The Ikerbasque Evaluation Committee has selected the three researchers who will be recognised for their work this year. In this fifth edition, the researchers Alicia Alonso, Ainhoa Magrach and Sara Barja will receive recognition from the Department of Education and Ikerbasque. The aim of the initiative is to raise the profile of Basque women researchers so that they can serve as an example and inspiration to new generations of researchers.
The evaluation committee in charge of deliberating on the awards for women researchers has unanimously agreed which women researchers will receive this recognition in 2023, at each of the three levels at which they are awarded. The Regional Minister of Education, Jokin Bildarratz, has already informed the three women scientists of the recognition awarded by the Department of Education and Ikerbasque.
The researchers recognised this year 2023 are:
Advanced, recognition of an entire research career:
Alicia Alonso, Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, UPV/EHU.
Consolidator, recognition of a leading researcher in her field of research:
Ainhoa Magrach, Ikerbasque Research Professor at BC3, leads the global change and ecosystem functioning group.
Starting, recognition of an outstanding contribution by a young researcher:
Sara Barja, Ikerbasque Research Associate at UPV/EHU and MPC.
The aim of this recognition is to give visibility to women researchers in the Basque Country and their work, so that they can serve as an example and inspiration to new generations of researchers. Therefore, it is not so much a prize, but rather a recognition and visibility. To this end, women researchers who are at three different stages of their scientific career are highlighted: advanced, consolidated and promising.
For this fifth edition of the awards, Ikerbasque has carried out a bibliometric analysis of the scientific production data and has highlighted the latest outstanding contributions of Basque women researchers. For their part, the members of the Delegate Committee of the Ikerbasque Board of Trustees focused their debate on a final selection of 22 women researchers at the three levels described above. In this way, they highlighted the high scientific level of the researchers in each category, with a level of excellence that increases with each edition, which reflects the great potential of the science carried out in the Basque Country by women researchers.
Likewise, the Evaluation Committee points out its interest in seeking a balance in the different editions between the profiles of the women researchers recognised, both in terms of the stage of their research career as well as their area of knowledge and the scientific subsystem in which they carry out their activity. This evaluation committee is made up of three researchers of recognised prestige from the Ikerbasque Board of Trustees, as well as the Director of Research of the Basque Government and the Commissioner for Science, Technology and Innovation.
Annual awards
This initiative is part of Ikerbasque’s Strategic Plan, which states that one of its 12 challenges is to make progress in gender equality in the incorporation of people into the Ikerbasque research community. In this respect, the Ikerbasque Board of Trustees approved an Equality Plan that includes an action aimed at awarding annual prizes to women researchers, with the aim of creating spaces for training and reflection, to work on gender equality in science and to generate and make visible the Role Model of women and men.
The Department of Education and Ikerbasque will hold a recognition ceremony in the autumn, which will be attended by the women researchers recognised, as well as representatives of research centres, universities and technology centres in the Basque Country.
Source: euskadi.eus
