GARCIA is concerned with the implementation of actions in European Universities and research centres to promote a gender culture and combat gender stereotypes and discriminations. By taking into account the organisations, but also their broader national context, this project aims to develop and maintain research potential and skills of both, women and men researchers, in order to sustain the quality of their working conditions.Particular attention will be given to the early stages of academic and scientific career, which have been little considered in previous gender equality plans. In fact, the economic crisis has influenced the organisation and culture of research institutions. The new practices have entailed less permanent positions based on project length contracts, affecting mostly C and D grades. Not tenured researchers are thus left with unstable career perspectives at a life stage in which important choices are made in private life, particularly for women. Moreover, creativity and autonomy - fundamental conditions to achieve original and meaningful research - are necessarily affected by the high instability of their professional life.We will concentrate on both, STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) and SSH (Social Sciences and Humanities) disciplines to assure that our aim of transforming academia and research towards a more gender equal environment can be extended to all levels of the institution by putting into practice the best systemic organisational approaches. Macro, meso and micro level analyses will be followed by the implementation of action plans, which are mainly directed to: gender regimes; awareness raising on gendered practices; gender equality in management and decision making; the phenomenon of Leaky Pipeline; the implicit gendered subtexts in evaluating “excellence” in recruitment and selection processes. The implemented actions will have positive outcomes and an impact – even in the long term – on all these issues.