New winners announced: EU Gender Equality Champions in Research and Innovation

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. 

Category 1 (Sustainable Gender Equality Champions)

• Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique (CNRS), from France
• Universitat Rovira i Virgili, from Spain

Category 2 (Newcomer Gender Equality Champions)

• Technological University of the Shannon: Midlands Midwest, from Ireland

Category 3 (Inclusive Gender Equality Champions)

• None of the applications received in this category satisfied the award criteria laid out in the Rules of Contest. This reflects a reality the Commission is making efforts to transform through the new European Research Area policy agenda, by fostering the opening of gender equality policies to more intersectional approaches. 

Across the above listed categories, each winner will receive a prize of €100,000.

The Commission held the award ceremony for this second edition of the Horizon Europe prize in Brussels on 15 May, with Marc Lemaître, Director General for Research and Innovation as master of ceremony. Representatives of the winning academic and research organisations received their awards from the hands of Commissioner Iliana Ivanova.

Iliana Ivanova, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth said: 

“I warmly congratulate the winners of the Horizon Europe Award for Gender Equality Champions. Their remarkable achievements in creating more gender-equal working environments are an inspiration to organisations across the European Research Area. I look forward to hearing how our new champions will team up and strengthen the Champions League initiated last year with the first edition of this prize!”

Background 

With Horizon Europe, the European Commission has set gender equality in research and innovation as a cross-cutting priority, introducing strengthened implementation provisions. One of these is the requirement for all higher education institutions, research organisations, and public bodies from EU Member States and associated countries to have a Gender Equality Plan (GEP) in place, as an eligibility criterion for participating in the Framework Programme.

The EU Award for Gender Equality Champions, an annual recognition prize launched in 2022, is the European Commission's initiative to recognise and celebrate the outstanding results achieved by European academic and research organisations through the implementation of Gender Equality Plans, and is meant to complement and boost the GEP eligibility criterion, as well as to be an incentive to advance inclusive gender equality plans and policies in the framework of the new European Research Area (ERA).

More information

Gender equality in research and innovation

EU Award for Gender Equality Champions

Press contact:

EC Spokesperson for Research, Science and Innovation