Inclusive Gender Equality Champions

The EU Award for Gender Equality Champions, part of the Horizon Europe initiative, recognizes organizations implementing innovative Gender Equality Plans (GEPs) aimed at advancing gender equality in academic and research settings. This prize emphasizes intersectionality, focusing on initiatives addressing gender along with at least two other social categories such as race or disability. Eligible applicants include universities, higher education institutions, and both public and private research organizations from EU Member States and associated countries.

Each winner of the prize will receive €100,000, with a total allocation of €400,000 from the 2024 and 2025 budgets. The prize does not require co-funding and only allows single applicants per award category, meaning organizations can only apply in one of three categories: Sustainable Gender Equality Champions, Newcomer Gender Equality Champions, and Inclusive Gender Equality Champions.

The application process is a single-stage open call, with a submission deadline of June 18, 2025. It aims to promote commitment to gender equality and institutional change within the framework of the European Research Area. Success rates are anticipated to be low due to the competitive nature of the awards, with likely fewer than 10% of applicants receiving recognition.

Overall, this initiative aims to foster a community of organizations dedicated to implementing effective GEPs, driving transformations towards inclusivity in research and academia across Europe. The funding and tender documentation outlines the eligibility criteria, evaluation processes, and detailed guidelines for applicants, ensuring transparency and clarity throughout the application process.

The EU Award for Gender Equality Champions is a recognition prize scheme under the Horizon Europe Programme, specifically the HORIZON-WIDERA-2025-GENDER-Prize call. It aims to boost and complement the requirement for higher education establishments, research organizations, and public bodies applying to Horizon Europe to have a Gender Equality Plan (GEP) in place. The award serves as a tool for advancing inclusive gender equality plans and policies within the framework of the new European Research Area (ERA) Policy Agenda. It also enables the transformation agenda for universities in synergy with the European Education Area (EEA) and the European Higher Education Area (EHEA, Bologna process), aligning with the Communication on a European Strategy for Universities adopted on 18 January 2022.

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

The expected outcomes include enabling the development of a European community of academic and research champions in institutional transformation towards inclusive gender equality and strengthening the inclusiveness and connectivity objectives under the new European Research Area.

The prize will be awarded to four academic or research organizations. Contestants can apply to one of the following three prize categories:

1. Sustainable Gender Equality Champions: Organizations that can demonstrate a significant and sustained record of activity and a high level of achievement through the implementation of their GEP(s).

2. Newcomer Gender Equality Champions: Organizations that have recently finalized the implementation of their first GEP and can demonstrate the most progress achieved through its implementation.

3. Inclusive Gender Equality Champions: Organizations that have developed the most innovative inclusive 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.

Each prize winner will receive EUR 0.1 million, totaling EUR 0.4 million from the 2024 budget and EUR 0.4 million from the 2025 budget. Contestants can only apply to one of the three prize categories. In addition to the complete application, contestants may be asked at a later stage for further documents (for legal entity validation, bank account validation, ethics review, declaration of honour, etc.) or for a short video message on their achievements in the chosen Prize category. This video will be used for communication purposes only.

The call for proposals is HORIZON-WIDERA-2025-GENDER-Prize, and the type of action is HORIZON-RPr (HORIZON Recognition Prize). The type of Model Grant Agreement (MGA) is HORIZON Prize [HORIZON-PR]. The call is open for submission with a single-stage deadline model. The opening date is 07 May 2025, and the deadline date is 18 June 2025, 17:00:00 Brussels time.

The general conditions for admissibility, eligible countries, other eligible conditions, financial and operational capacity and exclusion, evaluation and award criteria, submission and evaluation processes, indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement, and legal and financial set-up of the grants are described in the Rules of Contest for this prize. Specific conditions are also described in the Rules of Contest for this prize.

Call documents include the Rules of Contest, application and evaluation forms, and the Model Grant Agreement (MGA). Application form templates are available in the Submission System.

Additional documents include:

HE Main Work Programme 2023–2025 – 1. General Introduction
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2025 – 11. Widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area
HE Main Work Programme 2023–2025 – 13. General Annexes
HE Programme Guide
HE Framework Programme 2021/695
HE Specific Programme Decision 2021/764
EU Financial Regulation 2024/2509
Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity Assessment
EU Grants AGA — Annotated Model Grant Agreement
Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual
Funding & Tenders Portal Terms and Conditions
Funding & Tenders Portal Privacy Statement

The budget overview indicates a total of EUR 400,000 for the HORIZON-WIDERA-2025-GENDER-Prize-01, HORIZON-WIDERA-2025-GENDER-Prize-02 and HORIZON-WIDERA-2025-GENDER-Prize-03 topics, with a single-stage submission process, opening on 07 May 2025 and closing on 18 June 2025.

There are 15 partner search announcements available for collaboration on this topic. LEARs, Account Administrators, or self-registrants can publish partner requests for open and forthcoming topics, as well as any user having an active public Person profile.

To start the submission process, applicants must access the Electronic Submission Service and select the appropriate type of action and Model Grant Agreement. Existing draft proposals can be accessed by logging into the Funding & Tenders Portal and selecting the My Proposals page.

Support and guidance are available through the Online Manual, Horizon Europe Programme Guide, Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ, Research Enquiry Service, National Contact Points (NCPs), Enterprise Europe Network, IT Helpdesk, European IPR Helpdesk, CEN-CENELEC Research Helpdesk, ETSI Research Helpdesk, the European Charter for Researchers, and Partner Search tools.

In summary, this opportunity is a recognition prize aimed at promoting gender equality within academic and research organizations. It offers financial rewards to institutions that have demonstrated significant achievements in implementing inclusive Gender Equality Plans. The prize is divided into three categories, each focusing on different aspects of gender equality implementation, and is open to academic and research organizations that meet the eligibility criteria. The application process involves submitting a proposal through the Funding & Tenders Portal, adhering to the guidelines outlined in the Rules of Contest and other relevant documents. The initiative seeks to foster a community of gender equality champions and drive institutional transformation towards more inclusive and equitable research environments.

Eligible Applicant Types: The eligible applicant types are academic or research organizations. The prize will be awarded to four such organizations. Higher education establishments and public bodies are also mentioned in the context of needing a Gender Equality Plan (GEP) to apply to Horizon Europe, implying they could also be eligible.

Funding Type: This is a recognition prize scheme.

Consortium Requirement: A single applicant is required. Contestants can only apply to one of the three prize categories.

Beneficiary Scope (Geographic Eligibility): The geographic eligibility is not explicitly stated, but given the context of Horizon Europe and the European Research Area, it is likely that the eligibility extends to organizations within the EU and associated countries. The documentation mentions National Contact Points (NCPs) existing in many non-EU and non-associated countries ('third-countries'), which suggests that entities from these countries might also be eligible, although this needs to be confirmed in the Rules of Contest.

Target Sector: The target sector is gender equality within academic and research organizations. It specifically focuses on institutional change and the implementation of inclusive Gender Equality Plans (GEPs). It also touches upon social categories such as racial or ethnic origin, social origin, sexual orientation and gender identity (LGBTIQ) or disability.

Mentioned Countries: No specific countries are mentioned, but the European Union, the European Research Area (ERA), the European Education Area (EEA), and the European Higher Education Area (EHEA, Bologna process) are referenced, implying a focus on European countries and those participating in these initiatives. Third countries are mentioned in the context of National Contact Points.

Project Stage: The project stage is focused on organizations that have already made achievements in gender equality and have implemented or are implementing Gender Equality Plans (GEPs). The prize categories include organizations with a sustained record of activity, those that have recently finalized their first GEP, and those with innovative inclusive GEPs. Therefore, the project stage is at the implementation and demonstration of results stage.

Funding Amount: Each prize winner will receive EUR 0.1 million. A total of EUR 0.4 million is allocated from the 2024 budget and EUR 0.4 million from the 2025 budget.

Application Type: The application type is an open call, with a single-stage submission process.

Nature of Support: Beneficiaries will receive money in the form of a prize.

Application Stages: There is a single stage for the application process.

Success Rates: The success rates are not explicitly mentioned, but given that four prizes will be awarded and there are 15 partner search announcements, the success rate is likely to be below 10%.

Co-funding Requirement: Co-funding is not explicitly mentioned, so it is likely not required.

Summary:

The "EU Award for Gender Equality Champions" is a Horizon Europe recognition prize aimed at increasing public awareness and incentivizing commitment to gender equality within academic and research organizations. The prize targets organizations that have demonstrated significant achievements in implementing inclusive Gender Equality Plans (GEPs). Four prizes of EUR 0.1 million each will be awarded to academic or research organizations across three categories: Sustainable Gender Equality Champions, Newcomer Gender Equality Champions, and Inclusive Gender Equality Champions. The call is open for submission with a deadline of June 18, 2025. The application process involves a single stage, and applicants must submit their proposals electronically through the Funding & Tenders Portal. The initiative seeks to foster a European community of gender equality champions and strengthen inclusiveness within the European Research Area. The call is relevant to higher education establishments, research organizations, and public bodies that have implemented or are in the process of implementing GEPs.