A different kind of skills gap

But leadership operates on a different set of competencies, ones that are rarely taught and almost never assessed in a PhD program or a lab environment. The shift is subtle but significant: from content to context, from execution to influence, and from being right to being strategic. It requires understanding  not just what the right answer is, but when and how to bring it forward, and how to move others in the process.

Unequal access to unwritten rules

This transition is challenging for many professionals, regardless of gender. Yet data consistently shows that women are less likely to have been exposed to the informal networks, sponsorship relationships, and unwritten career guidance that make this shift easier to navigate. Not because they are less capable, but because access to those invisible pathways has historically been uneven.

Bridging the gap in life sciences

To address this, Intouch and TOPX Network developed the Life Sciences Leadership Bootcamp - Stratego for Women® taking place on 29-30 October in Woerden. This is not a confidence training or a generic leadership theoretical course, but a focused two-day immersive program designed specifically for the realities of biotech, pharma, and life sciences academia - where the distance between scientific excellence and strategic visibility tends to be particularly wide. The programme is led by two world-class facilitators: Dr Mira Vasic, top trainer and co-owner of Intouch Female Career Academy and Dr Linda van de Burgwal MBA, biotech executive leader and Associate Professor.

Participants first learn to map the informal structures in their own environment, including power dynamics, influence networks, and behavioural patterns that shape how decisions actually get made. Then they brings these insights into practice through realistic simulations, including negotiations, stakeholder conversations and positioning strategies, supported by professional actors.

From insight to action

The goal is not to change who someone is, but to make visible what has always been invisible, and to provide the tools to navigate it with intention. Participants leave with a clearer understanding of how influence works and a personalised strategy for their next career step.

A question worth asking

The life sciences industry is investing heavily in diversity and inclusion, and that investment matters. But if it is to translate into real change at leadership level, it must go one step further - beyond awareness and into the practical skills that help talented people actually to move forward.

Because the question is not whether brilliant women exist in this industry. They clearly do.

The question is whether they have access to the same unwritten playbook that others are already using.

Interested in taking the next step? Learn more and register for the Bootcamp Stratego for Women® in Life Sciences taking place on 29-30 October in Woerden via https://www.hyphenprojects.nl/topx/bootcamp.