Although promoting gender equality and inclusiveness is a priority of the European Union policies and programs, significant gender inequalities in Research and Innovation (R&I) remain (EC, 2021). In the EU27, women are still under-represented among researchers in the business sector (20.9%), among professors and senior-level staff in academia (26%) and in decision-making positions in higher education (24%). Various global crises, such as global conflicts, pandemics, climate change and anti-feminist movements, have worsened the situation of gender equality for these groups (Bazzul & Siry, 2019; Belser, 2020; Freire & Freire, 2004).

Gender equality is a significant discourse in the European Union and the different national academic systems. However, this concept is highly ambivalent and brings forth both discursive-institutional openings and closures for the identities of female academics (Gill, 2014; Philipps et al., 2022) as agents of change in universities (Wieners & Weber, 2020). Mainly, universities are addressed to implement gender equality measures. These measures are primarily discussed regarding the increase in the number of female academics and lesser in terms of organisational change and learning (cf. also Acker, 1990, 1992).

In this symposium, we address mentoring programmes for female academics and leaders through the overall question of how universities change and learn in and through mentoring programmes. Otherwise asked: How do organisations care for their female researchers and leaders in times of uncertainty marked by multiple crises?

Mentoring can be crucial in addressing the fragile pathways of female students, researchers and leaders within academia (Kaiser-Belz, 2008; Petersen et al., 2017). From an institutional perspective, mentoring programmes are long established in Germany and relatively new in Italy and Spain. At the same time, the mentoring practice in institutionalised mentoring is under-researched regarding the discursive-social mentoring practice and is, therefore, a "black box". Initial empirical findings point to exclusionary practices of 'out-advising' mentoring in relation to gender (Simpson et al., 2023; Wieners, 2022).

We question how organisations change and learn through mentoring programmes in four distinct papers. The first presentation focuses on transformative practices and resistance towards institutional innovation mentoring in Italian universities and research centres. The presentation will analyse mentoring practices in Italy, focusing on innovative approaches and tools as well as resistance to change. The second paper will present findings from an ongoing study on gender and sustainability in Green-Tec study programmes in Germany in light of climate change and how non-traditional students are supported to navigate their studies. In the third presentation, insights from the impact of the Ukrainian war on female leaders are shared, as well as how the HEIs care for their female managers through international cooperation with European partner universities during crisis times. Lastly, the fourth presentation will present a retention study on mentees/ female early career researchers, including deliberations on the pandemic and 'career progress' for mentees from different programs and different types of organisations in Germany.

As such, our panel addresses uncertainty as an external condition and to be situated and positioned in theories of the VUCA world (e.g. Bennett & Lemoine 2014), such as global conflicts, climate change and pandemics, as well as towards rationalities and practices of organising (Weick & Sutcliffe 2001), when addressing the question of how organisations care for uncertainty and change through mentoring practices for female academics and leaders.

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