Meet Europe’s Gender equality champions in Research and Innovation

Today, the European Commission announced the winners of the fourth edition of the EU Award for Gender Equality Champions in Research and Innovation.

The award recognises organisations that have delivered tangible progress in advancing gender equality within their institutions.

European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, Ekaterina Zaharieva, said:

"Our new Gender Equality Champions affirm that excellence and inclusion go hand in hand. This is essential to strengthening Europe's scientific resilience as well as global competitiveness. My congratulations to the award winners for leading the way across Europe."

Category 1 - Sustainable Gender Equality Champion

• Bielefeld University, Germany, stands out for its over 30 years of dedication to gender equality, consistently implementing innovative and effective measures that have transformed its institutional culture.
• Open University of Catalonia, Spain, is notable for its 15+ years of sustained progress in promoting gender equality, with its fifth Gender Equality Plan building on its past successes and demonstrating a strong commitment to continued improvement.

Category 2 - Newcomer Gender Equality Champions

• Jozef Stefan Institute, Slovenia, has made significant progress with its newly implemented Gender Equality Plan, addressing key areas through concrete actions and establishing a framework to prevent gender-based violence, sexual harassment, and bullying.
• Charles University, Czechia, is taking a comprehensive co-design approach, which involves stakeholder engagement across different phases of its Gender Equality Plan, as well as active involvement of faculty , ensuring a collaborative and inclusive implementation process.

Category 3: Inclusive Champion

• University College Cork, Ireland, is pioneering intersectional equality through innovative programs like reverse mentoring for women facing multiple biases, campus-wide accessibility upgrades, and supportive policies that enable staff and students to update their names in the university records following personal transitions.

For the first time in the history of the award, there is a tie in the "Sustainable Champions" category, with two institutions recognised for their 20-year commitment to gender equality. This milestone is further underlined by their diversity: one is the first open university to receive the award, while the other is the first champion from Germany.

In the Newcomers category, two winners from Slovenia and Czechia further expand the award's reach and representation across Europe.

The winners now join a champions' league of 11 pioneer institutions already driving lasting change in gender equality in research and innovation.

Background

With Horizon Europe, the European Commission has made gender equality in research and innovation 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) and managed by the European Research Executive Agency (REA). 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

Press contact:

EC Spokesperson for Research, Science and Innovation