Applications for the Women in Science 2021 award open

“The world needs science, and science needs women”. This is the catchphrase used to open the platform dedicated to the L'Oréal-UNESCO award, “For Women in Science”. But so far, the presentation as described in the presentation text is not encouraging: despite women scientists leading “ground-breaking research” across the world, and their “remarkable discoveries”, women still represent just 30 % of researchers globally, according to the UNESCO, and “their work rarely gains the recognition it deserves”.

A series of national and international awards

To bend this situation and make things change, the Fondation L'Oréal and UNESCO have worked together for about 15 years to help women “achieve scientific excellence” and “participate equally in solving the great challenges facing humanity”.

This collaboration begins with the awarding of a series of National awards that help support young female talent to pursue scientific careers in some 100 countries or regions of the world. This is followed by the International Rising Talents Awards, which reward the 15 most promising young talents among more than 250 young national talents. Finally, every year, the International awards are presented to five eminent women scientists from five regions of the world. 

For Women in Science, a specific programme for “Jeunes Talents France” (Young Talents France)

Since its creation, the French national competition has thus distinguished hundreds of young women researchers in France. This year, the deadline for applications for this 15th edition of the France national prize, which is exclusively aimed at doctoral and post-doctoral students, is 19 March.

In 2021, the L'Oréal Foundation plans to award 35 prizes in France, each worth 15,000 euros (for each doctoral student) and 20,000 euros (for each post-doctoral student). Of these 35 grants, at least five will be reserved for overseas France.

Well-defined fields and simple participation criteria

The French national programme aims to identify and reward young female researchers in well-defined but very broad research fields: life and environmental sciences, material sciences, mathematics, computer and information sciences, engineering and technology.

To be able to compete, the rules are simple. All you need to do is :

- for doctoral students, to be enrolled in at least the second year of a doctoral programme in a French institution, regardless of nationality;

- for post-doctoral students, to be in a post-doctoral programme in a research laboratory in France, regardless of nationality, and to have defended their thesis before the call for applications.

Finally, application forms must be written entirely in French and must prove the scientific excellence of the research work carried out by the candidate. In particular, the rules state that they must “demonstrate how the training or practical and theoretical knowledge acquired within the host organisation contributes to the research work in progress”.