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.
See Horizon Europe Widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area Work Programme 2023-2025 featuring the 2024 Prize (pp. 161 - 164).
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.
For the 3rd edition, we will award one 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”.
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 2024 below).
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:
In 2024, the call for applications was open online via the Funding and Tenders Portal from 4 September until 16 October 2024.
To know more about the application process, consult the DO’s and DON’ts for applicants.
The results will be officially announced during an awards ceremony to be held in 2025.
Contact
For more information on the next call for application, please contact us at REA-HE-GENDER-CHAMPIONS
ec [dot] europa [dot] 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 16 October 2024 at 17:00 CET.
Research and innovation news alert: To acknowledge outstanding results achieved by academic and research institutions in advancing gender equality, the European Commission is pleased to announce the recipients of the EU Award for Gender Equality Champions in 2023.