'Science your thing' video by Colomban Lutz, one of the videos that has been entered into the 'Science: it's your thing!' contest
Following the furore that surrounded its video campaign ‘Science: it’s a girl thing!’ launched during the summer, the European Commission has opened up a new video contest called ‘Science: it’s your thing!’ so people can vote online for videos they feel best promote science as a career option for young women.
Rewind back to June of this year when the European Commission was forced to pull a controversial video from its website as part of its ‘Science: It’s a Girl Thing!’ campaign after the video backfired with the public.
The 53-second video was slated for its use of lipstick, dance music and girls wearing mini skirts and stilettos, prompting its removal from the campaign.
Since then, the European Science Foundation (ESF) has launched a new video contest in which it has been giving people the option of creating their own videos to promote science. Three winning videos will be shown at the European Gender Summit in Brussels on 29 November.
And people can vote online up until 28 November for the video they believe best encourages young women to pursue scientific careers. People can also vote via Facebook.
A panel of judges from the European science community and industry will pick the other two winning videos.
In all, the three winning videos will receive a prize of €1,500 from the ESF. The astrophysicist Prof Brian Schmidt, one of the joint recipients of the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics, has also made a donation for the cash prizes.
