On February 7th, the International Centre for Numerical Methods in Engineering, CIMNE, celebrated the International Day of Women and Girls in Science through a special event held at centre headquarters in the UPC Campus Nord.

This event started the “Women Researchers Lecture Series”, that CIMNE has organized for the purpose of enhancing the visibility of the work that female researchers are performing at the centre. The act was addressed to the whole CIMNE community.

Opening ceremony addressed by Lluís Rovira, director of CERCA. Chairs: Anna Font (right), CIMNE manager, and Cecília Soriano (left), Staff Scientist at CIMNE.

The director of CERCA, Lluís Rovira, was in charge of opening the Day with an active speech about the situation of women in science. Rovira explained that CERCA is formed by 40 research centres composed by 13.000 people. "We evaluate research centres in a systematic way and evaluators from other countries with a longer tradition than ours, explain us that this problem has not been resolved yet. There is a gender bias in their countries, so it tells us that is a complex problem to solve", introduced Rovira.

This problem is higher as we climb in the ladder of responsibilities: If there are 55% of women and 45% of men researchers in the pre-doctoral stage, this balance does not work if we speak about group leaders, with very low average of women (only 24% in front of the 76% of men). Rovira made a point in the need to be aware of the problem to prevent the existing high abandonment rates of women's research careers. He also explains during his talk the implementation of gender plans in a research institutes as a part of the solution and also speaks about the need to balance the composition of the Advisor Scientific Boards and practice inclusive recruitment policies. Next, the participating speakers presented their research topics and contributed their personal experience.

See video of the Lluís Rovira speech during the Opening Ceremony | See CERCA video Recruitment Bias in Research Institutes | Slides 'Women and research' (CERCA -Information in catalan-) 

From left to right: Laura Bermúdez, CIMNE Communication Department; Anna Font, CIMNE Manager; MsC Mercè López; PhD Student Laura Moreno; Dra. Lucía Barbu; PgD Anna Monros; Dra. Antonia Larese; Dra. Liliana Carreño; Staff Scientist Dra. Cecília Soriano; Dra. Alessandra di Mariano

Dra. Liliana Carreño during her speech "Evaluación y gestión del riesgo de desastres"

Dra. Lucía Barbu during her speech "Trayectoria investigadora personal - pasado, presente y futuro"

Dra. Antonia Larese during her speech "Computational models for the simulation of structures and landscapes in natural hazards"

Dra. Alessandra di Mariano during her speech "Research and practical applications in geotechnical engineering"

PgD Anna Monros during her speech "Simulando en la nube"

MsC Mercè López during her speech “Simulación de abonadoras centrífugas”

PhD Laura Moreno during her speech "Heat transfer processes using viscoelastic fluids in laminar and turbulent regimes"