INIA logo Intersex – New Interdisciplinary Approaches (INIA)

This prestigious project has received funding from the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme grant agreement No 859869.

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Intersex people’s healthcare, social and human rights issues are often overlooked. They continue to face exposure to multiple forms of human rights violations and discrimination, requiring cross-sectoral policy responses in fields including healthcare, education, and the law.

The INIA Consortium aims to develop knowledge that will support the wellbeing and rights of intersex people and those who do not identify as intersex but have some variations of sex characteristics (hereafter: intersex people/people with variations of sex characteristics).

INIA will train a cohort of 10 early stage researchers working collaboratively to develop knowledge that will inform policy making and practice across a range of key sectors. It is being established by the University of Huddersfield, the Université Libre de Bruxelles, Dublin City University, the University of Zurich, the Escuela Andaluza de Salud Pública / Andalusian School of Public Health and the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in collaboration with intersex activists and advocates, clinicians, and other specialists. It will enable 21 organisations from more than 10 countries to work together on issues relating to intersex people / people with variations of sex characteristics, in a unique multidisciplinary and transectoral network. The Consortium includes international experts from a wide range of countries across the globe. The INIA work-package themes are shared across the main partners and the INIA projects, and they include:

  • The life experiences of intersex people/people with variations of sex characteristics
  • Service provision to intersex people/people with variations of sex characteristics and their families
  • The legal aspects of intersex and variation of sex characteristics
  • Critical approaches to social policy and intersex/variations of sex characteristics
The INIA project started on 1 March 2020 and will run for 48 months.

We will be hiring 10 Early Stage Researchers (who will become PhD students) across the whole consortium. We will provide a pioneering multi-disciplinary, multiagency international training environment which will prepare the Early Stage Researchers for future careers in academia, NGOs, policy making, or service provision. Brief details about the PhD projects are available on the PhD project tab. Each Early Stage Researcher will benefit from 2-3 secondments to other countries which will be hosted by NGOs, healthcare providers, and/or Universities. 'Some vacancies have now closed. Posts 6-7 are still open for applications (until 30 April). The 3 Spanish vacancies will be recruiting as soon as possible, given the Covid situation. Where possible the Early Stage Researchers will start their posts in September 2020, but we anticipate that some will start later.

For any questions about the INIA programme please email s.monro@hud.ac.uk.