WIL has interviewed Denis Perret-Gallix, CNRS Research Director, Director TyL Lab, about its project to find European partners for the launch of the first Japanese award for women in research.

European Commissioner for Research, Innovation and Science Máire Geoghegan-Quinn recently warned that “the European Union is going to need up to one million extra researchers by 2020. And right now, women comprise more than half the EU's student population and 45% of all PhDs, but they account for only one third of career researchers. We need them to solve problems like climate change, energy and public health. We need them to help improve our economy and to help provide growth and jobs.”

Improving gender equality and the gender dimension in research and innovation is one of her major commitments. To that end, Europe needs to boost its innovation & research culture.

Collaboration with non-European countries is also relevant. That is why we wanted to better understand Denis Perret-Gallix’s initiative. His story is an example of an innovative European scientific collaboration with Japan.

Can you explain what TYL lab is?

6 years ago, IN2P3 (CNRS) and Irfu (CEA)[1] in France created a joint laboratory in the field of particle physics with KEK[2] in Japan. Its name, TYL (Toshiko Yuasa Lab.), is a tribute to the first woman physicist in Japan[3]. She carried out most of her research career in France (CNRS), in Frederic Joliot-Curie’s team[4]. During the war, she had to move back to Japan and taught at the Ochanomizu Women’s University in Tokyo. She became very active in improving cooperation with Europe and promoting women in physics. Today, TYL houses 25 joint projects on many aspects of particle and high-energy physics, studying the basic forces of nature and the origin of the universe. This is the same physics which made headlines recently at CERN[5] with the discovery of a new boson, the famous Higgs particle[6]. In addition, every year TYL organizes in cooperation with KEK, Ochanomizu and Nara Women’s universities a school for high-school women students providing an initiation into research in the field of physics.

Could you tell us more about the “Women in research” award ceremony to be launched in 2013?

Discussions in Japan involving TYL, universities and industries are being held to award, from 2013 on, women researchers in the field of natural sciences (including physics, biology, chemistry, IT, mathematics, ...). One option would be to award 2 prizes a year: one, at post-doc level, to a promising young woman researcher and one, at an advanced level, to a well-established woman researcher. The award ceremony will be part of an international symposium giving researchers an opportunity to present their challenges and achievements. Thanks to the international dimension, the awardees would be given the possibility to visit companies, laboratories or other organizations in Europe related to their field of expertise.

How would you like to associate WIL and/or any of its members to this first award? Which type of collaboration with Asia are you looking for?

WIL can play a pro-active role by informing its members about this rare initiative and its benefits for developing stronger links between Japan and Europe. Some of the organizations may wish to sponsor this event and/or welcome Japanese women researchers. They could even form a foundation of sorts to support women in science in this bilateral framework. In a second stage, setting up a more balanced project could be considered in a joint foundation between the EU and Japan[7] and why not Asia, sponsoring cross exchanges for young women between the two regions in all domains of leadership.