PROBONO Partners participated in the 'Girls in Science' week in February, which took place at the Spanish Public Primary School (CEIP) Mirasierra in Madrid. Achieving sustainable goals relies on harnessing all talent. Therefore, it is crucial to raise awareness among girls and women about working in science and to push for their participation. PROBONO is paving the way for girls to be actively involved in research and innovation taking part to the initiative of the Public Primary School (CEIP) Mirasierra in Madrid where students’ mothers were invited to talk about their work.
Empowering Tomorrow's Innovators
It was a wonderful opportunity to inform 11-year-old students about PROBONO's main objectives, which address the needs of both women and men. The presentation also highlighted the role of women in PROBONO and emphasised their participation in science and technology communities.
Students learned about R&D projects funded by the EU, the European gender policy, and the work done in PROBONO by women and men from 15 different European countries. This work aims to contribute to sustainable and regenerative design and construction, as well as progress on issues related to Green Building Neighbourhoods topic.
Loredana Donatelli, Magdalena Rozanska and Nuria Izquierdo from Acciona Ingenieria, Catarina Soares from Sonae MC, Benedita Ferreira from Capwatt, Clara Guzmán from Idom and Iulia Vicente Gomez from Cartif described their job as Engineer or Architect in PROBONO, their involvement in a so ambitious research project and how decisions are taken. Main focus was on the project that thrives in a gender equality environment and shows that empowerment of women makes a crucial contribution to global economic development and to progress across all goals and targets in technology and research.
Madrid Living Lab
Moreover, students learnt about geothermal energy which will be used for the Heating and Cooling District Network in the Madrid Living Lab. Madrid Living Lab will be focused on the Development of Las Tablas Oeste and the establishment of common integrated energy infrastructures to fully cover the district’s thermal demand through geothermic energy and the electricity demand through solar energy via photovoltaics on buildings and the urban space. In Spain there is no regulatory model for heating and cooling networks, with examples existing but giving rise to difficulties when it comes to scaling solutions, so it is expected that this pilot will allow the standardisation of the necessary elements in the public space for their approval. The aim is to achieve Energy Positive building status for the residential building in Las Tablas Oeste.
Students were extremely curious and paid attention all the time. They were surprised to discover that the Madrid pilot project is located next to their school. This realisation shows that positive changes are starting right in their own neighbourhood!
Thank you very much to the Public Primary School (CEIP) Mirasierra for the initiative.