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European rural development programmes are driving multi-actor interactive innovation initiatives and alliances to create an environment in which innovation acts as a tool for accelerating rural development processes. In Europe, where rural areas are facing many challenges, identifying which challenges, difficulties, obstacles or risk factors that interactive innovation projects have had to face in rural areas while being planned and set up would be interesting. The objective of this research work was to, therefore, identify and analyse the risk factors of 200 rural projects and initiatives that were selected as case studies from the whole of Europe.

The employed methodology consisted in conducting interviews to subsequently perform statistical independence analyses of the qualitative variables characterising the found projects and risk factors.

The findings indicated that most of the risks that rural projects and initiatives faced were related to the social domain which was, in turn, the fundamental pillar of interactive innovation. Dependence was found between social risk factors appearing and the innovation type carried out; the risk factors corresponding to the political–legal risks category and the project or initiative coordinating country; and the economic–technical risks category and the initiatives' geographic magnitude.

This paper exposes the main risks identified within various rural innovation initiatives and projects around Europe. For this purpose, a statistical analysis of independence was performed, allowing us to generate reliable and accurate results of the main risks associated with certain descriptive characteristics (coordinating region, domain, innovation type, gender balance and geographic magnitude) of the initiatives studied.

The purpose of this research is to illuminate the processes that give rise to gendered career pathways in Spanish academia, tracing how individuals might move from academic “passion” to academic “consecration” in a setting in which both visible and veiled discrimination persist. By examining academics' testimony, the paper aims to explore the production and reproduction of complex dynamics of power and gender inequalities through informal processes.

Qualitative study, drawing on semi‐structured interviews with 33 academics (16 female and 17 male) working in academic departments of psychology (17) and engineering (16) in three Madrid universities.

Although the percentage of professors in Spanish universities who are female is relatively high, compared to many European countries, this quantitative feminization does not appear to be associated with clear institutionalization of formal gender equality policies or the elimination of tacit discriminatory practices. Despite recent measures to reform the recruitment patterns in Spanish universities towards a more meritocratic model, the tradition of a sistema endogámico (an “inbreeding” system) persists, under which appointments are frequently made on the basis of internal (departmental) networks. This was found to operate to the disadvantage of women in both disciplines studied.

Despite the limitations inherent in a small‐scale study, this paper is likely to help not only to increase awareness of gender bias, but also to contribute to the reevaluation of the current university culture in Spain which, through its ostensibly gender‐neutral recruitment practices rooted in internal networks, constrains women's career opportunities.