Convened Session 1

Convened Session 12025-05-23T17:03:13+00:00

WiTaR: Women in Telecommunications and Research

Wednesday, 4 June 2025, 11:00 – 12:30, room EH.B (level2)
Session Chair:
  • Bahare Masood Khorsandi (Nokia, )
  • Marie-Helene Hamon (Orange, )
  • Irene Alepuz Benaches (iTEAM, )
  • Ishita Mishra (Institute PIIU, )
  • Pooja Mohnani (EURESCOM, )
  • Audrey Bienvenu (EURESCOM, )
  • Marja Matinmikko-Blue (University of Oulu, FI)
  • Oluwatayo Yetunde Kolawole (Samsung, )
  • Didier Bourse (Nokia, FR)

Women in Telecommunications and Research (WiTaR) is a 6G-IA working group founded in 2023 as an EU-level initiative to promote gender equality, inclusion and empowerment in the 6G Research & Innovation (R&I) community. WiTaR initiated from the European 6G flagship project Hexa-X with limited number of participant and expanded to 112 members from more than 22 SNS projects today.
This session will be the fourth edition of WiTaR convened session in EUCNC & 6G summit, aims at communicating the WiTaR initiative up-dates and plans to the European and global 6G R&I community, further raising awareness of gender inclusivity and engaging different stakeholders and EU projects to discuss possible actions to improve gender diversity and inclusivity in the R&I activities especially in the Smart Network and Services (SNS) Joint undertaking (JU).

Programme

The proposed structure is envisioned for the 90 minutes slot:

  • Welcome from the WG chair and vice-chair

-> Bahare M. Khorsandi & Marie-Helene Hamon

  • WiTaR introduction and update on the recent activities of the working group

(including the current status in SNS and EUCNC conference in aspects of women participation)

-> Bahare M. Khorsandi & Marie-Helene Hamon

  • Video(s) from leaders around Europe stating the importance of gender inclusivity, including in deep tech and 6G

->Didier Bourse

  • Introduction of this year’s theme “Women visibility/invisibility – Targeted SNS actions

 -> Didier Bourse

  • Industry and academia’s view and practice to encourage gender diversity
      • Accademia
        • Ahmad Nimr (University of Dresden) TBC
      • Industry
        • Agnieszka Szufarska (Nokia Poland)
        • Dinh-Thuy Phan-Huy (Orange)
  • Bar camp on “Women visibility/invisibility – Targeted SNS actions

Goal is to create an open, collaborative environment for sharing ideas, particularly amongst the Tech and the SNS community to promote and empower women researchers.

-> Pooja Mohnani

Groups formation + introduction + group discussion

Presentation of the results from each group

5 min conclusion

  • Conclusion and next steps

-> Bahare M. Khorsandi & Marie-Helene Hamon

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