Why this prize
The EU Award for Gender Equality Champions is here to
- complement and boost the eligibility criterion requirement for higher education and research organisations applying to Horizon Europe to have in place a Gender Equality Plan (GEP)
- incentivize gender equality plans and policies within the new European Research Area (ERA) policy agenda
- support the transformation agenda for universities set in the new ERA, and in line with the new European Strategy for Universities
This prize is creating a community of champions who inspire other academic and research organisations to become gender equality champions themselves, and to raise public awareness of the importance of addressing gender equality in academic and research organisations through institutional change.
Designed by the European Commission (DG Research and Innovation), the prize is managed by the European Research Executive Agency (REA) and its winners are selected by an independent expert jury for each prize category.
Categories
There are 3 prize categories:
- Sustainable Gender Equality Champions: Organisations that can demonstrate a significant and sustained record of activity and a high level of achievement through the implementation of their GEP.
- Newcomer Gender Equality Champions: Organisations that have recently finalised the implementation of their first GEP and can demonstrate the most progress achieved through its implementation.
- Inclusive Gender Equality Champions: Organisations that have developed the most innovative inclusive GEP – i.e. a GEP addressing intersections between gender and at least two other social categories, such as racial or ethnic origin, social origin, sexual orientation and gender identity (LGBTIQ) or disability – and can demonstrate concrete results obtained through its implementation.
Applicants can only apply to one of these three categories and winners from past editions cannot re-apply to another category.
Each winner will receive a trophy and a €100 000 prize.
In case there is/are no winner(s) in one or more categories, the corresponding prize amount will be reallocated to the highest-ranking proposal(s) in another category/ies (for more, see the Rules of contest 2025 below).
For the last edition, we awardedone winner in the prize category “Sustainable Gender Equality Champions”, two winners in the prize category “Newcomer Gender Equality Champions”, and one winner in the prize category “Inclusive Gender Equality Champions”.
Application process
Each year, the prize is open to universities, higher education institutions, and other research performing organisations (public or private), established in an EU Member State or a Third Country associated to Horizon Europe.
Admissibility, eligibility and award criteria are detailed in the Rules of Contest, to be read carefully by all applicants before submitting their application:
The call for applications for the fourth edition will be opened online via the Funding and Tenders Portal from 7 May until 18 June 2025 – 17:00:00 CET.
To know more about the application process, consult the DO’s and DON’ts for applicants.
Contact
For more information on the next call for application, please contact us at REA-HE-GENDER-CHAMPIONS@ec.europa.eu
Latest
Research and innovation news alert: The call for applications to the Gender Equality Champions opens today. Interested organisations can apply online via the Funding and Tenders Portal until 18 June 2025.
With this award, the winners join a growing network that already includes seven organisations, forming a promising league of champions dedicated to driving institutional change.