Innovate, Lead, Connect: The Women in STEM Journey at e-AGE25
As part of the EU co-funded EUMEDplus project and within the annual e-AGE conference organized by ASREN, the Women in STEM Track serves as a platform to empower, connect, and support women in science, research, and innovation.
Each year, the track brings together experienced professionals, young talents, and leaders to engage in knowledge-sharing and capacity-building activities.
The 2025 edition focuses on entrepreneurship, aiming to equip women with the tools, insights, and confidence to pursue innovative ventures and leadership roles.
This year's track includes two main parts:
Empowering Women Entrepreneurs – Choose Your Path Workshop
A full-day, interactive workshop designed to provide women entrepreneurs and aspiring business leaders with opportunities to explore key entrepreneurship topics through themed sessions led by experts.
Building Strategic Partnerships & Overcoming Challenges Session
A special session to showcase the workshop’s outcomes and feature successful women entrepreneurs sharing their journeys and delving into discussions around the importance of partnerships and mentoring for women.
Workshop Program
Opening Session
Shared introduction and overview. Each expert briefly introduces themselves, their topic, and what participants can expect.
Networking Break
Morning Sessions (Parallel)
Grant Writing & Funding
Academic skills alone are insufficient in today's highly competitive environment! You must be unique, prepared, and understand how to stand out! In today's fast-paced and competitive startup market, acquiring funding could be the difference between starting a game-changing business and becoming another statistic.
Securing funding remains one of the most important barriers to growing your career, starting a new enterprise, or participating in a community initiative. Furthermore, not all funding is equal, thus understanding the various funding sources is crucial.
This session will provide a comprehensive guide and practical tools to shed light on various funding sources for grants, fellowships, scholarships, and startups, among others, including their characteristics, benefits, and potential risks.
AI and Digital Transformation
How to integrate technology and AI into business models for efficiency and growth.
More details shall follow.
Lunch Break
Afternoon Sessions (Parallel)
Digital Marketing, Branding and Communicating Science
This session examines how female scientists can strategically employ digital marketing and branding to enhance their professional visibility and societal impact. It will provide participants with evidence-based approaches to developing a coherent personal brand, establishing a credible online presence, and leveraging social media as a tool for scholarly communication. A particular emphasis will be placed on advanced communication strategies—translating complex scientific findings into accessible narratives tailored to diverse target audiences, including the public, policymakers, and media. Through structured activities and guided engagement, participants will gain practical skills to communicate their research with clarity, authority, and influence, thereby strengthening the role of women in science and bridging the gap between research and society.
Open Science: Utilizing open-source tools in business
This workshop introduces participants to the concepts of Open Science and Geographic Information Systems (GIS), showing how they can be applied in diverse fields such as agriculture, climate, remote sensing, and the social sciences. The session begins with a general introduction to Open Science and GIS, making it accessible for participants from different backgrounds, before moving into hands-on training with open-source tools like QGIS.
What you will learn:
- Introduction to open science
- Basics of GIS and remote sensing
- How Open Science and geoinformatics contribute to sustainable development
- Step-by-step hands-on exercises with open-source tools
Closing Session
Reflections, participant feedback, thank you messages, distribution of participation certificates, and a group photo.
Session Details
The power of networking, collaboration, and finding the right mentors and business allies. Moreover, addressing the unique challenges women face in business and strategies to overcome them.
Initial Outline of the Session
Welcome & Introduction by ASREN
Workshop Outcomes Presentation (10–15 min)
Summary of findings, recommendations, and key messages.
Panel Discussion (60 min)
Featuring 3–4 women entrepreneurs from the Arab region, and beyond.
Open Discussion & Audience Engagement
Panel Chair Profile
Elizabeth New
Professor of Chemistry at the University of Sydney, currently Honorary Professor at the University of Jordan, and senior consultant for the SESAME synchrotron in Jordan
Professor Elizabeth completed PhD studies at Durham University (UK) and a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of California, Berkeley. Her research group develops small molecule fluorescent sensors and sensor arrays for biological, clinical and environmental applications, three of which have been commercialised. She is chief science and technology officer for Fluorescentia, a start-up commercialising her assay for measuring chemotherapeutic agents in the blood. She has graduated 20 PhD students and has won major national and international awards for research, teaching and leadership.
Speaker Profile
Prof. Lubna Tahtamouni
Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology, Hashemite University
Prof. Lubna Tahtamouni has been a Professor of Cell and Developmental Biology at the Department of Biology and Biotechnology, The Hashemite University, since 2005, and an affiliate faculty member at the Department of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, Colorado State University, USA, since 2019.
Her research spans over two decades, focusing on cancer cell metastasis, drug screening, and the differentiation of induced pluripotent stem cells to neurons for the study of neurodegenerative diseases. She has collaborated with chemists from Jordan, Iraq, Germany, Morocco, and India to evaluate the anti-tumor activities of new drugs. She has authored more than 75 research articles and supervised over 20 graduate students from Jordan and abroad.
Beyond her research, Prof. Tahtamouni is deeply passionate about teaching and has been actively campaigning for women to pursue careers in science.
Speaker Profile
Dr. Rania Elsayed Ibrahim
Professor of Computers and Systems, National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences (NARSS), Egypt
Dr. Rania Elsayed Ibrahim is a Professor of Computers and Systems at the National Authority for Remote Sensing and Space Sciences (NARSS), Egypt. She serves as the Lead Scientist for the North African AOSP Regional Node and for the National Project on Disaster and Crisis Management at NARSS.
Her expertise lies in open science, geospatial data, disaster management, and data ethics. She has been actively involved in several international initiatives, including:
- Member of the International Society of Digital Earth – WG3, contributing to frameworks on data governance and AI ethics.
- Member of CODATA's Data Ethics Task Group.
- Member of Egypt Data Scholars.
- Editorial board member of the Geo4All Monthly Newsletter for Africa since 2015.
Dr. Elsayed has also contributed to the development of Egypt's national collaboration platform for sharing geospatial information in support of e-government and sustainable development.
Speaker Information
Dr. Mohammd Abuhashesh
Associate Professor at the King Talal School of Business Technology (KTSBT) at Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT) in Amman, Jordan
Dr. Mohammad Abuhashesh, an accomplished professional with over 16 years of experience in E-marketing in the United States, holds a Bachelor's and Master's degree from Governor State University in Illinois and a Doctorate in Business Administration (DBA) with a focus on E-marketing from Argosy University of Chicago. Currently, he is an Associate Professor at the King Talal School of Business Technology (KTSBT) at Princess Sumaya University for Technology (PSUT) in Amman, Jordan. He has held various leadership roles at PSUT, including President's Assistant and Head of the E-Marketing Department and Social Media. Dr. Abuhashesh is recognized for his extensive research in e-marketing, social media, consumer behavior, marketing communication, sustainability, and business entrepreneurship, contributing significantly to academia through numerous publications. His dedication to sustainable development and inspiring future business professionals underscores his impactful career.
Panelist Profile
Prof. Rana Dajani
Yidan Global Fellow at Harvard and a professor of molecular biology, Hashemite University
Prof. Rana Dajani is a Yidan Global Fellow at Harvard and a professor of molecular biology at the Hashemite University in Jordan, specializing in epigenetics and trauma biomarkers among refugees. She is the founder of We Love Reading, a grassroots initiative that empowers women and fosters changemakers, now present in over 70 countries with 8,000+ locally run libraries. Prof. Dajani is also the creator of a global mentoring program supporting women scholars in STEM, recognized by the National Academy of Sciences. Her 2018 book, “Five Scarves: Doing the Impossible—If We Can Reverse Cell Fate, Why Can’t We Redefine Success?”, challenges global policymakers to rethink equity and redefine measures of success. She has held visiting positions at Harvard, Yale, MIT, and Cambridge and has been honored with numerous awards, including the UNESCO International Literacy Prize, the UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award, and the Schwab Social Entrepreneur Award, cementing her reputation as a social entrepreneur and global thought leader.
Panelist Profile
Fatima Botmeh
Gender Specialist, Leadership Coach, and Global Trainer
Fatima Botmeh is a gender and organizational development specialist with over 20 years of experience in Palestine, the MENA region, and internationally. She focuses on women’s economic empowerment, entrepreneurship, and inclusive leadership, working with public institutions, civil society, and the private sector to foster gender-responsive and inclusive change. A certified Participatory Gender Audit (PGA) Facilitator with the ILO in Geneva, Fatima has trained and accredited gender audit facilitators globally and developed empowerment and mentoring programs, including GIZ’s Duos for Empowerment toolkit. As a leadership coach and trainer, she provides advisory support and capacity-building initiatives that promote women’s leadership, youth engagement, and economic participation across the region.
Panelist Profile
Rima Manna
Vice President Network Infrastructure Middle East & UAE Country Director, Nokia
Across her career spanning 28 years in the fields of Telecommunications and IT, Rima Manna has always been drawn to companies that pushed boundaries. This drive for growth brought her to invaluable opportunities across multiple organizations covering the MEA region Alcatel-Lucent, TechData, 3Com, that continuously challenged her capabilities in new fields and environments. In Rima’s current role as Vice President for Nokia’s NI Middle East Market Unit & UAE Country Director, she shaped successful region-wide growth strategies that included business model transformation and sales organizations revitalization. She achieved this by combining strong business acumen, fluency in the latest technologies and passion for delivering value. Early on Rima saw technology as a means to transform our lives and now, as a crucial means to preserving our planet. She is proud to be part of the collective effort to bring about these changes.
Panelist Profile
Dr. Sara Nasereddin
Assistant Dean of Pharmacy and Assistant Professor of Pharmaceutical Technology at Amman Arab University
She earned her PhD in Drug Delivery from King’s College London and specializes in innovative topical drug delivery systems. A recipient of the Study UK Alumni Award for Business and Innovation (2025), she also holds a patent for a novel antifungal therapy. Dr. Nasereddin was awarded the British Council’s Going Global Grant for women empowerment in academic leadership and is a graduate of the Leaders in Innovation Fellowship (Royal Academy of Engineering, UK) and the Austrian Leadership Program.
