The 6th International Day of Women and Girls in Science will be held on 11 February 2021. The UN General Assembly established the International Day of Women and Girls in Science to celebrate women’s excellence in science and remind the international community that science and gender equality have to advance hand-in-hand to address major global challenges and achieve all the goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda.

At present, less than 30 per cent of researchers worldwide are women. According to UNESCO data (2014 - 2016), only around 30 per cent of all female students select STEM-related fields in higher education. Fortunately, in the European Union there is more gender balance, with more than 6.3 million female scientists and engineers accounting for 41% of total employment in science and engineering in 2019. However, by sector, women were underrepresented in manufacturing (where only 21% of scientists and engineers were female), while there was more of a gender balance in the services sector (46%).

AQUABIOPRO-FIT aims to ensure and promote gender equality in all aspects of the project. The consortium is well represented by women; the Project Coordinator Dr. Katerina Kousoulaki and her team from Nofima consists of mostly female researchers, while the activities of consortium partners EFFoST, Biognosis and BioIntech are also led by women.

During the project, gender issues will be address, for example, in the socio-economic assessment for the market evaluation of developed products. In the analysis on the benefit of health products and ingredients to be developed within AQUABIOPRO-FIT we aim to take into account sex and gender differences both in the studies involving human individuals as well as in animal studies. Both male and female participants will be included and are expected to be equal in numbers.