To mark International Women’s Day on 8 March, the Iuliu Hațieganu University of Medicine and Pharmacy (UMF) in Cluj-Napoca (Romania), a member of NeurotechEU, organised the conference Women of NeurotechEU: Empower, Lead, Innovate. The Miguel Hernández University of Elche (UMH) was represented by Juana Gallar, Director of the Institute of Neurosciences (a joint centre of the UMH and the Spanish National Research Council) and NeurotechEU leader at UMH, and Inma Blaya, Director of the International Relations and Cooperation Service, whose presentation was delivered by the Director of International Promotion, María del Carmen Lillo. Throughout the two-day event, rectors, vice-rectors, directors of services and research centres, managers, and academics shared their experiences on how personal decisions have shaped their professional careers. They also discussed the importance of having role models and looked ahead to the next steps for reducing gender inequality within the international university context.

Inma Blaya’s presentation focused on the implementation of policies at UMH designed to enhance gender equality within the institution. According to Blaya, UMH views gender equality not merely as a goal but as a “scientific necessity”. She added: “UMH has integrated various equality and equity plans into the university’s operational framework to ensure that progress is structural rather than accidental.” However, she also noted that while we celebrate the fact that UMH has 40% female representation among its ambassador cohorts, “we must ask ourselves why that figure has not yet reached 50%.”

Juana Gallar focused her intervention on the importance of female presence in leadership roles and the significant progress still to be made. “It is time to analyse the progress achieved and identify the barriers we still need to tear down,” she noted. After reviewing the challenges she has overcome during her career, she highlighted several key actions: “fostering psychological safety in work environments so that the best ideas can flourish regardless of rank; exercising leadership beyond formal titles by opening doors for those following behind; and harnessing the power of cognitive diversity to move from incremental discoveries to disruptive breakthroughs.”

Finally, some speakers highlighted figures from their personal lives as role models who encouraged their professional growth. Others, such as Gallar, pointed to figures like Maruja Mallo as a “reference who challenged perceptions of art and science with a surrealist perspective that reflects current neurobiological studies on vision and recognition.”

NeurotechEU is an alliance of universities that seeks not only to create a pioneering university campus in neurotechnology but also aims to build a more inclusive and egalitarian Europe.