In December 2015, an UNESCO resolution established February 11th as the International Day of Women and Girls in Science to recognize the critical role played by women and girls in science and technology. According to data from this international body, less than 30% of scientific researchers in the world are women, despite the fact that science and gender equality are fundamental. Successfully tackling the challenges of the Sustainable Development Agenda will depend on harnessing all talents. That means getting more women into these fields.

Photo: UNICEF Photo/UN0145554/Karin Schermbrucker

Only 17 women have won the Nobel Prize in physics, chemistry or medicine since Marie Curie won it in 1903, compared to 572 men. Therefore, this commemoration serves to remember the fundamental role that women and girls play in science with the aim of promoting their full and equitable participation.

The engine of change begins with education. This year, 29.2% of women have enrolled at the Technical University of Catalonia (UPC · BarcelonaTech), a figure still far from parity, but showing a slight increase, 5% more than in the 2016-2017 academic year. In 2019, the UPC · BarcelonaTech, which concentrates 80% of STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths) training launched the Here Steam! initiative to promote scientific vocations among high school girls.

"Gairebé un 30% d'alumnes d'enginyeria són dones" retall d'avui de @LaVanguardia pic.twitter.com/XfB3NquNnU

— Asinca (@ASINCA_cat) November 26, 2020

From CIMNE we want to commemorate this day by giving visibility to four projects led by some of our female researchers. Much work remains to be done to achieve parity in research and bring in new perspectives, talents, and creatives, but the momentum we have taken is unstoppable.

Four CIMNE research projects lead by women

Lucía Barbu Fatigue4Light Since the beginning of this month, Lucía is leading the European Project Fatigue4Light, which consists of the study of advanced materials for chassis weight reduction. > Read more <	Anna Ramon ANHY_RISK Anna Ramon, a member of Geomechanics group at CIMNE, leads ANHY_RISK since September 2019. The project is about risk prediction and safe design in anhydritic rocks.  > Read more <
África Marrero LASH FIRE Marrero’s research areas include computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and sustainable ports and ship emissions. Since September 2019, she is the principal investigator of LASH FIRE at CIMNE.  > Read more <	Eglantina Dani EnerNETMob Eglantina Dani the co-leader of the European project EnerNETMob: Mediterranean Interregional Electromobility Networks for intermodal and interurban low carbon transport systems at CIMNE. > Read more <

Go to #11F2021 Special Newsletter

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🔔 Some figures about the state-of-art of women in science. Source: @gencat #11F2021 #WomenInScienceDay #WomenInSTEM #DiaDonesiCiencia
📝La presència de les dones en l'àmbit científic és menor en les categories superiors de la carrera professional https://t.co/fcgbzfKZso

— CIMNE (@cimne) February 11, 2021

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