- The Finnova Foundation celebrates the International Day of Women and Girls in Science with an online event introducing the Finnova-Technovation Girls Challenges to students from various schools in Spain
- The objective of this act is to bring youth and education centers closer to the STEAM professions from a social perspective and applicability
- Throughout the event, activities, workshops and successful stories were presented to empower girls active in the STEAM field.
Brussels, 02.14.2022
Last Friday, February 11, 2022, over 3,000 male and female students from educational centers throughout Spain took part in an online conference in celebration of the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. The event was organized by Technovation Girls CV, the Valencian Engineering Board, featuring its project “Yo, Ingeniera”, Finnova Foundation’s Women4Tech and Asociación Fundadoras. It was also endorsed by the Department of Entrepreneurship and Economic Innovation of the Valencia City Council.
This initiative, framed in the European Year of Youth, aims to bring youth closer to the STEAM professions from a social standpoint and applicability, in order to convey to both girls and adults that talent, science and technology have no gender, empowering girls to pursue careers in fields such as science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
Event opening
The ceremony opened with Diana Morant, Minister of Science and Innovation, delivering a video message taking stock of her personal experience and the moment when she decided to pursue a career in engineering, a field in which women are still a minority, and stressed that “we are working so that women can move forward without barriers.”
Pilar Bernabé, deputy mayor of the area of Innovative Development of Economic Sectors and Employment in the Valencia City Council, also participated in the event, mentioning that through these ceremonies “we want to claim equal opportunities among boys and girls to access STEAM degrees, guarantee equal opportunities and put a spotlight on role models in the world of science”.
María José Valero, CEO of Talent Growth Management and ambassador of Technovation Girls Comunidad Valenciana; Angélica Gómez, president of the Valencian Engineering Board; and Lola Bordás, CMO of Finnova on behalf of Interreg CILIFO, were the ones in charge of the welcome, highlighting the importance of holding this kind of events in order to encourage the participation of girls in STEAM careers.
Bordás mentioned the international prize awarded by the European Commission to the CILIFO project in category 4: “support for the internationalization of companies” of the European Enterprise Promotion Awards (EEPA) for implementing the first global accelerator focused on forest fires, named Firefighting Open Innovation Lab.
Actividades y presentación de los Retos Finnova-Technovation Girls
Throughout the ceremony, workshops, presentations and showcases for successful stories focused on students of different ages and a conference for professionals were held by companies and institutions such as Schneider Electric, American Space Valencia, EDICOM, SOMNIA, UPV’s Generación Espontanea and ESERO.
On top of that, Julia Rodríguez, communication assistant at the Finnova Foundation, Carolina Lechado, EU Project Manager at Finnova and Lola Bordás, representing Interreg CILIFO, introduced the Finnova Challenges – Technovation Girls. Both girls and boys can participate in real circular economy projects with CirculaInnoBooster’s CirCoAx project; renewable energies generation with LIFE Ecodigestion 2.0.; farming digitization with HIBA – Hub Iberia Agrotech; biodiversity protection with Interreg CILIFO and Interreg Firepoctep or sustainable tourism with Interreg NAPOCTEP and getting the opportunity to win a trip to Brussels to visit the European institutions.
All through the day, Regina Monsalve, president of the Engineering and Society Forum, explained the Womanation movement, promoted by the Valencian Engineering Board. This highlights female models, professionals from different fields and sectors, as experts with a message addressed to the whole society. “Our purpose is to remark the fact that there are many professional female leaders who can be an inspiration in all areas.”
Angélica Gómez, president of the Valencian Engineering Board, declared that “the fact that this day is being celebrated, already points out that there is a lack that must be solved. It is clearly necessary to value the work of engineers and show ourselves off so that other colleagues see us as a role model”.
About Finnova Foundation (www.finnova.eu)
European Foundation for the funding of innovation. It is based in Brussels and focuses on the objective to promote public-private cooperation through innovation to address social challenges such as employment, training, entrepreneurship, the United Nations SDGs, the circular economy, etc. Finnova organizes the Startup Europe Awards, an initiative of the European Commission and the Finnova Foundation, to acknowledge the best European startups in the social field.
About Women4tech (http://womenfortech.eu/)
Women4Tech is an initiative to support innovation, the creation of disruptive projects and public-private partnerships focused on women’s entrepreneurship from the Finnova Foundation.
