Shaping African Women in STEM (SWIS Africa), a youth-led non-profit organization working to close the gender gap in science, technology, engineering and mathematics, has launched the SWIS Hub, a twelve-month digital innovation lab and mentorship pilot for young Nigerian women.
The project opens its first Pop-Up Innovation Lab in Lagos on Thursday, 7 August and Friday, 8 August 2026. The two-day lab, themed Artificial Intelligence and Data Science, will introduce participants to the basics of programming and hands-on data analysis under the guidance of expert facilitators. The organization said applications for the Lagos lab have closed, and urged young women to look out for further labs holding in other locations in the coming months.
The SWIS Hub is funded through the AU-EU Youth Action Lab Innovation Grant, co-funded by the European Union and the African Union and managed through Oxfam Novib. SWIS Africa applied during the call that ran from December 2025 to its deadline in January 2026, and emerged among the successful youth organizations selected across Africa and Europe. The Innovation Grants support youth-led projects with funding of between 30,000 and 40,000 euros.
SWIS Africa was co-founded by Samuel Ogunsola and Abosede Salami, two Nigerian academics who set out to remove the barriers that keep young women out of STEM, including limited access to information, mentorship, role models and professional networks.
Mr. Ogunsola, the Executive Director, is completing a doctorate in cell physiology and pathophysiology in Canada and received the New England Biolabs Passion in Science Award in 2024. Ms. Salami, the Operations Director, is a doctoral researcher in pharmaceutical sciences at St. John’s University in New York, where she recently published her first peer-reviewed paper and presented her research at the American Chemical Society’s Fall 2025 National Meeting in Washington, D.C.
Since its founding, the organization has grown into a community celebrating and supporting African women in STEM through storytelling, training and partnerships. In May 2026, it launched its flagship SWIS EmpowHER Programme in partnership with Top100 Future African Leaders, selecting 44 final-year female university students from institutions across Nigeria for structured training and an eight-week mentorship phase to support their transition into careers in academia, industry and entrepreneurship. The organization has also run research communication training for women in science and outreach to secondary school students.
The SWIS Hub builds on that record with its most ambitious project yet. At its center is a digital platform, expected to go live in August 2026, which will host a library of more than thirty expert videos on STEM careers and skills, a searchable database of scholarships, fellowships and internships, a knowledge library of articles and guides, and community features that allow young women to connect.
Around the platform sit three programmes. Four Pop-Up Innovation Labs will hold across Nigeria through the project year, covering artificial intelligence and data science, science communication, digital tools and prototyping, and a closing innovation showcase where participants present their own projects to a panel of STEM professionals. A six-month Media Fellowship will train twenty young women in science communication through monthly masterclasses led by professional science journalists, with each fellow receiving a stipend and publishing her own project at a public virtual showcase. Ten STEM Circles, small peer mentorship groups of young women, will also launch across the country, each supported with a launch pack to sustain monthly meetings.
Taken together, the project is designed to reach several hundred young women directly, with the organization targeting more than five hundred beneficiaries across its combined activities.
Speaking on the launch, Mr. Ogunsola said the organization never loses sight of what the work means for individual lives. “People sometimes look at plans like these and forget the significance and impact. We do not. Every lab, every mentorship session, every scholarship a young woman finds through the Hub is a life touched. We are changing lives and helping women in STEM get better, one young woman at a time,” he said.
The SWIS Hub runs from May 2026 to April 2027. Young women interested in joining the platform and future programmes can follow SWIS Hub’s social media for updates. Find SWIS Hub at @swis_hub on Instagram, @SwisHub on X and SWIS Hub on LinkedIn and Facebook.
