Inclusive Gender Equality Champions

Topic description

ExpectedOutcome:

Expected Outcomes:

• Enable the creation of a European community of academic and research champions in institutional transformation towards inclusive gender equality;
• Strengthening of the inclusiveness and connectivity objectives under the new European Research Area.

The “EU Award for Gender Equality Champions” is a recognition prize scheme meant as a booster and complement to the requirement for higher education establishments, research organisations and public bodies applying to Horizon Europe to have in place a Gender Equality Plan (GEP), and a tool for advancing inclusive gender equality plans and policies in the framework of the new ERA policy agenda, in synergy with the European Education Area (EEA) and the European Higher Education Area (EHEA, Bologna process), and in line with the new Communication on a European Strategy for Universities adopted on 18 January 2022.

The Prize will be awarded to up to four academic or research organisations, and contestants can apply to one among the following three 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 started implementing a GEP and can demonstrate the most progress in its implementation and achieved results;
• Inclusive Gender Equality Champions: Organisations that have developed the most innovative inclusive GEP addressing intersections with other social categories such as ethnicity, social origin, sexual orientation and gender identity (LGBTIQ) or disability.

Each prize winner will receive EUR 0.1 million: EUR 0.4 million maximum in total from the 2023 budget.

Contestants can only apply to one of the three prize categories and will have to provide proof of eligibility and a written presentation of their achievements, as well as support their applications with a link to a video. The submission consists of a complete application.

The prizes will boost public awareness of the importance of addressing gender equality in academic and research organisations through institutional change, incentivise a high degree of commitment to the implementation of inclusive GEPs, and create a community of champions inspiring other academic and research organisations into becoming gender equality champions themselves.