Girls’Day - BfR is on board again this year

The Federal Minister of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection visits the Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) today. She welcomes 25 girls from the fifth to tenth grades who are spending Girls’Day at BfR in order to find out more about technical and natural science professions at the Institute. "58 percent of the scientists at BfR are women; that’s a lot compared with other institutions on the German science landscape in Germany", says Minister Aigner in the run-up to her visit. On Girls’Day the girls have an opportunity to participate in the activities in the laboratories and offices and to put questions to scientific and technical members of BfR staff. Whether in the locksmith’s or electrical workshop, in the IT environment or in the laboratory, the girls are given insight into the respective occupation. They detect Trichinella in meat, make dog biscuits from various types of feed, analyse blood samples, program repair work or assemble a computer.

Girls’Day is a nationwide event which is staged every year. Plants, companies and public institutions open their doors for one whole day to girls from the fifth to tenth grades to introduce them to technical and natural science occupations. Although girls, as a rule, do particularly well at school, a disproportionate number still frequently go for “typical female” occupations, training schemes or courses of study when choosing a career. For BfR it is very important to overcome girls’ prejudices about technical and natural scientific occupations. Today, more than half of scientist positions are held by women.

BfR is a scientific institution within the portfolio of the Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (BMELV). It advises the Federal Government and Bundesländer on questions of food, chemical and product safety. BfR carries out its own research on topics that are closely linked to its assessment tasks.