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CONFINDUSTRIA-FOUNDATION MAI, AWARD THIRTEEN YOUNG FEMALE SCIENTISTS WITH WOMEN IN STEM 2025
Tuesday 21 October 2025

21/10/2025

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Milan, 21 October 2025 - The award ceremony for Women in STEM 2025 winnersthe project promoted by the Giuseppina Mai Foundation of Confindustria to support female talent in scientific disciplines. 

The initiative, realised in collaboration with Assolombarda and the STEAMiamoci association, Bracco Foundation e Space Workwith the support of the Chiesi Group and of Fondimpresaand with the liberal support of Enel Italia, recorded a record 172 applications from all over Italy. Among them, thirteen female students enrolled in the first year of a Master's degree programme in the field Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics were awarded with 3,000 euro scholarships each and access to a mentoring course with researchers and professionals in the field. 

During the ceremony, institutions and companies discussed the importance of investing in STEM skills and bridging the gender gaps still present in technical-scientific pathways and innovation careers. 

Women in STEM relies on three fundamental levers - economic support, targeted guidance and networks between universities and business - to valorise merit, reduce drop-outs from scientific paths and foster female employability in key sectors for the country's competitiveness. 

"Valuing the talents of young girls means building a society that is fairer, more innovative and more capable of facing the challenges of tomorrow. Behind every girl who chooses science there is a society that believes in her talent: this is the cultural change we want to promote with this project,' says Diana Bracco, President of the Giuseppina Mai Foundation and of Bracco Foundation. 

"More women in STEM is not just a question of equity, but of system performance. It means energising an ecosystem of research, development and innovation, in which public-private partnerships are important, that makes a difference on the great challenges of the future. If we want to be truly competitive, we must work on the entire chain of competences: from basic training to the most advanced specialisation. Because today innovation is no longer an extraordinary event, it is the normality of work in companies,' he says Francesco De Santis, Vice President for Research and Development of Confindustria. 

"The companies in our area are well aware that innovation and competitiveness come from people and are already ready to welcome this new generation of skills. For Assolombarda, talking about STEM - or rather STEAM, including art and creativity - means looking to the future of our companies and territories. Investing in STEAM skills means building bridges between the world of education and the world of work, between critical thinking and technology. And it means, above all, recognising the value of diversity as a lever for growth,' says the vice-president of Assolombarda, Alessandro Picardi. 

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