Emakumeak Zientzian goes on adding to itself

Published: October 15, 2021

* Seventeen Basque organizations set to jointly organize the 6th edition of Emakumeak Zientzian (Women in Science) following today’s signing of a new collaboration agreement

* The main aim of this initiative is to join forces to make it clear that science is indeed a girls thing

Through the signing of a new collaboration agreement seventeen Basque organizations are joining forces around the Emakumeak Zientzian project, thus declaring their commitment to the objectives of the initiative: to make the activity of women in science visible, to break with the typically male roles attributed to scientific and technical activities, and to encourage girls and adolescents to choose scientific careers. With these objectives in mind, the organizations are coming together to run a joint program of activities to mark International Day of Women and Girls in Science, which is held every year on February 11.

The collaboration agreement for the project, which is expanding year on year, was signed this morning. The 17 organizations signing up to the agreement on the 6th edition of Emakumeak Zientzian are a significant representative sample of the Basque Country’s science and technology network. This coming together is the result of an open-door initiative always aspiring to unite and convinced that we are better off by adding. So with their sights on 2022, the organizers of Emakumeak Zientzian are POLYMAT, CIC nanoGUNE, Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), the Center for Materials Physics (CFM CSIC-UPV/EHU), CIC biomaGUNE, Biodonostia, Tecnun-School of Engineering, Ceit, Eureka! Zientzia Museoa, the Official Association of Industrial Engineers of Gipuzkoa, Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (BCBL), Lortek, the Faculty of Informatics, the Faculty of Engineering –Gipuzkoa–, and the Faculty of Chemistry of the UPV/EHU, Elhuyar, and the Gipuzkoa Science and Technology Park.

After the agreement was signed, and largely thanks to the involvement and dedication of dozens of professionals in the field of science and technology (researchers, university lecturers, engineers, etc.), the organizing bodies will be getting down to designing a comprehensive program with a broad variety of activities so that the message that ‘science is indeed a girls thing’ reaches as many people as possible.

Background

The United Nations General Assembly decided in 2016 to proclaim February 11 as International Day of Women and Girls in Science with the aim of achieving full and equal access and participation in science for women and girls. The organizations running Emakumeak Zientzian recognize this as a strategic aim and, in this context, are joining forces to promote, organize, develop, present and implement a broad program of joint activities that is expanding from one year to the next.

In 2017, the CIC nanoGUNE research center ran a series of awareness-building and outreach activities. In 2018 and 2019 the Center for Materials Physics (CFM CSIC-UPV/EHU), the Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC) and CIC biomaGUNE joined the Emakumeak Zientzian initiative and the four centers ran a more comprehensive program of activities. By 2020, there were nine organizations associated with the project. In 2021, despite the health crisis caused by the pandemic, 11 organizations joined forces to present a program of activities –predominantly virtual– in February 2021. Looking ahead to next year, 2022, seventeen organizations have confirmed their commitment toward the aims of the project and have come together to prepare a program of activities designed to reach more and more people.