Kickoff and Closing ARIADNEtechnat
ARIADNEtechnat: Making women in science visible!
‘Make yourself seen’ was the motto of the ARIADNEtechnat kick-off and closing event on 24.10.2024. Prof. Friedlinde Götz-Neunhoeffer, Women’s Representative of the Faculty of Natural Sciences, drew a positive balance in her welcoming address: With 25 mentees from the outgoing Doc/Postdoc group and 15 new Master’s mentees, the number of ARIADNE mentees has exceeded the threshold of 500 since the start of the program. And the ARIADNE story continues: applications are currently open for the next Doc/Postdoc group from summer 2025 onward. Applications are still possible until 6 December 2024.
More women in science also need more visibility. This was the topic of a discussion round with the two women’s representatives, Prof Friedlinde Götz-Neunhoeffer and Prof Philipp Beckerle, mentor Prof Manami Sasaki, ARIADNE alumna Annika Briegleb and Lisa Maile as an outgoing mentee. Collective intelligence helped to clarify the question of how many women are among the 237 FAU researchers listed in the Stanford list of the top-cited two per cent: At least eight, including Prof Andrea Büttner, an ARIADNE mentor. Thus there is still potential for female scientists to become more visible. There were also many practical tips on how female researchers can utilise the room for manoeuvre: You should systematically keep an eye on citations. At conferences, it helps to introduce yourself to new contacts mentioning the names of your established supervisors. Organising workshops means quite some workload, but one gains a lot of visibility in return. And when it comes to networking: researchers are human beings, too, and can be approached on a personal level.
The panelists unanimous recommendation reflects well the ARIADNE spirit: Networks should definitely be established and maintained beyond the boundaries of one’s own specialism. This broadens horizons, opens up new insights into cross-cutting topics and helps to communicate one’s own research to people from outside the field.
Accordingly, the next ARIADNE event on 19 November will be a network meeting across the four ARIADNE program lines with the opportunity to exchange informal knowledge and practical tips.