5 December 2024, Pretoria, South Africa: ICGEB and DSTI host joint session on Supporting African Women in Science – the ICGEB DSTI WE-STAR Programme.
ICGEB remains a committed partner to the annual Science Forum South Africa, once again hosting an engaging Session at the 2024 gathering. The theme for the 2024 Forum is Igniting Conversations about Science – Innovation and Science for Humanity. ‘The objective of the Forum is to ignite vibrant discussion on the role of science in society, between all stakeholders, the scientific community, government, industry and civil society at large’ – SFSA website.
Together with our partner, the South African Department of Science, Technology and Innovation (DSTI), the session on the 5th of December 2024 focused on joint efforts to address gender equality within the realm of STI, launching the ICGEB-DSTI WE-STAR Programme. The Programme, focusing on women in science is in alignment with the ICGEB mandate, the South African Government’s strategy on women empowerment and the bioeconomy, as well as the United Nations Agenda on Sustainable Development (SDG4, SDG5, SDG17).
Partnering to establish the ICGEB DSTI WomEn ScienTists in AfRica (WE-STAR) Programme, both partners aim to increase the participation of African women in the field of life sciences by providing early career scientists from the African Continent an opportunity for a mobility fellowship of 12 months duration at the ICGEB laboratories in Cape Town, South Africa – a world-class international scientific environment.
Speakers at the Session included representatives from ICGEB Cape Town (Dr Lara Donaldson), DSTI (Dr Maneshree Jugmohan-Naidu and Mr Modikoe Patjane), AUDA-NEPAD (Mr Lukovi Seke), as well as ICGEB DSTI South African Women in Biotechnology Doctoral Fellow, Ms Nadine Tambwe.
ICGEB Trieste has successfully run the WE-STAR Programme since 2021, owing to the generous contribution of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation – Directorate General for Development Cooperation.
