time ever in 2023 D&I-related questions in the post-exam survey sent to all EQE candidates.

The time has now come to convert the D&I Working Group into a Committee with appropriate Terms of Reference, and whose members are elected by Council. It is therefore intended to present a motion at the next ordinary Spring Council meeting (C99), asking Council to set up such a Committee. Draft Terms of Reference will be soon submitted to the By-Laws Committee to ensure compliance with our rules.

2. The WG has worked over the summer on proposed changes to Rule 17 IPREE (NB: this is the rule which can provide accommodation under certain circumstances for candidates with a “disability”). This rule was introduced when the IPREE was revised in 2009. While the introduction of this rule was at the time regarded as a significant improvement for “disabled” candidates, the fact remains that the language of the Rule should be amended to reflect a more sensible wording to encompass other conditions, to better inform candidates of conditions that might fall under the umbrella of the Rule, and also to give additional discretion to the EQE Secretariat.

The above goals were taken into consideration by the WG when drafting a revised version of Rule 17, which was presented to and discussed within PEC during their October 2024 meeting. We aim to have a decision taken by the EQE Supervisory Board in 3Q25 after proper consultation of the EQE Secretariat.

3. The D&I-related responses to the post-exam survey sent to all EQE candidates were provided to the D&I Working Group by the EQE Secretariat in anonymized form. The WG has analyzed the D&I-related responses.

A summary of our analysis of the responses from 2024 can be found at the end of this report, and includes a comparison with the 2023 responses. It is worth noting that, like in 2023, candidates do not generally seem to be aware of the provisions/existence of Rule 17 IPREE.

4. The WG contributed to the preparation of a series of podcasts on the topic “Mental Health and the patent profession”. Three episodesepi podcasts are available here: https://www.epi-learning.org/course/view.php?id=129 were released on 23 October, 6 November and 20 November 2024, featuring two seasoned representatives, Tarik KAPIC (CH) and Sally BANNAN (IE), as well as Penelope ASPINALL, a mental health consultant with Jonathan’s Voice (https://jonathansvoice.org.uk/).

5. The WG is in early stages of investigating whether a mentoring program focusing on D&I aspects can be established. Members are currently benchmarking existing mentoring programs. In this respect, the WG has recently been contacted by a young non-profit organization called ADAPT (https://www.adapt.legal/) which endeavors to promote DEI values inter alia through mentorship. The WG is going to investigate if and how collaboration with this organisation could be contemplated and be beneficial for epi.

Analysis of answers to D&I-related questions in 2024 EQE survey


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