Today is the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. The purpose of the day is to achieve full and equal access to and participation in science for women and girls. A significant gender gap has persisted across all levels of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) disciplines worldwide. Even though women have made tremendous progress towards increasing their participation in higher education, they are still underrepresented in these fields.

SAPEA is enhancing its Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Strategy to better embed EDI principles across its scientific advisory work and activities, thereby contributing to sound, legitimate, and high-quality science advice. It will seek to ensure geographic and gender diversity, broad disciplinary coverage, interdisciplinarity, and representation across fellowship status and career stages. At the same time, the Strategy will place equal emphasis on fostering equality and inclusion within SAPEA processes, supporting meaningful participation, and ensuring that a wide range of voices and perspectives are effectively heard and considered across SAPEA’s scientific advisory work.

As part of these efforts, the Young Academies Science Advice Structure (YASAS) organised an expert workshop last week in Brussels, hosted by the Jonge Academie (JA). The workshop brought together EDI experts from within the SAPEA community and beyond, as well as representatives of the SAPEA EDI Working Group and members of the SAPEA and YASAS Boards. Its objective was to explore how EDI principles can be implemented effectively and meaningfully to strengthen SAPEA’s science-for-policy impact and build long-term capacity, with emerging insights and recommendations informing the development of the EDI Strategy.

Participants shared lessons learned and good practices from other science-policy organisations, examined key EDI themes within SAPEA processes, including inclusive participation, intersectionality, and monitoring and learning, and reflected on challenges encountered during implementation. These discussions generated actionable recommendations, which will inform the next steps in the Strategy’s development.