European Centre for Women and Technology (ECWT)

The European Centre for Women and Technology (ECWT) is a sustainable European multi-stakeholder partnership representing high-level expertise in women and technology development from business, government, academia and non-profit sectors and supporting regional innovation through leveraging resources, research, best practices and innovative services. The decision to establish the ECWT was taken on the 9th of May 2008 by the International Taskforce for Women and ICTs (ITF) - Europe and the statutes were approved by the 16 foundering members on 18th of July 2008. The European Centre for Women and Technology (ECWT) is a European non-profit organization registered under Norwegian law, with 130+ public and private actors, leading European universities and research institutes and NGOs as members. ECWT functions as the European Regional Point of Contact (R-POC), one of the Ten Regional Centres presently being established around the world, which together constitute Global Women and Technology (GWT). The European Centre advocates the establishment of a National Point of Contact (N-POC) in each country functioning as a national platform of multi-stakeholders to ensure women's full participation in ICT and related sectors. At present N-PoCs operate in 30+ countries. The Secretariat of the European Centre for Women and Technology (ECWT) is in Drammen, Norway. The new High-level Advisory Committee of the ECWT for the years 2014-2017 consists of 19 members led by Sasha Bezuhanova, Chair of the Bulgarian Centre for Women in Technology and winner of the 1st European Digital Woman Award 2013. The governance structure of ECWT includes 4 Working Groups (Strategy WG, Finance and EU projects WG Communication WG, Constitutional WG) and eight thematic Alliances (Education, eGov, e-Health, Energy, Enterpreneurship, Live Long Learning, Robotics, Workforce).