Women are encouraged to participate in FP5
It remains to be seen whether current measures to draw more women into science will satisfy the aspirations of those who attended the "Women and Science" conference in Brussels last April, the proceedings of which are now available. The European Commission (EC) is actively promoting women in science in a number of ways. One example is the statement: "Women are encouraged to participate", which is across the bottom of the first page of the website for the EC's programme for "Improving Human Potential and the Socio-economic Knowledge base". This is one of the three horizontal programmes covered under the EC's new Fifth Framework Programme (FP5) for Research, Technological Development and Demonstration (RTD). The Web address for this programme can be accessed at: URL: http://cordis.europa.eu/improving/home.html(opens in new window) The need for women to participate in research was also highlighted by Commissioner Edith Cresson in her introductory address to the conference to launch FP5, held in Germany, at the end of February 1999. "One of the aims is to encourage women to participate in the various projects (of FP5)," she said in the "Women and Science" proceedings. "A campaign will be run to encourage them to sign up for such projects. In the invitations to tender, we are going to try to encourage researchers to include more women in their teams. Similarly, we shall do everything to ensure that there are significant numbers of women in the consultative and advisory bodies. "Implementation of these measures will be coordinated inside through a light structure set up within the Commission. There is also provision for a network to be put in place which links as many people and organisations active in this area as possible across the different Member States," said Commissioner Cresson. However, drawing conclusions from "Women and Science" conference last year, scientific journalist Sylvie Coyaud maintained that it would not be easy to ensure the provision of equal opportunities for women in FP5. "The sciences need women," she said, "but the figures make dreary reading right down to the lowest ranks of the research and teaching ladder. There is a shortage of women in the bodies taking the decisions on both funding and the approaches to be followed. Even among your European Commission colleagues, we are told, too few have committed themselves to supporting equal opportunities." Dr Nancy Lane of the Department of Zoology, University of Cambridge, suggested the issue could be tackled by setting up a Europe-wide network for all women scientists and engineers. Dr Lane was responsible for "The Rising Tide" report which inspired the UK Government to set up a Development Unit to encourage action to address the under-representation of women in science. She wanted to see a similar focused development unit set up in Brussels. "I believe this development unit would not be too costly in terms of human resources, since one woman and perhaps a secretary can handle it," said Dr Lane. "It doesn't have to have a lot of money; it's just somebody to administer the pulling together of the various events that are going to happen. "If we had that unit focusing the attention of this network, (we would be able) to put in place a variety of schemes to ensure that more women in Europe are in senior positions in industry, universities, science, education and engineering," said Dr Lane. She received strong support from UK Energy and Industry Minister John Battle (then Chairman of the Research Council during the UK Presidency of the European Union), whose wife is a mathematician teaching at university. Referring to the UK Government's Development Unit, Mr Battle said: "I would like to propose this (as) a model that perhaps could be shared. It may be that we need to have a closer, more intensive focus at a European level too, so that we can share the best practice and learn from the experience of other Member States. "Whether we have a unit in each Member State, or perhaps a central unit within DG XII for the Commission as a whole, I think that (the) effect might be to inject some seriousness into tackling structures in (a) rather more positive way," said Mr Battle.