The CIBSS Cluster of Excellence wants to create a welcoming and respectful environment where all scientists, employees and students have equal opportunities. We therefore are glad that three of our PhD students attended this year’s “I, Scientist” conference at the TU Berlin (20.-21.09.2019, https://www.iscientist.berlin/). They came back with new impulses and a sharpened eye for the importance of addressing gender inequalities and mental health issues in academia and science.

The "I, Scientist" conference is specifically aimed at students, graduates and junior researchers of the MINT subjects. The main focus, however, lies “beyond science”. All speakers are female and/or members of the LGBTQ+ community and share stories of their personal lives and career paths. The mission of the conference, which is organised by volunteers and has been held for the third time now, is to create a “structural change in science“ by sharing and connecting these individual stories.

This year, participants had the chance to attend a networking breakfast and “speed dating” career fair. And in different sessions, they could exchange ideas and personal experiences. Especially engaging was the session on “Activism in Science and gender equality”, in which participants drafted next steps for carrying the initiative forward.

“The conference conveyed a very positive feeling”, say the CIBSS PhD students who attended the event, “because all the participants were sensitised for the importance of addressing inequality and mental health issues, and will hopefully pass this on within their respective institutes. We should all be advocates for equality within academia – because in the end everybody profits from that.”