When thinking about science and scientists, the first names coming to mind belong to males. That is because not many female scientists have been allowed to make history into science and engineering. The reasons of this trend are well known and yet difficult to eradicate. In 1927 at the famous Solvay conference in Belgium, 29 out of 30 attendees were men. They were all prestigious scientists, such as Albert Einstein and Erwin Schrödinger. The only woman was Marie Curie, who at that time had already won two Nobel prizes. Despite the position of women in the society has changed since 1927, biases and stereotypes still remain and jeopardize a girl’s chances of becoming a scientist.

Even if today most science departments are more diverse than one century ago, there is still considerable progress left to make. Indeed, the gender balance is preserved mostly at early stage of career (i.e. among PhDs and young Post Docs) but in most colleges and universities, PIs are mostly men.

Many highly influential and successful women are contributing to Neuroengineering and related fields, both in the academic and non-academic sector. Yet, female scientists and managers are still underrepresented in various aspects of both academic life (e.g. keynote speakers at conference, directors of research, directors of infrastructures) and industry world (e.g. founders of tech companies, CEOs, top managers). Several initiatives have been recently created to increase the visibility of women; however, gender bias, gender gap and glass ceiling are and will remain a matter of fact, if concrete actions are not taken by the politician but also by scientists, as a community.

At the ‘IEEE Women in Engineering International Leadership Summit’ held in Genova, Italy, in 2021, science, mentorship, competitiveness, leadership, innovation, diversity, and parenting have been discussed with leaders in the fields of Neuroengineering and related fields. Rooting on the results of that Summit, this Research Topic aims at broadening the audience, actively promoting the dissemination of scientific work involving women scientists, mostly in the field of neuroscience, neural engineering, neuroprosthetics, neural and nanotechnology and computational neuroscience. We also encourage submissions targeting studies on mental health in academia as well as on the difficulties of balancing career and parenting. We believe that the contribution published within this research Topic will help in promoting discussion, breaking the stigma and overcoming existing dogma around Women in Neuroengineering and Neurotechnologies

Topics covered belong but are not limited to the following:

• Manuscript dealing with the identification of good practice for preserving gender equality both within the lab and in the Neuroengineering community

• Stories of women in Neuroengineering and related fields: how they turned their interest in STEM into a science career

• Analysis of mental health issues specifically related to women and minorities in general

• Investigations of how parenting affects the career for different genders

• Investigations/perspective on how to ameliorate the research ecosystem to improve women’s career and cooperation’s among genders.

• Studies exploring the gender gap of leadership positions in the STEM areas

• Works in neuroengineering, neural interfaces, nanotechnologies, advanced materials and devices targeting neuroscience investigations and applications, led by women.

Type of manuscripts: Original Research, Systematic Review, Review (and mini Review), Perspective, Clinical Trial, Case Report, Brief Research Report.

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Frontiers in Neuroscience

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