C‘It is a time that is not measured in laboratory hours, but in waiting. Expectations of funds, recognition, stability. It’s the suspended time in which many young Italian researchers find themselves living science: with passion, yes, but also with a constant sense of temporariness. Despite this, however, they continue to choose research. And it is precisely to them that he addresses himself, with a concrete promise, the twenty-fourth edition of the L’Oréal–UNESCO Award “For Women in Science” Young Talents Italya recognition that does not come as a trophy, but as an act of trust. Much more than just a scholarship.
L’Oréal–UNESCO Award, don’t call it a scholarship
In fact, since 2022, the recognition has become a prize. A choice that seems semantic, but is substantial: it’s no longer about “helping” researchers, but to recognize their value and talent without conditions. No academic obligations, no incompatibility with other funds. Just one clear message: your research deserves to exist, even if it doesn’t fall within the parameters of immediate productivity. Even if you are a woman, young and perhaps precarious.
The time of female scientists
Starting today, November 18th, young Italian researchers can apply through the site For Women in Science no later than January 30, 2026. The winners under 35 there will be six and each will receive a prize of 20,000 euros. The disciplines involvedLife Sciences, Environmental Sciences, Mathematics, Physics, Chemistry, Engineering and Technologies, are not chosen at random: sThey are those in which the female presence is still a minority and where every individual success has systemic value.
The winners of the 2025 Italian edition of the L’Oréal-UNESCO “For Women in Science” Young Talents Award
The jury: twelve looks on complexity
A commission of twelve experts will evaluate the applications, led by physicist Lucia Votano, first woman to direct the Gran Sasso laboratories of the National Institute of Nuclear Physics. A presence that is not only symbolic, but a sign that science, even in Italy, can be crossed by female biographies that break the mold. Next to her there will be: the behavioral biologist Enrico Alleva, the zoologist Anna Loy, the biochemist Valeria Poli, the immunologist Giulia Casorati and the pioneer and expert in artificial intelligence, Fosca Giannotti. Not a simple committee, but a mosaic of skills that reflects the plurality of contemporary science.
L’Oréal–UNESCO Award: a program that has set a precedent
“For Women in Science” was born in 1998 from an alliance between L’Oréal and UNESCO, with the aim of supporting women’s scientific careers in a world still marked by inequalities. Globally, the program has already awarded 3,900 female researchers in over 110 countries. In Italy, there were 124 winners. Some today lead research groups, others teach, and still others have left academia. But they all received, at least once, a signal that said: “Your work matters”. And, in a system that often rewards resilience more than competence, this is no small thing.
The true value: time, freedom, recognition
Twenty thousand euros don’t change the world, as we know, much less a career, but they can, however, change the life of a researcher. It can mean months of work without having to chase tenders, laboratory hours not subordinated to logics of precariousnessthe freedom to explore an idea without having to justify it in advance. They can therefore offer a sort of “freed” timein which research returns to being exploration and not just performance.
Merit (unfortunately) is not neutral
In short, the point is not just to “give space to women in science”. It is understanding that merit alone is not enough. Because merit, unfortunately, is never neutral: it is filtered by networks, accesses, languages. And if we don’t intervene on material conditions, time, funds, visibility, we risk always rewarding the same ones. The L’Oréal–UNESCO Prize would like to avoid this and while it clearly doesn’t solve everything, it at least points in a direction. But not only that: it is also part of a broader battle, which is that for a more inclusive science, where diversity is a necessary condition for innovation.