Forgotten Pioneers starts from a simple principle: Europe’s scientific history should reflect the people who actually helped to shape it.
The partnership will bring overlooked histories back into view through archival research, oral history, storytelling, exhibitions, educational resources and opportunities for young people to engage directly with these stories.
Importantly, the project is not only concerned with correcting the historical record.
The absence of migrant women from scientific history also affects how we understand science today. When young people repeatedly encounter histories in which scientists are presented through a narrow range of backgrounds and experiences, it can influence ideas about who belongs in scientific spaces and whose knowledge is valued.
Forgotten Pioneers therefore connects remembrance with present-day questions of equality, representation and participation. The project will explore how historical exclusion relates to contemporary challenges such as the non-recognition of qualifications, deskilling, gender bias and limited representation of migrant women in STEM.