The National Innovation Office (Hungary), the European Commission’s Directorate General for Information Society and Media (DG INFSO) and the European Centre for Women and Technology (ECWT) are pleased to announce under the Hungarian EU Presidency 2011 a European drawing competition for girls around the theme of European girls draw the future of ICT (information and communication technologies.

Welcome address - Commissioner Neelie Kroes : I would like to warmly invite you to the Hungarian capital Budapest to mark the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, by joining "Women in Science, Innovation and Technology in the Digital Age", the Joint High-level Conference organized by the European Commission's Directorate-General Information Society and Media(INFSO) and the Hungarian EU Presidency.

genSET is an innovative FP7 project aiming to improve the excellence of European science through inclusion of the gender dimension in research and science knowledge making. genSET is holding three workshops in 2011 which will help your organisation develop institutional capacity for action on a specific area. The workshops will facilitate the development of practical gender mainstreaming plans that can be accommodated within the available functional mechanisms and structural dynamics of your organisation by providing you with access to gender expertise.

The high-level EU conference organized by the Hungarian EU Presidency, DG INFSO, HAS and ECWT will gather major stakeholders and present a framework of a new European Action-plan.

The event will offer a networking platform to build partnerships in order to participate in the new ICT calls 8 and 9 of the 7th Framework Programme for R&D. Thematic sessions with presentations of proposal ideas, information stands and meeting points will be proposed. Registration is free of charge and will be open from January 2011.

This is one of the biggest calls ever launched for information and communications technology (ICT) research proposals under the EU's research framework programmes. It will result in project funding of € 780 million in 2011. This funding will advance research on the future internet, robotics, smart and embedded systems, photonics, ICT for energy efficiency, health and well-being in an ageing society, and more.

The Lithuanin President will host the Women Leaders 2011 Conference in connection with the Community of Democracies Ministerial Meeting.

The workshop ''Women's school - to - work transition in MENA countries'' will explore the problem of school-to-work transition in Middle Eastern countries with special reference to obstacles women face. The workshop approaches the problem of school-to- work transition from a multidisciplinary perspective – sociological, economic and educational and will make the link between the theoretical and empirical insights and knowledge, and policy applications. The participants will share their knowledge about the patterns of men's and women's school-to-work transitions in various countries, the problems of young women entry in the labour market, the strengths and deficiencies of education and training systems in addressing the school-to-work transitions and in particular in facilitating young women access and integration in the labour market.