Key Points

• This Gender Equity Plan (GEP) is a public document.

• The aim of this GEP is to formally acknowledge MyoLink’s unwavering commitment to gender equality, both internally as an employer and externally as a medical device developer.

• MyoLink supports clear, transparent, and GDPR-compliant data collection in all processes related to internal staff recruitment, engineering team composition, and clinical trial participant demographics.

• MyoLink promotes awareness and capacity-building among its staff and clinical partners regarding gender bias in AI, inclusive design, and workplace equality.

Main Objectives

MyoLink’s GEP focuses on five specific thematic areas:

1. Work-life balance and organisational culture

2. Gender balance in leadership and decision-making

3. Gender equality in recruitment and career progression

4. Integrating the gender dimension into research and product design

5. Measures against gender-based violence, including sexual harassment

For the full achievement of gender equality in deep-tech and R&I, both a bottom-up and a top-down approach are necessary. All areas are of equal importance for MyoLink and represent core company priorities.

1. Work-Life Balance and Organisational Culture

Incorporating gender-related issues into internal procedures

• Why? Internal procedures govern the daily operations of MyoLink. Clear, well-written, and inclusive procedures support transparency, accountability, and a healthy work environment for all genders.

• Goals: To provide institutional recognition of the non-discrimination principle and support employees managing family or caregiving responsibilities.

• How? Reviewing the Ethics Code and HR policies to ensure language is inclusive and accommodating. Providing the institutional GEP to newly recruited staff as part of their onboarding pack.

• Promoting flexible work: Reaching a balance between work and personal life leads to significant improvements in productivity, lower burnout risk, and greater well-being. MyoLink supports a hybrid working model, establishing clear remote-working procedures for software, data, and administrative staff to accommodate varying personal and family needs.

2. Gender Balance in Leadership and Decision-Making

Fostering diverse leadership in a deep-tech environment

• Why? The med-tech and engineering sectors traditionally suffer from a lack of female representation at the executive and board levels.

• Goals: To ensure that decision-making bodies within MyoLink (management, scientific advisory boards, and clinical steering committees) strive for equitable gender representation.

• How? By actively seeking diverse candidates when expanding the management team or advisory boards. Furthermore, MyoLink will track and internally report on the gender distribution within its leadership and strategic partnerships.

3. Gender Equality in Recruitment and Career Progression

Establishing unbiased and transparent progression paths

• Why? Collecting data on gender distribution helps leadership reflect on hiring processes and ensure equitable career progression for all engineering, clinical, and operational staff.

• Goals: Establishing clear, unbiased, and transparent objectives for recruitment and promotion to remove systemic barriers to advancement.

• How? 

  • Developing an internal HR monitoring tool to track gender-related data across different staff categories and seniority levels.

  • Ensuring job descriptions use gender-neutral language and prioritize competency-based assessments to reduce unconscious bias during the interview process.

  • Establishing standardized criteria for role progression, performance evaluations, and financial rewards.

4. Integrating the Gender Dimension into Research Content & Product Design

(Note: As a deep-tech medical device developer, MyoLink explicitly addresses gender dimensions in hardware design, AI algorithms, and clinical validation).

Ensuring Inclusive Design

• Why? Medical devices and AI models trained exclusively on male-dominated datasets can lead to lower efficacy and safety risks for female patients. Furthermore, wearable hardware must account for potential anatomical differences.

• Goals: To ensure the SYNEMG system is safe, comfortable, and highly effective for all genders.

• How?

  • AI & Dataset Integrity (EU AI Act Alignment): MyoLink actively monitors its EMG datasets to ensure sex-disaggregated data representation. Models are trained and validated to prevent gender bias stemming from physiological differences in muscle mass, subcutaneous fat distribution, or motor control strategies.

  • Inclusive Hardware: Ensuring that the textile sleeve interface are developed in multiple sizes and ergonomic configurations to accommodate the anatomical variations between male and female limbs when needed.

  • Clinical Validation: In pilot studies, MyoLink mandates the tracking of sex-disaggregated data. We actively work with clinical partners to recruit a gender-balanced cohort of patients to ensure clinical efficacy and usability are validated across the whole population.

5. Measures Against Gender-Based Violence, Bullying, and Harassment

Adopting zero-tolerance policies and reporting frameworks

• Why? Gender-based violence, bullying, and harassment (including sexual harassment) are complex issues that create toxic environments and severely harm individuals and teams.

• Goals: Maintaining a safe, respectful, and strictly professional environment across MyoLink’s offices, partner clinical sites, and stakeholder networks.

• How?

  • Updating the internal code of conduct to include clear definitions of gender-based violence, bullying, mobbing, and sexual harassment.

  • The CEO is required to ensure that all staff and collaborating institutions are aware of MyoLink’s zero-tolerance policy.

  • Establishing a secure, confidential reporting mechanism. All episodes must be reported to the Management Board (or an independent external advisor if management is implicated), which is responsible for immediately remedying the situation and establishing formal disciplinary actions.

Monitoring and Accountability

MyoLink understands the importance of continuous monitoring to assess whether positive changes are taking place as a result of these policies. We will conduct an annual review of the GEP’s indicators to ensure effective implementation, maintain legitimacy, and guarantee strict accountability to our staff, partners, and the patients we serve.