* Twenty-four Basque organisations are jointly organising a wide-ranging programme for the 7th edition of Emakumeak Zientzian.

* The main objective of this edition is to highlight the importance of joint responsibility between men and women in order to promote a more egalitarian science and technology.

Bilbao / San Sebastián, January 18th 2023. Twenty-four Basque entities join forces around the Emakumeak Zientzian project, thus ratifying 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-technical activities and to encourage girls and adolescents to choose scientific careers. With these objectives in mind, the organisations are joining forces to organise a full programme of activities on the occasion of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, which is celebrated every year on 11 February.

In addition, this year, the organisation wants to focus on the importance of making an extra effort to incorporate all the talent we have into the scientific-technological field, because the answers to the great challenges we face as a society will come sooner if we do so. In this sense, “we want to stress that joint responsibility between women and men when it comes to promoting equal access and professional development for everyone is unavoidable”, say the organisers of Emakumeak Zientzian. For all these reasons, “we would like to make a special appeal and invite everyone, regardless of their gender, identity, origin, profession or age, to take part in the activities”, they add.

The Emakumeak Zientzian 2023 programme will be concentrated in the week of 8 to 17 February. A wide-ranging programme of more than 50 activities and surprises has been designed, covering different fields of research thanks to the union of different centres, so that the message that ‘science does belong to girls’ reaches and touches as many people as possible. In this new edition, the geographical scope has also been extended thanks to the participation of entities from Bizkaia, so that the programme extends to Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia, mainly in the capital cities.

To warm up, this year Emakumeak Zientzian will kick off in a festive atmosphere on Wednesday 8 February in Donostia, where tribute will be paid to all the women scientists and technologists working in the organisations and research centres taking part in the initiative. At the same event, and as a novelty, the anthem of Emakumeak Zientzian, composed by the emerging artist and ally of the cause Janus Lester, will be presented. A new hymn to give a lively rhythm to the initiative, and also to reach out to new allies to share responsibilities.

From that day onwards, in Gipuzkoa and Bizkaia, there will be engineering and nanoscience workshops for teenagers, round tables and visits to research centres for schools, as well as a session related to academic guidance for teachers, all with the aim of presenting real models that will serve as a reference for future generations. As a novelty, we are adding the Back to School activity to the existing school offer, which offers the possibility for schools to request a visit from our researchers in situ to their classrooms. Families will be able to enjoy the experimental workshops Science Stars at the Eureka! Zientzia Museoa, the game Science Treasure based on the well-known game Treasure Hunt, or fun science gymkhanas, among others. Likewise, specific groups such as women over 55 years of age will continue to be targeted, in order to highlight the role of adult women as transmitters of culture, with the activity The power of experience, in which a series of short experiments will be carried out that are easy to do anywhere, so that scientific culture flows in families and in our surroundings. In addition, for the general public, the Victoria Eugenia Club Aretoa and the Bidebarrieta Library in Bilbao will be hosting the event Women Scientists of Yesterday and Today, in which several women scientists working in different fields of research will take to the stage to talk about the research projects they carry out and pay tribute to some of the great women scientists of history through the story of their fascinating lives and scientific contributions.

The full programme of activities is available from today on the website www.emakumeakzientzian.eus, and registrations for the various activities are now open.

The 24 organisations taking part in the 7th edition of Emakumeak Zientzian are an important cross-section of the science and technology fabric in the Basque Country: the Centre for Physics of Materials (CFM CSIC-UPV/EHU), Achúcarro, CIC biomaGUNE, CIC nanoGUNE, University of Deusto, POLYMAT, Basque Centre for Climate Change (BC3), Basque Center for Applied Mathematics (BCAM), Basque Center on Cognition, Brain and Language (BCBL), Biodonostia, Ceit, Cidetec, Donostia International Physics Center (DIPC), Elhuyar, Eureka! Zientzia Museoa, Fundación Biofísica Bizkaia (FBB), Ikerlan, Ingeniariak – Colegio Oficial de Ingenieros Industriales de Gipuzkoa, Parques Tecnológicos de Euskadi, Tecnalia, Tecnun-Escuela de Ingeniería, the Faculty of Computer Science, the School of Engineering of Gipuzkoa and the Faculty of Chemistry of the UPV/EHU.

Emakumeak Zientzian 2023 has the outstanding support of the Provincial Council of Gipuzkoa, Fomento San Sebastián and the Basque Research & Technology Alliance (BRTA), as well as the collaboration of the following entities and organisations: The Spanish National Research Council (CSIC), the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), the State Research Agency through the Severo Ochoa and María de Maeztu centres adhered to the initiative, the Basque Film Library and the San Sebastian International Film Festival, and Aspegi (Association of Professional, Business and Managerial Women of Gipuzkoa), Aranzadi, the Lemniskata network, Ikerbasque, Biook and Donostia Kultura.

Coordinating entities of Emakumeak Zientzian 2023

Centro de Física de Materiales (CFM CSIC-UPV/EHU) – Idoia Mugika Mendiola

Achúcarro – Jaime Sagarduy Barrena

CIC biomaGUNE – Irantzu Llarena Conde

CIC nanoGUNE – Itziar Otegui Feliz

Universidad de Deusto – Mari Luz Guenaga Gómez

POLYMAT – Mónica Moreno Rodríguez