NATO launches Challenge for Women and Girls in Science

The Women and Girls in Science 2024 challenge aims to inspire young women to pursue and/or further their careers in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), to highlight NATO’s support for women in STEM-related disciplines, and to contribute to the diversity and inclusivity of women in this field.

Participants must submit a short research proposal of up to 1,300 words, addressing one of the following NATO Science and Technology (S&T) focus areas:

• Energy security
  • NATO seeks to enhance its strategic awareness of energy developments with security implications; develop its capacity to support the protection of critical energy infrastructure; and ensure reliable and efficient energy supplies to the military.
• Climate change
  • NATO provides disaster relief support; focuses on environmental risks to military activities and security in general, including environmental factors that affect energy supplies; and is looking for ways to improve energy efficiency in the military through innovative technologies.
• Human security
  • Great power competition, terrorism, intra-state conflict, cyber threats and climate change pose real risks and often directly impact individuals and communities in ways that have prompted a shift in thinking about approaches to security. The concept of human security is one such result. Human security is a multi-sectoral approach to security that gives primacy to people.
• Societal resilience
  • Resilience is the individual and collective capacity to prepare for, resist, respond to and quickly recover from shocks and disruptions, and to ensure the continuity of the Alliance’s activities. Civil preparedness is a central pillar of Allies’ resilience and a critical enabler for the Alliance’s collective defence, and NATO supports Allies in assessing and enhancing their civil preparedness.

Award

• The three winners will get to visit the NATO laboratory at the Centre for Maritime Research and Experimentation (CMRE) in La Spezia, Italy, in the summer of 2024.

Who can apply?

• The challenge is open to individual female university students (studying for their bachelor’s degree, master’s degree or PhD) and early career researchers up to 30 years of age from NATO member countries and Sweden.
• The research proposal should be guided by the following question: What research idea would you like to see NATO realise over the next five years?
• The proposals should aim to solve an existing issue, or prevent the evolution of a new problem for international security.

For more information, visit NATO Science and Technology Organization (STO).