EU Delegation Deputy Ambassador to Korea Roland Honekamp speaks throughout an International Women’s Day event in Seoul, Friday. Courtesy of EU Delegation Office in Seoul
The European Union Delegation in Seoul, collectively with Sookmyung Women’s University and the Korea Foundation for Women in Science, Engineering and Technology (WISET), hosted an International Women’s Day event Friday highlighting the position of ladies in science and expertise.
Held at Dongdaemun Design Plaza in Seoul, the event introduced collectively college students, professionals and lecturers to debate methods to strengthen ladies’s participation in science, expertise, engineering and arithmetic (STEM) fields and to have fun the achievements of ladies leaders in these sectors.
Women stay underrepresented in STEM globally. In Europe, ladies account for about one in three STEM graduates and roughly one in 5 info and communications expertise specialists. In Korea, ladies make up solely about 23.9 % of STEM doctoral graduates, one of many lowest shares amongst OECD nations.
Organizers stated narrowing the gender hole in superior scientific coaching is crucial not just for equality but in addition for sustaining innovation and financial progress.
The program started with a session titled “Stories from the Frontlines,” the place 4 ladies from academia, business and analysis shared their profession experiences. Speakers described the challenges they confronted in male-dominated fields in addition to the alternatives that helped them succeed.
This was adopted by a panel dialogue, which targeted on limitations that restrict ladies’s participation in STEM and coverage measures that might assist enhance illustration.
“Promoting women’s participation in STEM is a matter of fairness and justice, but it is also about unlocking Europe’s and Korea’s full innovative potential,” stated Ugo Astuto, the EU ambassador to Korea. “When women and men contribute equally to science and technology, research becomes stronger, solutions more inclusive, and societies more resilient.”
Astuto stated the EU helps gender equality in analysis via applications equivalent to Horizon Europe and Erasmus Plus, which fund collaborative analysis and educational exchanges.
Meanwhile, Sookmyung Women’s University President Moon Si-yeun stated ladies scientists ought to play a number one position in shaping future innovation.
“Women in science and technology should not remain mere participants but become agents who design and lead change,” Moon stated, including that the college goals to domesticate inventive thinkers able to fixing advanced issues and increasing ladies’s management within the discipline.
Moon Aree, president of WISET, stated range in analysis groups is essential to scientific progress.
“Innovation in science and technology can truly be achieved only when talents with diverse perspectives participate throughout the entire research process,” she stated.
Korea grew to become the primary Asian nation to hitch the EU’s Horizon Europe analysis program as an related member starting Jan. 1, 2025. The partnership permits Korean researchers to take part in EU-funded tasks on the identical phrases as European companions.
Organizers stated cooperation beneath Horizon Europe, alongside with initiatives such because the Marie Skłodowska-Curie postdoctoral fellowships, is anticipated to strengthen EU–Korea analysis ties whereas creating extra alternatives for ladies scientists.