20 years of CEWS stand for academic-based work for more gender equality in science and research. Data were and are needed where it is still disputed that monocultures on “all male panels” and isolated heroines in dominantly male research circles show quite clearly where “excellence” is lacking. However, CEWS’ knowledge is even more important in order to be able to provide for gender equality in a clever and differentiated way – and then actually make excellence in science and research possible.

Prof. Dr. Susanne Baer, LL.M., Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court of Germany and Professor of Law and Gender Studies at Humboldt-University zu Berlin

20 years of CEWS – I would like to congratulate the entire CEWS team and thank them for successfully continuing the work we started together 20 years ago. Even if the successes do not correspond to the extent of our efforts, serenity and satisfaction are the order of the day, no disappointment – we have made equal opportunities a strategic, moral and ethical imperative, an essential compass in politics, science and research. So – keep up the good work, CEWS has been indispensable so far – and will remain so for another 20 years!

Dr. Brigitte Mühlenbruch, founder of CEWS, Honorary President European Platform of Women Scientists EPWS, Brussels

A Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences is very well suited to intensively address a central issue of inequality in higher education: the question of gender equality in science and research. CEWS has been doing so in an excellent way for 20 years. This is something I have been experiencing again and again in our daily exchanges. Continue to be committed, persistent, critical, creative, evidence-based, reliable and value-oriented. Then, step by step and thanks to your work, we will continue to come closer to the goal of gender equality in science and research.

Prof. Dr. Reinhard Pollak, head of department Data and Research on Society at GESIS – Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences

I wish the CEWS team the recognition it deserves and continued support for its excellent work. By pushing current issues and continuously generating and providing relevant information and data, CEWS experts enrich gender-related research in higher education and science as well as gender equality work in higher education. Good that you are here!

Dr. Sandra Beaufaÿs, coordination and research at Women’s and Gender Studies Network NRW

I value CEWS as an indispensable consultant and source of inspiration for higher education and research institutions. Its research-based and evidence-based monitoring of gender equality policies and measures has set standards over the past 20 years and includes intersectional as well as international perspectives. For the future, I hope for CEWS and the higher education community that many changes and transformation processes will be initiated from there.

Prof. Dr. Andrea Dorothea Bührmann, vice president of Georg-August-Universität Göttingen

As one of the first women of CEWS, I congratulate the whole CEWS team on their successful work! 20 years are not only an occasion for congratulations, but also for thanks! Thank you for your persistent, often arduous, always highly committed, sound and professional work! Thanks also for the years we spent together. Carry on as before, dear CEWS team, there is still much to do: with time and against discrimination in higher education, science and research. Your work is indispensable!

Prof. Dr. Inken Lind, TH Köln, professorship for psychology & director of the Institute of Gender Studies

20 years of CEWS: a small step in history, a giant leap for female scientists. You are super – stay as you are!

Dr. Sybille Krummacher, retired physicist and founding member of CEWS 2000-2002

Congratulations on 20 years of excellent work and the important role you have taken on the European gender equality scene. I appreciate our cooperation and hope for a strong partnership in the future.

Linda Marie Rustad, director of Kilden genderresearch.no Norway

I am proud to have been a part of this important and impressive work for several years. Unfortunately, it is not yet superfluous – on the contrary. Keep up the good perseverance, a portion of calmness here and there and a lot of team spirit!

Isabel Kassel (née Beuter), head of the office of the presidential board of the Hannover University of Applied Sciences and Arts, CEWS team member 2002-2008

20 years of CEWS – thank you for your tireless and successful work in the name of gender equality in higher education! I wish the team a lot of energy for the future. For there is still a lot to be done beyond “head-counting”: It is all about nothing less than a new culture in higher education, which encompasses gender equality and diversity!

Prof. Dr. Ute Klammer, director of the Institute for Work, Skills and Training (IAQ), University of Duisburg-Essen

Over the past 20 years, the Center of Excellence Women and Science (CEWS) has beneficially pushed higher education and gender equality policies. We value CEWS as an important cooperation partner and would like to thank the team for 20 years of innovative research, competent advice and reliable networking. bukof would like to congratulate CEWS on its anniversary!

Board of the Federal Conference of Gender Equality Officers in Higher Education in Germany

I hope that CEWS continues to show its courage to speak up regarding gender equality policy in higher education and that it contributes to putting the important and also uncomfortable issues on the gender equality policy agenda.

Dr. Lina Vollmer, Department Gender & Equality Management, University of Cologne

Diversity, equal opportunities and respectful interaction – a great benefit for science and research, too, but to this day not self-evident. Thank you to CEWS for its dedicated commitment and congratulations on 20 years of successful work!

Prof. Dr. York Sure-Vetter, director National Research Data Infrastructure

Congratulations to the CEWS team and many thanks for the comprehensive data, facts and information that the experts have compiled over the past 20 years again and again. CEWS has thus provided important impulses for a gender-sensitive and diversity-sensitive culture in higher education. I wish the CEWS team endurance for the next 20 years as well!

Prof. Dr. Carmen Leicht-Scholten, head of the institute GDI – Gender and Diversity in Engineering & director RRI HUB, RWTH Aachen University

20 years of CEWS: Thank you for a time of successful cooperation, intensive discussions and enriching exchanges. CEWS is and remains an essential voice for gender equality in higher education!

Dr. Christiane Kling-Mathey, spokeswoman of the German Science Council

The Women’s and Gender Studies Network NRW appreciates CEWS’ high expertise – it is as necessary as it is supportive. Thank you for the excellent knowledge transfer regarding gender relations in higher education and also for the initiatives and energies emanating from CEWS!

Dr. Beate Kortendiek, coordinator of Women’s and Gender Studies Network NRW 

Congratulations CEWS! Congratulations on 20 years of well-founded, interdisciplinary and politically highly relevant work! Carry on like this!

Dr. Birgitta Wrede, Interdisciplinary Center for Gender Research (IZG), Bielefeld University

Over the course of 20 years, CEWS has – successfully – tackled difficult tasks! CEWS has provided the higher education community with a (data) basis for gender equality in higher education ... and you provided us at the universities with arguments so we can advance our gender equality work. Thank you very much for the great work you have done at Ruhr-Universität. And of course: Congratulations!

Prof. Dr. Katja Sabisch, dean of the Faculty of Social Sciences at Ruhr-Universität Bochum, spokeswoman of MaJaC [Marie Jahoda Center for International Gender Studies, RUB] & Women’s and Gender Studies Network NRW 

I congratulate CEWS on its 20th anniversary. It is no coincidence that CEWS has become an indispensable part of the higher education landscape with its work on gender equality over the past 20 years: Through the unique combination of research and transfer, the Center of Excellence makes a significant contribution to the implementation of gender equality in the higher education system. It has also made a name for itself as a future driver for all issues in the field of policies regarding higher education and gender equality. Carry on like this!

Prof. Dr. Birgit Riegraf, president of Paderborn University

Congratulations on CEWS’ 20th anniversary. Situated at the intersection of transfer between science and research as well as gender equality policy, CEWS has a decisive effect in both directions. A heartfelt thank you for your competent, committed work for intersectionally informed and oriented gender equality – and here’s to further cooperation!

Prof. Dr. Susanne Völker, GeStiK (Gender Studies in Cologne) - central scientific institution at the University of Cologne

20 years of CEWS’ persistent and excellent work for gender equality issues in higher education policy, science and research made a big difference. I would like to congratulate all team members who have contributed to this. Over the years, I have benefited enormously from the broad range of information, the excellent studies, the statistics and I enjoyed our working together. For the next 20 years, I wish the team continued success, broad support and the necessary perseverance for the coming challenges.

Maya Widmer, GEMO Widmer, former head of gender equality in research funding at the Swiss National Science Foundation SNSF

Congratulations on 20 years of active support towards making our universities more diverse and thus simply better – and all this with tools of science based on evidence, numbers, data and facts. Self-application and self-reflection are usually a good way to improve quality – may CEWS continue to support the higher education system so expertly in its further development over the next 20 years.

Prof. Dr. Ada Pellert, rector of FernUniversität in Hagen

20 years of CEWS: Congratulations and thanks for your good work based on data and knowledge in the field of gender equality policy, which is still important – also in higher education institutions – considering, for example, the gender pay gap in professorships. I wish the CEWS team continued success and the necessary support!

Birgit Ufermann, lawyer in the German Association of University Professors and Lecturers

Congratulations, dear CEWS team, on 20 years of successful work! I’d like to thank you for the excellent cooperation within the research and training network “Language, Cognition, & Gender”, funded by the European Commission! All the best for your current and future activities!

Prof. Dr. Sabine Sczesny, professor of social psychology, University of Bern

For 20 years, the excellent expertise and initiatives of CEWS on gender and science have been indispensable in European collaborative actions that aim to make academia and the European research landscape more fair, more equal and diverse. Warmest congratulations! Looking forward to our future collaborations on research, policy and practice!

Liisa Husu, professor, Gender Studies, Örebro University, Sweden & moderator of the European Network on Gender Equality in Higher Education

I am sending Very Big Congratulations to all at CEWS for your great work, over the last 20 years, in and for the field of gender, science and science policy, in all its complexity, looking forward to more over the next 20 years, and thanking you for our cooperation and collaboration.

Jeff Hearn, professor emeritus, Management and Organisation, Hanken School of Economics, Finland & senior professor, Gender Studies, Örebro University, Sweden

Congratulations on the first 20 years of Center of Excellence Women and Science (CEWS) and lots of energy for the next 20 years! There is still much to do. Not only in Germany – so thank you very much for the exchange and cooperation over the past years. I am looking forward to more of it!

Dr. Angela Wroblewski, Institute for Advanced Studies, Vienna

The path from the very idea to institutional anchoring was long and not always straightforward. But it has been worthwhile to follow it. CEWS has developed into an indispensable constant in higher education research from a gender equality policy perspective. Creative in generating new questions, with a keen sense for the information needs of politics and practice, methodologically extremely sound, and well-versed in knowledge transfer. My verdict: expectations exceeded! My wish: Do not let up on replacing assumptions with facts. Congratulations on your twentieth anniversary.

Dr. Anke Burkhardt, Institute for Higher Education Research Halle-Wittenberg, member of the consortium for the National Report on Junior Scholars (BuWiN)

The Alliance of Gender Equality Officers of Non-University Research Organisations (AGbaF) congratulates CEWS on its 20th anniversary. We would like to thank CEWS for supporting the non-university research organisations by providing a wide range of suggestions, exciting discussions and, above all, by making sound data available. CEWS’ work is an essential component on the way to implementing equal opportunities in the German scientific system!

Dr. Ulla Weber, spokesperson of the Alliance of Gender Equality Officers of Non-University Research Organisations (AGbaF)

Congratulations and thanks to the CEWS team! After its integration into GESIS, a project funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research has become an indispensable part of the scientific landscape with a high reputation in political consulting, universities and research institutions through continuous professionalism and commitment. The impact of CEWS' work also proves: the pursuit of equal opportunities in science and research requires professional and sustainably secured structures. Wishing you continued success!

Christina Hadulla-Kuhlmann, head of “Equal Opportunities and Diversity in Academia and Research” at Germany’s Federal Ministry of Education and Research

20 years of CEWS – that is an impressive and important anniversary. CEWS’ research results are an indispensable basis for consulting work with scientists and scientific organizations. Because they reveal the structural causes that continue to lead to discrimination in the scientific system. You at CEWS encourage us to continue our work for diversity and equal opportunities. Congratulations and a huge thank you for your commitment and your clear voice.

Dr. Ute Symanski, higher education consultant and coach, Hochschulcoaching – Beratung für Hochschulentwicklung

TOTAL E-QUALITY Deutschland e. V. would like to congratulate CEWS on its 20th anniversary and express its sincere thanks for the many years of trusting and constantly competent advice to scientific institutions in their application process for the TOTAL E-QUALITY award for equal opportunities and diversity. With its work, CEWS contributes significantly to the implementation of equal opportunities in science and research. We wish CEWS continued success and are looking forward to further cooperation.

Eva Maria Roer, CEO of TOTAL E-QUALITY Deutschland e. V.