As part of its Seventh Framework Programme (FP7), the European Commission is funding a number of projects that will help women enter science and technology careers.

FP7 aims to address “research and policy actions on science, economy and society”, said an EU report. It encompasses two programmes; the Science in Society programme and the Socio-economic Sciences and Humanities programme.

The Science in Society programme will fund 28 projects from a budget of over 21m Euros. Details of the projects will soon be confirmed on the CORDIS web site.

One project agreed to go ahead with funding of around one million Euros is Practising Gender Equality in Science (PRAGES). This will compare strategies that have been put in place in Europe, the USA, Australia and Canada, which promote women into decision making positions so that they can hold more influence over scientific research institutions.

“The main objective is to identify the most relevant activities to fight against vertical segregation in scientific professions,” said the EU report.

Participants from the UK taking part in the project are the University of Manchester and The University of Cambridge.

Another of the programme’s projects, which is sponsored by 750,000 Euros, is the Mind the Gap initiative, which aims to gather and share information on good practice science teaching.

“The overall aim is to stimulate a more engaging and interesting science teaching…so that more young people in general, and girls in particular, wish to pursue education and careers in science and technology,” said the report.

Separately, the European Commission has also announced renewed emphasis on its eHealth agenda and delivering ICT solutions for patients, as part of its Lead Market Initiative (LMI).

The LMI intends to foster the emergence of a number of markets, eHealth being one of these, by “improving legislation, encouraging public procurement and developing interoperable standards”.