International Girls in ICT Day 2025

Today, on International Girls in ICT Day 2025, CERN openlab celebrates the importance of empowering young women to pursue careers in information and communication technology (ICT).

At CERN openlab, we firmly believe that today’s young women in ICT will become tomorrow’s leaders, driving innovation and pushing the boundaries of computing research and development.

Over the years, we’ve been dedicated to supporting young women’s participation in ICT by providing the essential tools, mentorship, and opportunities they need to grow and thrive in their careers.

Thank you to Maria Girone, Eva DaFonte Pérez, Mélissa Gaillard, Gehad Salem and all the women who are part of the CERN penlab story and help us shape the future of computing R&D.

Since 2023, our partnership with ideas4HPC has allowed us to further strengthen our commitment by sponsoring a female summer student each year, supporting the next generation of talented women who will shape the future of computing and scientific discovery. Discover more about ideas4HPC on https://elle-it.ch/ and here.

Through our summer student programme, we actively promote diversity and inclusion by encouraging young women to pursue careers in ICT. The CERN openlab summer student programme started in 2003. Some data throughout the years (the first year with recorded data is 2008):

Between 2008 and 2010, 15% of the CERN openlab summer students were women*.

Between 2021 and 2024, that percentage raised and 35% of the CERN openlab summer students were women*.

For the 2025 CERN openlab summer student programme, 49% of the selected CERN openlab summer students are women*.

Join us in recognizing the incredible potential and contributions of young women in ICT—today and every day!

*The CERN HR database only allows to record gender as male or female.