Science thrives when diverse perspectives, experiences, and talents come together. Yet across Europe and beyond, many people still face barriers to fully participating in higher education, research, innovation, and academic life.
Led jointly by the EELISA Communication Network and the EELISA Gender Equality and Diversity workgroup with the support of the EELISA Student Council, Science Has No Labels is an awareness campaign aimed at shedding light on about the structural inequalities in STEM while celebrating those actively working to overcome them.
This initiative features individuals and teams working to make science more inclusive, equitable, and accessible. Through their work in teaching, research, and advocacy, these scientists are helping dismantle barriers related to gender, ethnicity, migration status, age, nationality, religion, disability, socio-economic background, or sexual orientation, while shaping a scientific community where everyone can contribute and belong. They are also addressing these inequalities in the real world, creating innovations and initiatives that impact people beyond academia.
Each EELISA member institution has selected a participant or team from their community whose work reflects this commitment. Throughout March and April, their profiles and their stories will be gradually added to this page.
At the same time, the campaign also serves as an opportunity to promote key EELISA initiatives supporting inclusion, including the EELISA Joint Offer Related To Gender, Inclusiveness and Diversity & EELISA Inclusiveness Plan, which provide resources and learning opportunities to foster more inclusive academic environments across the alliance.
You can also follow the campaign as the stories are published on our social media channels — Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, and Bluesky.
Together, these contributions demonstrate that building a more inclusive scientific ecosystem is not only possible — it is already happening across EELISA. Because science truly has no labels. Science is for and by all!
Why it matters?
Higher education and research institutions play a key role in building inclusive societies. Yet inequalities persist in access to education, career opportunities, and representation in science.
The reality in Higher Education
Across Europe, surveys shows that barriers remain significant:
- 22% of students report experiencing discrimination during their studies.
- 19% report limitations to their studies due to disability, functional limitations, or health problems.
- Although women represent between 50% and 66% of higher education students, their presence remains uneven across disciplines, particularly in STEM fields.
- Students with disabilities report discrimination more than twice as often as students without disabilities.
- 48% of students from financially disadvantaged backgrounds say they could not cover an unexpected major expense, highlighting the impact of socioeconomic inequality on access to education.
- Evidence also shows that racial and ethnic discrimination persists in education. Around 25% of people of African descent in the EU report experiencing racism, while surveys across Europe also highlight discrimination affecting Roma communities, migrants, and other ethnic minority groups in access to education and academic opportunities.
- Source: EUROSTUDENT 8 Report
Workforce inequality
- Globally, according to the World Economic Forum, women make up only 28.2% of the STEM workforce, compared with 47.3% of the workforce in non-STEM sectors.
- Comparable global or European statistics on disability representation in STEM remain limited, but available evidence points to significant gaps. According to the U.S. National Science Foundation, people with disabilities represent only about 3% of the STEM workforce. In Europe, only around 50% of people with disabilities are employed, compared with about 75% of those without disabilities, according to Eurostat.
- Structural inequalities also affect racial and ethnic minorities. According to the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights, nearly half of people of African descent in the EU report experiencing racial discrimination over a five-year period, highlighting barriers that can affect access to education, employment, and career progression.
- Across OECD countries, immigrants earn on average 34% less when entering the labour market, reflecting structural barriers that can affect many sectors, including science and technology.
These inequalities do not only affect individuals—they shape who participates in science, what knowledge is produced, and which perspectives are represented.
Addressing these barriers is essential for building a scientific ecosystem that is fairer, more innovative, and more socially relevant.
Know their stories:
Dr. Manami Sasaki is Professor of Multiwavelength Astronomy at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg (FAU) and Associate Dean for Internationalisation and Diversity at the Science Faculty.
Alongside her research in astrophysics, she actively works to strengthen diversity, equal opportunities, and inclusive academic environments.
Through initiatives such as the Physics Diversity Network (PHYDINE) and its bi-yearly conference “Diversity in Physics for the Diversity of Physics – Erlangen,” she helps create spaces where scientists from different backgrounds can thrive and contribute new ideas to the field.
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Alin Moldoveanu, Anca Morar, and Maria-Anca Băluțoiu are researchers and professors at the Faculty of Automatic Control and Computers, POLITEHNICA University of Bucharest. Their work combines virtual and augmented reality, computer graphics, and eHealth technologies to develop innovative solutions that support accessibility and rehabilitation.
Together, they contribute to projects such as Sound of Vision, which develops a wearable system that allows visually impaired people to perceive and navigate their surroundings through real-time auditory and haptic feedback, enabling independent movement both indoors and outdoors.
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A French as a Foreign Language (FLE) professor for 20 years, he is currently in charge of the “Refugee Students Program” at the École nationale des ponts et chaussées.
Cédric Rousse has been a teacher of French as a Foreign Language (FLE) since 2007. He has been teaching at Sciences Po Paris since 2014. A graduate of the University of Nantes in FLE and History, he specialized in international cultural relations, particularly between France, Italy, and Spain. He first taught French language and civilization abroad, in the Middle East, as part of an international volunteer mission for the French government, as well as at HEC. He then taught the same subjects at several prestigious institutions: the École nationale des ponts et chaussées, EPITA, EPF-ESTP, and Université Gustave Eiffel.
Veronica Iacovacci is an Associate Professor of Bioengineering at the BioRobotics Institute of the Scuola Superiore Sant’Anna in Pisa.
In 2020, she was awarded a Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions fellowship for the MAMBO project (development of magnetic microrobots for embolization) and an European Research Council Starting Grant for the I-BOT project in 2024, which aims to develop the first generation of implantable microrobots. She’s coordinator of the strategic project “STEM: le ragazze si mettono in gioco”, a free residential orientation course dedicated to fourth-year high school girls whose parents do not hold a university degree, with the goal of increasing female participation in STEM fields.
Prof. Hatice Köse is a full Professor at the Faculty of Computer and Informatics Engineering at Istanbul Technical University, where she has coordinated the GameLab and Cognitive Social Robotics Lab since 2010.
Her research focuses on gesture communication, sign language, and imitation-based interaction games with social humanoid robots — designed to support the education and rehabilitation of children with hearing impairment and autism.
She currently leads national projects and contributes to Horizon 2020, Erasmus+, and COST Actions on social assistive robotics and human-robot interaction. A committed mentor, she actively encourages female students and researchers to join her work — and her team reflects that.
Patricia Aguilera Benito and Isabel Bach Buendía are professors at the School of Building of the Technical University of Madrid (UPM).
Awarded the Peonza de Oro 2023 in the category of Teaching Cooperation, they foster learning environments that are fair, participatory, and creative.
They collaborate with Fundación Down Madrid and the Focus Labora project, which provides young people with intellectual disabilities with specialized training aimed at developing personal, social, and workplace competencies. Under the project “We Take Action Against Energy Poverty”, they coordinate teams made up of university students and students with intellectual disabilities who work together to understand and propose solutions to the challenges of energy poverty.