EIT Women and Girls in STEM Forum 2026

Space is getting crowded. Thousands of new satellites circle the Earth, space debris is a growing risk, and countries and companies around the world are competing to lead. To keep up, Europe needs bold ideas and the best people. Yet women are still a minority in the space sector, and the higher you look, the fewer there are.

Three leading women from Europe’s space sector share how they got there: Kristina Nikolaus, Co-Founder and CEO of OKAPI:Orbits; Dr Christina Giannopapa, Secretary General of Eurisy and President of Women in Aerospace Europe; and Jana Kominek Vecerkova, CASSINI Space Entrepreneurship Officer at EUSPA. Moderated by Girls Go STEM alumna Suhani Jain, they talk about careers in space, keeping space safe and sustainable, and how Europe can give the next generation, especially girls, a seat at the table.

What is it like to live as if you were on Mars? Dr Estel Blay Carreras found out in the Utah desert, where she spent two weeks simulating life on the Red Planet with Hypatia II, an analogue mission run entirely by women. Since only about one in ten astronauts is a woman, we still know surprisingly little about how space affects the female body, and Hypatia II set out to help close that gap. In 2027, Estel will command Hypatia III in the Canadian Arctic.

In conversation with Girls Go STEM Student Ambassador Daryna Serniak, she shares what a day on “Mars” really looks like, from outdoor missions in a spacesuit to growing tomatoes for Mars, what it takes to lead a crew, and how a career in aerospace engineering led her to Mars missions here on Earth.

Space debris is one of the biggest challenges in space today, and girls aged 14 to 19 from across Europe took it on in this year’s Girls Go STEM Student Challenge. Now the three best teams take the stage. Each has ten minutes to pitch its idea, followed by ten minutes of questions from the jury. Which idea will win? Find out at the award ceremony later in the programme.

Aerospace safety engineers spend their days calculating risk. What if we used the same thinking for our own lives? Eszter A. Varga went from aspiring writer to aerospace engineer. In this interactive keynote, she explores the difference between risk and fear, why “unlikely” does not mean “impossible”, and how to bounce back when plans fail. Her message: statistics describe what usually happens, not what you are capable of becoming.

The moment of truth. First, Maria Saline from ENHANCE University Alliance reveals the winner of the Audience Choice Award, chosen by a public online vote. The winning team will visit the ENHANCE university of their choice, one of Europe’s leading universities of technology, and discover what studying there could look like. Then Adelina Lintuluoto from CERN announces the winner of this year’s Girls Go STEM Student Challenge. Their prize: two days behind the scenes at CERN in Geneva, one of the most famous science laboratories in the world, including the chance to meet the women scientists who work there.

Meet the finalist teams, speakers and partners over lunch, and visit the interactive booths of EUIPO, ENHANCE University Alliance, 42 Prague, EIT Culture & Creativity, 28DIGITAL, and the LASAR team. Before you leave, strike a pose at the AI space photobooth!