• The conference, organised by Navarrabiomed and chaired by Vice-President Ana Ollo, included contributions from patients and professionals to move forward towards more equal and equitable research and healthcare at European level.

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Navarrabiomed held a conference today entitled “Impulsando una Europa de la Salud sin sesgo de género” (Promoting a Gender-Neutral European Health System), with the ultimate aim of contributing to the new European Equality Strategy. The Second Vice-President and Minister for Memory and Coexistence, External Action and the Basque Language of the Government of Navarra, Ana Ollo Hualde, and the Director General for External Action, Sergio Pérez García, took part in the event, which assembled 70 healthcare professionals, patient associations, institutional representatives and members of the public to consider persistent inequalities and share solutions.

The event, funded by the Directorate-General for External Action of the Government of Navarra, by means of the 2025 call for Grants for the dissemination of European Union policies and strategies, is part of the series of meetings entitled “Public health: researching and improving with Europe”, which the Navarra Joint Biomedical Research Centre has been organising for the past four years. 
Gender equality in health and biomedical research is not only a matter of social justice, but also a priority for ensuring more effective treatments, more accurate diagnoses and health policies tailored to the real needs of the entire population. With this premise in mind, Vice-President Ollo recalled the words of Hadja Lahbid, Commissioner for Equality, Preparedness and Crisis Management, spoken in the European Parliament: “Equality in health research is not optional,” she said, “it saves lives. Our biological differences affect diagnosis, response to treatment and rehabilitation... We must address the needs of all citizens, because a one-size-fits-all approach does not work in health policy.”
 
Towards a new European Equality Strategy

The conference comes at a key moment, following the presentation in March by the European Commission of its Roadmap on Women's Rights and the 2025 Report on Gender Equality. Both documents note that, although progress has been made, structural inequalities between women and men persist in the health and research fields. The European roadmap stresses the urgency of incorporating the gender dimension into the health field, calling for "higher standards in health, by supporting and complementing women's access to sexual and reproductive health and rights in full compliance with the Treaties, and promoting gender-sensitive medical research, clinical trials, diagnostics and treatments.”
To address these challenges, Lydia González Orta, senior European project officer for gender integration in R&D&I at the Spanish Foundation for Science and Technology (FECYT), shared the key elements of European policies in this area and highlighted initiatives such as GENDERACTION, GENDERNET Plus and SUPERA, which are working to reduce gender inequalities in scientific research. González pointed out that “gender equality is not irreversible, so we need to use all the tools we have at European level to ensure that health research systematically incorporates an inclusive gender analysis.”

The conference also served to highlight good practices spearheaded in Navarra in research and healthcare with a gender focus. Ernesto Martín Núñez, postdoctoral researcher at the Translational Cardiology Unit at Navarrabiomed, presented the line of research they are developing to study heart valve deterioration and the importance of taking the gender perspective into account in this field. 
Next, Elena Antoñanzas Baztán, Director of Health Strategy and Research at the Department of Health, analysed the gender assessment of Navarra's latest Health Plan and its principal conclusions. In addition, Andrea Ucar Vargas, Head of Communications at Navarrabiomed, presented proposals for social innovation, such as the use of forum theatre to raise awareness and discuss health with young people from an inclusive perspective.
 
Participatory forum to contribute to the future European Equality Strategy 

One of the central themes of the conference was a citizen participation forum structured into five working groups, organised according to the profile of the participants: researchers, health professionals, institutional representatives, patient associations and the general public. At these round tables, participants analysed the current situation based on their own experiences and identified the main challenges and obstacles that persist in their fields in relation to gender equality in health and biomedical research.
Based on this collaborative work, specific proposals and possible measures were also put forward that can be spearheaded by Europe to move towards more equitable, inclusive and gender-sensitive public health system.
The contributions gathered in this forum will be included in a conclusions report that Navarrabiomed will draw up in the coming weeks and send to the European Commission as Navarra's contribution to the open participation process to incorporate gender-neutral health into the future European Equality Strategy.