NEURONEXXT – Network for Women in Neuroscience

The platform “NEURONE^XXT – Network for Women in Neuroscience” was recently established for female neuroscientists at all levels of academia from the postdoctoral through senior professorship career stages. The primary aim is to significantly raise the international visibility of female neuroscientists, thereby facilitating the identification of candidates for career appointments, as well as the identification of future collaboration partners, conference speakers, or mentors. The platform was created by Prof. Dr Denise Manahan-Vaughan and Dr Sabine Dannenberg as an initiative of the Collaborative Research Centre 874 “Integration and Representation of Sensory Processes” and is funded by the Ruhr University Bochum.

The motivation in creating NEURONE^XXT was derived from the fact that despite more than a decade of academia striving to improve equality measures, very little has changed in the upper ranks of academia: the percentage of women in leading and senior positions is still strikingly low and stands in stark contrast to the relatively high numbers of female neuroscientists at the doctoral and postdoctoral career levels. There is a similar problem evident in research consortia. One causative reason for this is the low visibility of a great majority of female neuroscientists. This confounds expectations that the most excellent researchers climb the career ladder – irrespective of gender.

It is therefore the goal of NEURONE^XXT to provide women from all neuroscientific disciplines, employed in academic and non-academic fields worldwide, with a platform that draws attention to their work and shares their research findings. NEURONE^XXT aims to help female neuroscientists to create new networking possibilities, thus supporting their career development and fostering new opportunities for collaborations with other researchers. NEURONE^XXT is aimed at women at all stages of their postdoctoral careers, right through to senior professorship and leadership levels: researchers can showcase their qualifications, competencies and research interests by creating a profile in the platform.

NEURONE^XXT is aimed at two target groups: Female neuroscientists who work in a neuroscientific field can create a profile in order to share their contact details and their research focus. Furthermore, any individual that is interested in identifying female neuroscientists in a specific research discipline, or for specific appointments, can register with NEURONE^XXT in order to search the database.

NEURONE^XXT will thus serve as a platform for active recruitment politics for professorships and leading positions in science and research, and for the identification of highly qualified scientists and experts for committees, advisory boards, commissions and grant reviews, as well as for the selection of guest speakers within the scope of symposia and conferences. Furthermore, the platform will enable the creation of academic and research networks with other female neuroscientists. The platform is open for registrations at: www.nexxt.rub.de