Women in Science

Gender, together with Youth, is essential to nurture a brighter and more equitable future, and both are cross-cutting themes in all of ICGEB’s activities. Here we bring together information on events and programmes that work to enhance gender parity in the ICGEB community and for the Life Sciences globally.

Feature story

Paidamoyo Mataranyika, Bacteriology lab, ICGEB Trieste

Paidamoyo Mataranyika from Zimbabwe is a PhD candidate at the University of Namibia (UNAM) where she works on developing sustainable agricultural products for use in semi-arid and arid lands. Recipient of a WE-STAR fellowship, she worked on biofertilisers, harnessing useful bacteria to improve fertility of nutrient-poor sandy soils. This is a major concern in Namibia, where only 1% of all land is arable.

In her future work, she aims to research the various applications of biofertilisers to the African continent, to exploit available resources to the fullest and contribute towards fighting hunger among the general population and attaining Sustainable Development Goal 2.

ICGEB is part of the initiative within the United Nations (UN) System on gender and science, technology and innovation (STI). Initiatives aim at empowering women and girls in the field of STI through actions that include capacity building, information sharing, policy setting, and raising awareness.

ICGEB and the Government of India offer a programme targeting women scientists who have had to take a career break and wish to go back to mainstream science. First offered to Indian nationals, the programme is now being extended to women scientists from other ICGEB Member States. The programme focuses on awarding research grants for women to work in top-level laboratories and to support women scientists’ pursuit of independent R&D projects in the Life Sciences.

ICGEB, supported by the Government of South Africa, will open a 3-year capacity building programme to promote the participation of African women scientists in the field of Life Sciences.

The programme will provide fellowships, funding, and mentoring to support academic and professional careers of African women scientists, in order to enhance their research capacities and to foster the development of a thriving scientific community that is gender-balanced and inter-connected.

Research will focus on biotechnology topics relevant to the African Continent and will be carried out in the state-of-the-art laboratories at ICGEB in Cape Town.

The participation of researchers worldwide in ICGEB Meetings and Courses reflect a larger female presence (59% of all participants) and provide excellent opportunities for women scientists to interact directly with the international leaders of their scientific field.

Download UN publication:

Gender + Science, Technology and Innovation (STI) Initiatives