Gender Equality Audit and Monitoring

What Gender Equality Audit and Monitoring does

Gender Equality Audit and Monitoring (GEAM) is a free, open-source online survey framework purpose-built for collecting comparable gender-equality data inside universities and research performing organisations across Europe. Its core products are two dedicated questionnaires — a 74-item Employee instrument (v3.0) and a 57-item Student instrument (v1.0) — hosted on the LimeSurvey open-source platform and operated by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya (UOC) under the EU-funded INSPIRE Centre of Excellence. The system is modular and customisable, supports data export in CSV, SPSS, Excel, and R formats, and ships with extensive documentation including a GEAM Manual and a Statistical Analysis for Inclusive Gender Equality handbook containing R source code for descriptive statistics, regression, longitudinal comparison, and intersectional MAIHDA analysis.

The technology stack is intentionally low-friction: LimeSurvey on a private virtual server managed by CDmon in a Spanish data centre, with Quarto/R-based documentation and reporting templates hosted on GitHub. The tool is available in 15+ European languages, and a LimeSurvey Archive (.lss) file enables self-installation on any LimeSurvey instance, giving organisations full data ownership. As of the input data, GEAM has been used by more than 50 universities and research centres and has generated over 10,000 survey responses.

Commercially, GEAM is not a revenue-generating business. It is a non-profit, grant-funded academic instrument: the tool is offered at no cost, with hosting and questionnaire setup provided free by UOC in the context of the INSPIRE project (Horizon Europe Grant Agreement No 101058537). Initial development occurred under the H2020 ACT Project (2018–2021). Go-to-market is community-led and policy-driven — adoption follows Horizon Europe Gender Equality Plan mandates, INSPIRE/ACT consortium dissemination, practitioner referrals, and open-source contributions — rather than any sales motion. There are no paid tiers, no customers in the commercial sense, and no headcount disclosed.

Name

Gender Equality Audit and Monitoring

Legal name

Gender Equality Audit and Monitoring

Website

https://geamtool.eu

Company type

Private

Founded year

2020

Operating status

Operating

Short description

Gender Equality Audit and Monitoring (GEAM) is a free, open-source online survey framework, built on LimeSurvey, that helps European universities and research centres collect comparable data on gender equality among employees and students, with documentation and R-based analysis tools, funded by Horizon Europe and hosted by Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Gender Equality Survey Software

NAICS

Marketing Research and Public Opinion Polling (541910), Computing Infrastructure Providers, Data Processing, Web Hosting, and Related Services (5182)

SIC

Services-Prepackaged Software (7372), Services-Computer Programming, Data Processing, Etc. (7370)

akta.pro primary industry

Open Assessments & Question Banks (OER-aligned) (EDAGAJAD)

akta.pro secondary industry

Psychometric Test Publishing & Norming / Validation Services (BPACAMAG)

Keywords

• Gender equality surveys
• Equality data collection
• Survey questionnaire framework
• Diversity inclusion audit
• Research organization analytics

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Personnel, Technology or R&D, Operations

Revenue model

1. Free survey service (no-cost to users): The GEAM tool is provided at no cost to organisations. In the context of the INSPIRE project, the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya offers a free survey hosting service including questionnaire setup for up to six months per survey cycle. The tool is fully open source; there is no commercial revenue generation.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels4 records

Core offering

Gender Equality Audit and Monitoring (GEAM) provides a free, open-source online survey framework hosted on LimeSurvey that enables universities and research-performing organisations to collect standardised, comparable data on gender equality among employees and students. The offering includes two validated questionnaires (Employee and Student), a Statistical Analysis Handbook with R/Quarto notebooks, and a hosted survey service, all made available at no cost to adopting institutions.

Product overview

The GEAM (Gender Equality Audit and Monitoring) tool is an online survey framework for collecting reliable data on inclusive gender equality in organisations. It consists of two dedicated questionnaires (GEAM Employee for staff and GEAM Student for students), comprehensive documentation (GEAM Manual and Statistical Analysis Handbook), a free survey hosting service, and R-based reporting templates. The system uses the LimeSurvey platform and has been translated into 15+ languages. Used by more than 50 universities and research centres across Europe, generating over 10,000 responses.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• GEAM Employee Questionnaire Standardised online questionnaire for collecting gender equality data from employees at universities and research centres; deployed through the hosted LimeSurvey service.
• GEAM Student Questionnaire Standardised online questionnaire for collecting gender equality data from students at universities and research centres; deployed through the hosted LimeSurvey service.
• GEAM Hosted Survey Service Free hosted LimeSurvey environment operated by GEAM that adopting organisations can request to deploy the Employee and Student questionnaires.
• GEAM Statistical Analysis Handbook Open R/Quarto-based handbook that provides reproducible statistical analysis notebooks for GEAM survey data, using the MAIHDA intersectional analysis approach.

Quantifiable outcome

• 50+ universities and research centres across Europe have used the GEAM tool
• +3 more outcomes

Named customers1 record

Segments4 records

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration3 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Nine partnerships are on record, tiered core, major and minor.

• INSPIRE Centre of Excellence for Inclusive Gender Equality in R&IcoreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2022The INSPIRE Centre of Excellence (2022-2026), funded by Horizon Europe (Grant Agreement No 101058537), is the primary funder and developer of the third and revised version of GEAM (Employee v3 and Student v1). INSPIRE coordinates the European Centre of Excellence for inclusive gender equality in research and innovation, hosting and maintaining the GEAM tool at the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.
• H2020 ACT Project (Communities of PrACTice for Accelerating Gender Equality)coreStrategic or Co-development Partner · 1 January 2018The ACT Project (2018-2021), funded under H2020, developed the initial version of the GEAM tool targeting employees in research performing organisations. The ACT consortium collaborated on the questionnaire design and validation, establishing the foundational instrument that was subsequently extended under INSPIRE.
• AdvanceHE (UK)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerAdvanceHE (UK) contributed to the development of GEAM Employees version 2, specifically on questionnaire design and validation for UK higher education contexts. Contributors: Amanda Aldercotte and Kevin Guyan.
• Notus (Spain)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerNotus (Spain) contributed to the development of GEAM Employees version 2 and version 3, as well as GEAM Student version 1. Contributors: Maria Caprile and Dalia Argudo. Also authored the Statistical Analysis for Inclusive Gender Equality handbook.
• Jagiellonian University (Poland)majorStrategic or Co-development PartnerJagiellonian University (Poland), Institute of Sociology, contributed to GEAM Employees version 2 and version 3 development. Contributors: Ewa Krzaklewska and Paulina Sekula. Ewa Krzaklewska also co-authored the Statistical Analysis handbook.
• Municipality of BresciaminorStrategic or Co-development PartnerThe Municipality of Brescia conducted a GEAM survey and provided access to their data for the elaboration of the Statistical Analysis for Inclusive Gender Equality handbook, serving as a real-world case study for the analysis examples.
• IBEC (Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerKatherine Palomino Carrillo from IBEC (Institute for Bioengineering of Catalonia) conducted a GEAM survey and provided data access for the Statistical Analysis handbook, contributing real-world case study data for the analysis examples.
• LimeSurvey GmbHcoreTechnology or IntegrationLimeSurvey is the underlying open-source survey platform used to host and run the GEAM questionnaire. The GEAM is built on and distributed through LimeSurvey, with all surveys running on the LimeSurvey installation managed by the Universitat Oberta de Catalunya.
• Multiple European universities (translation contributors)minorStrategic or Co-development PartnerResearchers from multiple European universities contributed translations of the GEAM questionnaire into 15+ languages including: Ana Petronilho (Universidade Nova de Lisboa, Portugal), Kathrin Rabsch (TU Berlin, Germany), Aurelija Novelskaite (Vilnius University, Lithuania), Tetiana Median (Chernivtsi National University, Ukraine), Ana Hofman and Jovana Mihajlović (Research Centre of the Slovenian Academy of Sciences and Arts), Blas Fernandez (FLACSO Argentina), Florian Beauvallet and Anne-Sophie Godfroy (Université Paris-Est Créteil and ENS-PSL), Areti Damala (CNRS), Colette Guillopé (Université Paris-Est Créteil and Femmes et Sciences), Natasha Sega (SmartVenice Italy), Natalina Stamile (University of Brescia), Leonidas Antoniou (Cyprus), Antria Karaoli and Petroula Mavrikiou (Frederick University Cyprus), Jarmila Lancošová (Czech Academy of Sciences), Alisa Petroff (UOC) and Ana Tamas (Babes-Bolyai University Romania), Balsa Delibasic (University of Belgrade), Amina Katica (University Sarajevo School of Science and Technology), Mary Lou O'Neil and Selma Değirmenci (Kadir Has University Turkey), Adam Molnar (Bay Zoltan Nonprofit Ltd. Hungary).

Scale indicators5 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Broad incumbents

• Qualtrics: Enterprise survey and experience-management platform that universities use for staff and student surveys, including diversity and inclusion research. Qualtrics is comparable as a general-purpose alternative institutions could use to collect similar gender equality data, though it is commercial and not specifically validated for EDI audits.
• SurveyMonkey: Widely adopted consumer and enterprise online survey platform. Comparable as an alternative, non-specialised tool institutions could deploy for gender equality audits, though it lacks the validated questionnaire content and EDI-specific analysis infrastructure that GEAM provides.
• EIGE Gender Equality Index: The European Institute for Gender Equality's benchmarking instrument for gender equality across EU member states. Comparable as a reference framework that institutional equality work aligns to, though EIGE operates at the member-state policy level rather than the institutional survey level.

Emerging players

• GENDER-NET Plus: ERA-NET consortium funding transnational research on gender equality in research and innovation. Comparable as a parallel Horizon Europe-funded initiative operating in the same EU policy domain and community of institutional equality practitioners as GEAM.
• Stanford/West Coast EDI Climate Surveys (e.g., COACHE): Higher education faculty and workplace climate survey instruments used for institutional EDI assessments. Comparable in use case (academic staff climate data collection for institutional change), though primarily North American in deployment and not specifically aligned to EU GEP requirements.

Direct peers

• LimeSurvey: The open-source survey platform on which GEAM is built and distributed. LimeSurvey is comparable because GEAM's product offering is essentially a LimeSurvey configuration plus questionnaire content, and any organisation could in principle build a similar instrument on LimeSurvey without GEAM.
• UniSafe: EU-funded survey instrument for measuring gender-based violence and sexual harassment in higher education. UniSafe is directly comparable because GEAM explicitly aligns its updated harassment modules with the UniSafe questionnaire, and both serve the same European university audience for EDI data collection.
• Advance HE Athena Swan: UK and Ireland gender equality charter and accreditation framework for higher education. Comparable because Athena Swan drives overlapping institutional data-collection and self-assessment workflows that GEAM also serves, and GEAM v2 was developed with AdvanceHE input for UK contexts.
• GenPORT: EU-funded online portal for gender equality in research and innovation resources, run by an EU consortium. Comparable because GenPORT aggregates and disseminates similar gender-in-R&I tools and practices, and partly overlaps the same practitioner audience and Horizon Europe policy ecosystem as GEAM.

Others

• European Commission DG RTD Gender Equality in R&I: The European Commission's policy unit responsible for the GEP requirements that drive GEAM adoption. Comparable as the policy counterpart that defines the institutional compliance workflow GEAM serves, rather than a direct product competitor.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• GitHubgithub.com/InspireQualityeu/geam-analysis-book

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles3 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Gender Equality Audit and Monitoring