Unveiling EU Gender Equality Champions in Research and Innovation

Today, the Commission has announced the recipients of the third edition of the EU Award for Gender Equality Champions in research and innovation, recognising their outstanding achievements in advancing gender equality within academic and research institutions. 

This year's top four organisations with the most impactful Gender Equality plans include, for the first time, a representative from a Widening country. This marks a significant breakthrough in promoting diversity and inclusion across the European Research Area. 

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. As members of this community, they play a vital role in paving the way for other academic and research organisations and in raising public awareness of the importance of addressing gender equality in their sectors.

Category 1 (Sustainable Gender Equality Champions)

• The Spanish Nation Research Council is an inspiring champion with over 12 years of experience in implementing Gender Equality Plan. Its efforts have significantly impacted the promotion of gender equality both nationally and at European level. 

Category 2 (Newcomer Gender Equality Champions)

• INSTRUCT-ERIC, the pan-European distributed research infrastructure, has excelled through its exceptionally high level of reflexivity and impressive staff engagement, driving thoughtful and impactful actions to address critical issues, including sexual harassment, and promote gender equality.
• The University of Gdansk in Poland has made impressive strides in gender equality by implementing its first Gender Equality Plan. This initiative has also inspired and supported other institutions in the region and beyond. 

Category 3 (Inclusive Gender Equality Champions)

• The Royal College of Surgeons of Ireland has demonstrated  a deep understanding of how different forms of discrimination can intersect and exacerbate each other by explicitly addressing the intersections of gender identity, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and disability.

Each winner in the categories listed above will receive a prize of €100,000.

The award ceremony took place in Brussels on 3 March, with Marc Tachelet, Director at the European Research Executive Agency, as the master of ceremony. Representatives of the winning academic and research organisations received their awards from Commissioner Ekaterina Zaharieva.

Background

With Horizon Europe, the European Commission has made gender equality in research and innovation as a cross-cutting priority, introducing strengthened implementation measures. 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 Commission's initiative to recognise and celebrate the outstanding results achieved by European academic and research organisations through the implementation of Gender Equality Plans. The award complements the GEP eligibility criterion and serves as an incentive to advance inclusive gender equality plans and policies in the framework of the new European Research Area (ERA).

The prize is designed by the European Commission Directorate-General for Research and Innovation (DG RTD), managed by the European Research Executive Agency (REA), and its winners are selected by an independent expert jury for each prize category.

More information

Gender equality in research and innovation

EU Award for Gender Equality Champions