Women's Impact Award 2025

Despite making up half of the world’s population, women* and girls still face systemic inequality. This award celebrates visionary scientists whose interdisciplinary, ground-breaking research advances gender equity and creates meaningful societal impact for women and girls.

The Women’s Impact Award is a collaborative initiative by the Falling Walls Foundation, the Elsevier Foundation, and the Volkswagen Foundation. 

WOMEN'S IMPACT AWARD WINNERS 2025

We’re thrilled to announce the three Winners of the 2025 Women’s Impact Award!
Selected from 97 applications worldwide and 10 inspiring finalists, this year’s winners lead groundbreaking projects in women’s health, gender equity in fisheries, and accessible breast cancer diagnostics. The three Winners were invited to share their work at the Female Science Talents International Fall Gathering and the Falling Walls Award Ceremony this November in Berlin.

*Falling Walls Female Science Talents uses an inclusive definition of women and welcomes submissions from cis and trans women, genderqueer and non-binary people.

We also congratulate our winners of the Women’s Impact Award 2025:

Colette Wabnitz - Gender equity in fisheries
Millions of women sustain global fisheries yet remain overlooked in data and decisions. This project co-creates fact sheets, gender policy analyses, and regional workshops to elevate women’s voices, support leadership, and advance just, inclusive, and sustainable ocean governance.

Omneya Attallah - BrAID: Early Detection of Breast Cancer in Resource-Limited Settings via Novel Cost-Effective Non-invasive Biomarkers and Artificial Intelligence
Breast cancer diagnostics face limitations—radiation exposure, invasiveness, and high costs. This project creates BrAID, a portable and painless AI-powered tool that detects cancer biomarkers noninvasively and affordably, giving women in underserved regions access to life-saving early diagnosis.