For the 15th annual edition of the France 2021 Young Talent Award, the L'Oréal Foundation and its partners, the French Academy of Sciences and the French National Commission for UNESCO, are reaffirming their commitment to women scientists, to make them visible, to support them and to promote them within research.
This year, 21 female doctoral candidates and 14 female post-doctoral candidates were selected in France from among 740 applications by a jury of excellence composed of 28 researchers from the Academy of Sciences.
These promising scientists received an endowment (€15,000 for doctoral students, €20,000 for post-doctoral students), which will help them to continue their research work. They also received leadership training (management, negotiation, public speaking, etc.) to give them additional means to better face the glass ceiling that remains a reality in the world of research.
Coming from metropolitan France and overseas, and from very diverse fields of research (research in genetics and ecology, treatments for female infertility, studies of viruses and chronic diseases, astronomy, cybersecurity, etc.), many of these young women researchers want to share and transmit their passion for science, in order to inspire the scientists of tomorrow. "It' s important to have a supportive ecosystem of other women in order to gain the confidence to achieve your career goals, " says Dorien Maas, a postdoc in psychiatry and neuroscience, for example. Similarly, biologist Jessika Consuegra says that " anyone, regardless of income, background or gender, should be able to find their place in science."
To help a new generation of excellent women researchers emerge, the L'Oréal Foundation, alongside UNESCO, awards nearly 250 grants each year in more than 110 countries through its national and regional Young Talents for Women in Science programs, which aim to provide specific support to doctoral and post-doctoral students at a key moment in their careers.