European Platform of Women Scientists

Newsletter
Register for Newsletter

Annual Conference of the European Platform of Women Scientists

“Women in Present and Future European Research”

Brussels, Belgium, 10-11 June 2010

The European Platform of Women Scientists EPWS held its Annual Conference “Women in Present and Future European Research”, in Brussels, Belgium, from 10-11 June 2010, in the Royal Belgian Museum of Natural Sciences.

The aim of the Conference was to report on recent and current projects from across Europe to improve the gender balance in science. A number of important European projects supported by DG Research under the 7. Framework Programme, tackling the issue of gender balance in science were presented as well as projects encouraging girls into science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

The Conference was attended by about 60 representatives of European organizations of women scientists from 13 countries from all over Europe.

The keynote lecture was given by Luisa Prista, Head of the Unit Scientific Culture and Gender Issues, DG Research, “New Developments in the European Research Area ERA for Women in Science”. The projects presented were e. g. PRAGES, genSET, MASIS, HELENA, GENDERA, UNICAFE, DIVERSITY, JUNO and many more.

It was a lively market place of networks, ideas and partnerships. The participants had the opportunity to present their work both through participating in discussion sessions and through a poster exhibition highlighting their activities related to the Conference topics.

Latest News

For the latest updated information visit our News Page, follow us on Twitter, or subscribe to our RSS

EPWS General Assembly and Conference 2010

The European Platform of Women Scientists will hold its General Assembly and Annual Conference:

Women in Present and Future European Research

in Brussels, Belgium, on 10-11 June 2010.

For the development of a knowledge-based society, Europe needs leading-edge science and scientists and European research needs to reach all its potential contributors. This is especially important with regard to women scientists - given the substantial gender imbalance in science, where women represent more than half of the students’ population, but hold on average only 18% of senior academic positions (She Figures 2009).

A number of recent and current European projects supported by DG Research under the 7th Framework Programme (FP7) are tackling the issue of gender balance in science, starting from the point of view that a better balance between men and women will only be achieved through a structural change inside science and its institutions.

“We will know that ERA is a shared responsibility [between science, policy and society] in 2030 when we see…half of all scientists and research policy makers, across all disciplines and at all levels of the Science system, are women.”

(Preparing Europe for a New Renaissance, A Strategic View of the European Research Area, First Report of European Research Area Board, 2009, p. 18)

EPWS welcomes the invitation of the European Commission to comment on the EU 2020 Strategy, a public document intended to give the EU economy a brighter future. The consultation text seems to suggest that the only objective of the European Union is economic growth. However, this goal needs to be embedded in the political goal of building a European Union between nations striving for social integration, political coherence, equal opportunities, peace, education, societal progress, i.e. values oriented towards its citizens.

From the research community's point of view, EU political decisions and objectives should more clearly take scientific analyses into account to enable a better predictability of their consequences. Also, the Union's science policy objectives and the EU scientific programmes should maintain enough continuity so that scientists may be able to more reliably base their work on the topics funded throughout time to achieve more in depth results. Otherwise achievements might be incomplete and the overall situation frustrating.