“The String Theory Universe”: A EU project in Physics with a Materials, Physics & Nanosciences (MPNS) COST Action no. MP1210 20132017 “The String Theory Universe”: A EU project in Physics with a gender component Participating countries: 20 A, BE, BG, CH, DE, DK, EL, ES, FR, HU, IE, IL, IS, IT, NL, PT, SI, SE, TR, UK Internat. Collaboration: ZA, CERN (CH), CL, AR, US, AU Main objectives of the Action Action in String Theory aimed at coordinating fundamental forefront research exploring the role played by String Theory in Particle Physics, Cosmology and Condensed Matter Strong commitment in gender with the ultimate goal of promoting specific actions for redressing gender imbalance in the field Why the gender aspect String Theory is likely to be the research field inside the so-called “hard sciences” with fewer women scientists, around 10% As a consequence, professional interactions with women are scarce, women are often left out of decision making processes, and have more difficulties in accessing top positions This makes the field less attractive to younger women, who perceive that String Theory is not a girl-thing, making the situation hard to improve The Action Project not gender biased and strictly based on scientific excellence. All world-leading European scientists (male and female) doing research in String Theory are involved Action organized in working groups. Four are scientific and one, WG5, is devoted to gender and outreach The first objective of WG5 has been to raise the awareness of the community about the gender problem Discussion sessions led by women scientists and gender experts have been organized in all main scientific events held by the Action. Next step has been to organize the “First Workshop on String Theory and Gender” (Valencia, July 2015) (follow up in preparation (Paris, June 2016)) and to attend the European Gender Summits. The aim is to learn from gender experts which specific measures can be reasonably applied to our field Contact details Chair of the Action Silvia Penati silvia.penati@mib.infn.it Vice-Chair of the Action Yolanda Lozano ylozano@uniovi.es Science Officer (COST Office) Fatima Bouchama Fatima.Bouchama@cost.eu Action Website www. cost.eu/domains_actions/mpns/Actions/MP1210 Image caption: