As a "transformation organisation" with roots in the experimental traditions of the arts, culture, and technology,  K8 approaches questions of innovation through collaborative engagements with environmental, social and economic transformation. K8 focuses on cross-sector involvement in processes of change in our region (the Saarland shares borders with France and Luxembourg) that aim to create new collective action institutions and re-imagine the co-creation of value.

At the centre of all transformation processes are people acting individually and collectively. Working both within and beyond the creative sector, diversity has been a core tenet of our work: for creative work to thrive, generate a wide range of impacts, and sustain its practitioners in the fullest sense of the term, diversity is key.

Matters of equality and diversity on the level of hires, methods, and project management are subject to collaborative analysis by the core team in bi-annual organisational development sessions. As a small research institute with few full-time permanent staff members, K8 depends on the commitment of its core team to co-create and sustain a culture of collaboration that reflects and critically reassesses the lived reality of shared values on gender equality, diversity, and inclusion.

With this Gender Equality Plan, the leadership of K8 commits to systematically addressing gender equality with appropriate evaluation and feedback processes at every level. In the plan, you will find an overview of the work already undertaken alongside planned actions to fully incorporate the gender equality perspective in our current and future work.