Jolien Francken awarded Women in Science Fellowship
Four female scientists honored with prestigious For Women in Science Awards 2025
18 April 2025
The other winners are Iris Walraven (Radboudumc), Trang Duong (University of Twente & IHE Delft) and Džemila Šero (University of Twente). During the For Women in Science award ceremony at NEMO Science Museum in Amsterdam, in the presence of State Secretary for Emancipation Mariëlle Paul, they each received a prize worth €30,000 to further develop their research in a fellowship at the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study. Here, the laureates will spend five months in a community of international scientists.
Future in Science
The initiative by L’Oréal Groupe in the Benelux and the Netherlands Commission for UNESCO, in collaboration with the Dutch Network of Women Professors (LNVH), the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS) and NEMO Science Museum, aims to give female scientists the recognition they deserve and to encourage women and girls to pursue a career in science.
This year, for the first time, a secondary school was also invited to inspire teenagers to choose a future career in science. "When girls meet female role models in science at a young age, they see that science is also an option for them. In this way, we open the way to a future in which talent and ambition determine who the discoverers of tomorrow will be. Because the world needs science and science needs women", says Jean-Baptiste Dalle, Country Manager L’Oréal Benelux.
State Secretary Mariëlle Paul (Primary and Secondary Education and Equal Opportunities): “Female talent must also be able to succeed in science and technology. With their perspective, women can find new, original answers to the big questions of today and tomorrow. The For Women in Science Awards put brilliant female scientists in the spotlight. They are a wonderful example for all girls who are thinking about what they want to be.”
Less than 1 in 3 professors in the Netherlands is female
In Europe, less than 30% of professors are women. The Netherlands is even slightly below this average with 28.7%. We still have a long way to go in both the Life Sciences and the STEM disciplines (Science, Technology, Engineering & Mathematics).
The For Women in Science programme was launched worldwide in 1998 by L’Oréal Groupe and UNESCO. Since its launch, the programme has supported more than 4,400 female researchers, six of whom later won a Nobel Prize.
Four women in science
In the Netherlands, the programme has existed since 2012, in collaboration with the Netherlands Commission for UNESCO, the Netherlands Institute for Advanced Study (NIAS-KNAW) and the Dutch Network of Women Professors (LNVH). This year, NEMO Science Museum is also an official partner of the programme. Every two years, the programme rewards four exceptional female scientists in the Netherlands with a research grant of €30,000 to further develop their groundbreaking innovations and their research.
Jolien Francken:
A philosophical toolbox for neuroscientists
In my research, I delve into the workings of our brains, in particular how processes such as memory and consciousness work. Consciousness may seem easy to study because our conscious experience is so natural to us. But, in reality, it is a very complex phenomenon to measure. We can measure it in different ways, for example in humans or mice, but these measurements often yield different results that are difficult to integrate. With the For Women in Science Fellowship, I want to achieve two things: first, I want to better understand what 'measurement' actually is, and second, I want to develop a philosophical 'toolbox' for neuroscientists. With the toolbox I aim to improve scientific measurements. I think that this toolbox can also be useful for other scientific disciplines, due to its flexible design. Moreover, I hope that my research helps lay people understand how scientific measurement works, and how we can improve measurements in both science and in society.
The exceptional work of Dr. Jolien Francken bridges the fields of neuroscience and philosophy and was praised by the jury for her excellence and relevance to the interdisciplinary environment of NIAS. Her ability to connect these two very different fields in a clear way makes her work truly special.