Join our events and celebrations to mark UN International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2023.
On 10 February
ICGEB Cape Town group leader Lara Donaldson will be hosting a seminar by Prof. Jennifer A. Thomson, President of OWSD (Organization for Women in Science for the Developing World) from South Africa. This will be subsequently available via podcast on our channels – as part of our international seminar programme.
On 11 February
ICGEB Trieste, Italy is pleased to lauch its Gender Equality Plan – now a basic requirement for participation in the research framework programme of the European Commission.
Celebrating women and girls in science, ICGEB will be launching the Cape Town chapter of its videos on the Goals of Science, featuring Dr. Lara Donaldson in the episode entitled: “Knowing plants to fight dryland salinity”. From ICGEB New Delhi, we celebrate the episode entitled: “Designing vaccines for health“, featuring the research of Dr. Anmol Chandele, Group Leader, Emory Vaccine Program, and from Trieste, the episode “Sentinals from the body” with Dr. Giulia Maria Piperno and Federica Benvenuti, Group Leader, Cellular Immunology.
On 14 February
We are pleased to be part in IUPAC’s Global Women’s Breakfast GWB2023 – Breaking Barriers in Science. The aim of the GWB is to celebrate the accomplishments of Women in Science and to inspire younger generations to pursue careers in science. Women and men from all types of science organisations from high schools, universities, companies, science societies, government and non-governmental organizations come together to share breakfast either virtually or in person.
Held in conjunction with the UN Day of Women and Girls in Science, a central goal is to establish an active network of both women and men to overcome the barriers to gender equality in science. The Global Breakfast facilitates the formation of communities on a local, regional, and international scale to effectively share ideas and strategies for progress.
Also in February, together with IILA, ICGEB launches the second phase of the project promoting gender equality in STEM in Central America: stimulating scientific curiosity in girls and young women, through Foldscope workshops across seven SICA countries to take place during 2023.
On 8 March
Together with UNOSSC, we shall be launching a short video showcasing the story of five young women researchers who were awarded EMPOWER Fellowships – a South-South cooperation initiative for women scientists from developing countries, particularly from the LDCs who received training and mentoring at ICGEB labs in Cape Town and New Delhi. This will be launched at LDC5 in Doha, Qatar.



International days are occasions to raise awareness on issues of major concern, to mobilise institutional will and resources to address global problems and to celebrate and reinforce the achievements of humanity. To celebrate UN International Day of Women and Girls in Science we highlight our activities to raise awareness for gender parity in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM).
To ensure that, in the long term, more young girls have access to the opportunities that ICGEB can provide through fellowships, grants and mentoring to support careers, ICGEB runs WE-STAR PhD and Postdoctoral Mobility scheme for women scientists in Africa, and the EMPOWER Fellowships, South-South and Triangular Cooperation programme for women scientists from developing countries.
We take this opportunity to celebrate our women in science and all their achievements; with your help we can become even more effective in targeting programmes to address gender parity.
Read more about our initiatives for Women in Science.
#WomeninScience #WomeninSTEM #WomeninSTEMday #GWB2023