International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2021
“Nothing in life is to be feared; it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”, said Marie Curie. Such a wise quote at the present time when the COVID-19 crisis persists after a year. Even more, when today the International Day of Women and Girls in Science is happening all around the world. CROSSBOW, as an innovation and research project, joins the United Nations, partners worldwide, women and girls to celebrate it.
Rightly, this year’s theme is Women Scientists at the forefront of the fight against COVID-19. This day is a reminder that women and girls play a critical role in science and technology to fight against COVID-19. A pandemic situation that is not only having serious health and economic consequences but is also many others.
The COVID-19 pandemic is having a high impact on energy systems around the world, curbing investments and threatening to slow the expansion of key clean energy technologies, as the International Energy Agency (IEA) informed.
Yes, constraints on social and economic activity – particularly on mobility – have reduced the global carbon emissions but the COVID-19 crisis is impacting clean energy transitions, experts warn.
“Renewable power sources have so far demonstrated resilience in the face of the Covid-19 crisis. The share of renewables in the global electricity supply reached nearly 28% in the first quarter of 2020, up from 26% during the same period in 2019. Despite this resilience, renewables’ growth is expected to slow down in 2020.”, informed IEA.
What happens next is crucial for our energy future. Driving more innovative and inclusive solutions for clean energy transition all over the world entails gender diversity in the energy sector. Closing the gender gap is not only a moral and social imperative but makes good sense for the clean energy business. A diverse economic sector reflects better the world we are acting in and creates an improved working atmosphere.
Now is the time to understand more together, so that we may fear less, as Marie Curie will say.
CROSSBOW contributes to close the gender gap in Research and Innovation
The CROSSBOW consortium is fully aware and embraces the policies of equal opportunities between women and men, the effective promotion of gender equality, and the gender dimension in Research and Innovation in relation to Horizon 2020.
Therefore, the CROSSBOW project applies several methods of sex and gender analysis to pay particular attention to gender-related issues by (a) Promoting the active involvement of women in research and management activities developed within the project; (b) Strengthening collaboration links to the prominent women scientists in the energy domain; (c) Encouraging the participation of women speakers to represent the project in conferences in Europe and overseas; (d) Ensuring the resolution of any gender-related issues that may arise; (e) Rethinking the language and the visual representations in dissemination actions and activities, in order to ensure a balanced representation of genders in all images and visuals.
The CROSSBOW consortium consists of a multi-national team of both male and female experts with a gender parity of sub-project managers. CROSSBOW creates impact by increasing awareness of the benefits of a gender perspective in research, development, and innovation.
From a long-term perspective, the gender mainstreaming approach will contribute to favorable conditions for innovation systems and more sustainable society. The CROSSBOW gender mainstreaming approach follows the Responsible Research and Innovation (RRI), as a process where all societal actors (researchers, citizens, policymakers, business) work together during the whole R&I process in order to align R&I outcomes to the values, needs, and expectations of European society, enabling easier access to scientific results, as well as the take up of gender and ethics in the R&I content and process.