The National Cancer Institute, in partnership with the Universities of São Paulo and Birmingham in England, will develop the international Women in Science initiative throughout this year.

The partnership provides for the exchange of knowledge, policies and practices to increase the role of women in areas such as research, technology and science institutions.

Mariana Burrone, Head of the Laboratory of Bioinformatics and Computational Biology at the Inca, says the first step will be to identify the main problems of inequality in the holding of positions by men and women and to seek experiences from partner institutions that already have an existing gender equality programme.

Among the proposals already made by students, researchers and professionals involved in the work is the Joint Network women in sciencewhich will provide new digital resources and personal training to aid in continuing professional development.

The Women in Science Initiative was founded by the British Council which developed the project Promoting and strengthening gender equality in higher education: a British-Brazilian perspective.