Her Science, Her Story: Lived Experience Driving Human-Centred Research

Her Science, Her Story: Lived Experience Driving Human-Centred Research

What happens when science starts with a story? This dynamic 90-minute session explores how personal narratives and lived realities—from migration and mental health to climate activism and environmental stewardship—can inspire innovative, human-centred research.

We’ll open with Ocean 20 – FSTs Falling Walls 2025, a collective video created by the Female Science Talents (FST) of 2025, each sharing how her own journey shapes the science she conducts. These powerful reflections set the stage for a live, moderated panel featuring researchers whose work shows the impact of community-driven science. They’ll discuss how including community members, consumers, and advocates—those whose real-world challenges inform the research—makes science more relevant, equitable, and impactful.

From health equity and neurodiversity to climate justice, creative intervention, and educational inclusion, this session celebrates authenticity, collaboration, and positionality. Together, panellists will explore how integrating lived experience leads to inclusive questions, participatory methods, and lasting change.

What to Expect and Goals

• First-hand insights into how personal and community experiences shape research priorities, design, and outcomes
• Strategies for integrating reflexivity, equity, and community engagement into scientific practice
• Inspiration for early-career researchers to embrace their identities as strengths
• Emphasis on interdisciplinary, cross-sector, and community-informed approaches to science
• Creative and participatory interventions
• A redefinition of “expertise” that values both scientific and lived experience in co-creating impactful research

Whether you are an early-career scientist, a policy advocate, or a community partner, this session offers a grounded, hopeful vision of science that listens, adapts, and transforms

Info: Collective video by the FST 2025 IT candidates. In this collective video, each participant shares how her personal story shapes the science she conducts. These reflections set the stage for a broader conversation on identity, community, and co-created research.

Info: Live discussion with Female Science Talents Intensive Track Candidates.

Info: Open-floor interaction and reflection.

Know what’s Happening Next — before everyone else does.

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Host or Publisher Female Science Talents