Germany has a low number of female scientists, particularly in higher positions. The Curie magazine has visited Jacobs University in Bremen and spoken to Professor Katja Windt about how the conditions for women in science can improve.
Several seats of learning are establishing associate senior lecturer positions to get more distinctive career paths and be able to recruit the best scientists. These are four-year meriting employments, which since 2013 once again are included in the Higher Education Ordinance. But in spite of these efforts it is still only a reform on paper, means Karin Åmossa, Research manager at the Swedish Association of University Teachers.
The meriting system of science contributes to make the scientific language inaccessible and boring. But there are scientists, who want to communicate in other ways and questions the prevailing norms for writing scientific texts.
She has revolutionised women's role in the development work and challenged the World Bank's view of poverty. British social anthropologist Caroline Moser is a pioneer in the field of development research. She tells Curie about what it is like as a researcher not only to want to understand the world, but also to help improve it.
At the United Nations summit in late September, the new sustainability goals intended to help create a better world for people and the environment were made official. The goals are great in number and comprehensive in scope. This means that goals such as eradicating poverty disappear in the masses, according to researchers that Curie has spoken to.
By July 2015, around SEK 70 billion had been distributed by Horisont 2020. Almost 3.6 percent of the money has gone to Sweden – a somewhat smaller proportion than the previous framework programme. The distribution from the European Research Council shows a decrease in the Swedish share.
Curiosity has always driven her. Not to mention pure joy and passion. As a child she wanted to know how both people and sewing machines work. As a researcher, Annakarin Nyberg investigates our behaviour on social media.
An absolute majority of younger researchers employed at Swedish higher education institutions are to have career development positions and this should occur within five years of their doctoral degrees. Many of the recommendations the Swedish Research Council is providing the Government prior to its work on the research bill concerns career paths. Improving them is one of the most important issues for Swedish research, Director General Sven Stafström thinks.
A large oil leak, wildfire or hurricane – when disaster strikes, it is beneficial to take advantage of researchers' knowledge or collect scientific data that only is available during an ongoing disaster. This poses specific challenges, but provides unique knowledge.
Agnes Wold is a researcher; her grandfather was a Nobel Prize winner and both her parents were academics. She thought it was uncool to be a professor, but she was fascinated by the human body and wanted to know more. Now she refuses to give up until she understands the mechanisms behind allergies.
