The European Commission has launched the EU Gender Equality Champion Award, an award that recognises academic and research organisations that are driving institutional transformations towards gender equality through Gender Equality Plans (GEPs).
Objective of the award
This initiative aims to make visible the commitment of institutions to gender equality, to encourage the implementation of inclusive plans and to strengthen the creation of a European community of leading organisations in this field. The award also complements the requirements of Horizon Europe and is aligned with the transformation of the European Research Area (ERA), in synergy with the European Education Area (ERA) and the European Higher Education Area (EHEA).
Award categories
The call for proposals includes three categories for which organisations can apply, choosing only one.
The first is Sustainable Gender Equality Champions, aimed at those organisations that can demonstrate a consolidated and sustained track record in the implementation of their gender equality plans.
The second category is New Gender Equality Champions, for organisations that have recently completed their first gender equality plan and can demonstrate significant progress since its implementation.
Finally, the Inclusive Gender Equality Champions category will reward those institutions that have developed particularly innovative and inclusive plans, addressing gender from an intersectional perspective – for example, also considering factors such as ethnicity, sexual orientation, gender identity or disability – and can demonstrate concrete results in their implementation.
Endowment and conditions
Four prizes of EUR 100,000 each will be awarded, totalling EUR 800,000 between the 2024 and 2025 budgets.
Only one category per organisation is allowed to participate. In addition to the main application, additional documentation may be required during the process, such as legal or bank validations, and a short video explaining the achievements, to be used for communication purposes only.
An opportunity to lead change
This award represents a unique opportunity for universities and research centres to consolidate their leadership in gender equality at European level and become a reference for institutional transformation in the framework of the new ERA.
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