The meeting aims to foster dialogue on promoting women in leadership roles within Indian academia by addressing barriers and developing actionable strategies to enhance gender equity at all levels. We invite participants of all genders, including senior PhD students, postdocs, and early- to mid-career academics.

The meeting will cover a range of topics, from securing your first academic position to building and sustaining a successful and fulfilling career. Specifically:

• Recruitment in academia
• Establishing a research group in India
• Navigating promotions in academia
• Leadership roles – perspectives on suitability and visibility

The sessions will primarily consist of panel discussions and collaborative brainstorming, to curate practical guidelines for participants and develop recommendations for institutional policies that support gender diversity in leadership.

The presence of women in leadership roles is not only a matter of equity but also a strategic imperative for Indian academia. Research demonstrates that gender-diverse leadership teams foster more innovative science, make forward-thinking decisions, and create collaborative work environments. Women leaders bring unique perspectives on diversity, equity, mentorship, and policy formulation — key elements for driving meaningful change. However, women remain significantly underrepresented in academic leadership positions in India. Addressing this disparity is urgent, as it is essential for empowering talented women, enabling them to realise their full potential, and ultimately strengthening the academic ecosystem as a whole.

Applications are invited from senior PhD students, postdocs, and early- to mid-career academics of all genders.

Registration fees

• PhD student & Postdoctoral fellow: INR 800
  
• Faculty and others in academia: INR 1600

To register for this event and pay the registration fee, click here.

Registration deadline: 16 January 2025

Accommodation and travel

Accommodation will be provided on the IIT Bombay campus. Participants are requested to make their own travel arrangements to reach IIT Bombay.

Travel support of up to INR 12000 will be provided to select participants based on the selection process. The funding will be in the form of reimbursements against travel by air, road or railway to reach the venue and back to the participant’s host institute city or state.

If you have questions, please email — powerbio.​meetings@​gmail.​com

All IndiaBioscience meetings, workshops, and conferences are subject to a Conference Code of Conduct.

IndiaBioscience is dedicated to providing an inclusive and harassment-free experience for everyone, regardless of gender, gender identity and expression, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, caste, or religion. We do not tolerate harassment of event participants in any form. All communication should be appropriate for a professional audience including people of many different backgrounds. We expect participants to follow these rules at all event venues (virtual or physical) and event-related social events.

Speakers and presenters: Sexual language and imagery are not appropriate for the event venue, including talks and posters. Sexist, racist or exclusionary jokes are not acceptable.

Participants: Harassment includes offensive verbal comments related to gender, sexual orientation, disability, physical appearance, body size, race, caste, religion, sexual images in public spaces, deliberate intimidation, stalking, following, harassing photography or recording, sustained disruption of talks or other events, inappropriate physical contact, and unwelcome sexual attention.

Sponsors: Sponsors are also subject to the anti-harassment policy.

Virtual events: Attendees, Speakers, Trainers and Event Organisers are required to keep all e‑communications — emails, online presentations, webinar chat/Q&A sessions etc — professional and respectful. As with the physical events, at online seminars/​workshops/​courses and associated correspondence, sexual language/​imagery and harassment are not appropriate and will not be tolerated.

Action: Attendees asked to stop any harassing behaviour are expected to comply immediately. If an attendee engages in behaviour that violates this code of conduct, the conference organisers may take any action they deem appropriate, including warning the offender, expelling him or her from the premises with no refund or expelling them from the virtual event (i.e. webinar, workshop, course etc).

Meeting organisers are there to help participants contact appropriate authorities, provide escorts, or otherwise assist those experiencing harassment to feel safe for the duration of the conference. We value your attendance.

Contact: If you are harassed, have noticed that someone else is being harassed, or have any other concerns, please contact: powerbio.​meetings@​gmail.​com.

License: This Conference Code of Conduct was modified from the Code of Conduct for JSFOO 2014 and Code of Conduct for YIM 2015, available under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License, and the Geek Feminism Wiki, created by the Ada Initiative and volunteers, available under a Creative Commons Zero license.

The Conference Code of Conduct for IndiaBioscience events is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported License.