EU Award for organisations promoting Gender Equality

The competition for the EU Award for Gender Equality Champions was recently announced by the European Commission. It is an initiative that recognises academic and research organisations that have achieved outstanding results in implementing measures that promote gender equality.

The action aims to strengthen plans and policies for inclusive equality in the new European Research Area. It is also expected to complement and boost the requirement for higher education and research organisations applying to Horizon Europe, the EU’s main research programme for research and innovation, to have a Gender Equality Plan (GEP) in place as an eligibility criterion.

Commenting on this new action, Mariya Gabriel, Commissioner for Innovation, Research, Culture, Education and Youth, said: ‘The EU is committed to strengthening gender equality in research and innovation. As such, we want to acknowledge and celebrate the universities and research organisations that have demonstrated outstanding commitment in promoting gender equality through institutional change. This new EU Award for Gender Equality Champions aims to reward the achievements of these change-drivers and inspire other organisations into becoming gender equality champions themselves’.

There are 3 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 Gender Equality Plan.
• Newcomer Gender Equality Champions: Organisations that have recently started implementing a Gender Equality Plan and can demonstrate the most progress in its implementation and achieved results.
• Inclusive Gender Equality Champions: Organisations that have developed the most innovative inclusive Gender Equality Plan addressing intersections with other social categories such as ethnicity, social origin, sexual orientation and gender identity (LGBTI+) or disability.

Applicants can only apply to 1 of these 3 categories. There will be 2 winners in the prize category Sustainable Gender Equality Champions, 1 winner in the prize category Newcomer Gender Equality Champions, and 1 winner in the prize category Inclusive Gender Equality Champions. Each prize winner will receive €100,000.

Applications for the new Gender Equality Champions Award are open here until 13 October 2022, for higher education institutions and research organisations from EU Member States and countries associated with Horizon Europe.

EKT as National Contact Point for Horizon

EKT is the National Contact Point for Horizon Europe, specifically the Marie Skłodowska-Curie Actions (MSCA) programme of Pillar 1  and the 'Health' and Digital Technologies, Industry and Space' sectors of Pillar 2 . It supports organisations, enterprises, academics and research organisations in identifying funding opportunities, drafting and submitting proposals, implementing projects and exploiting research results. In addition, it contributes to the recording and analysis of Greece's participation in European research and innovation programmes. As a National Contact Point, it supports the implementation of ongoing projects under Horizon 2020. EKT is a key member of the network of NCPs for Horizon Europe’s DIGITAL, Ideal-ist and NCP4Industry.

It should be noted that EKT, responding to modern requirements and following the plans drawn up both at the national (National Action Plan for Gender Equality 2021-2025) and at the European level (Gender Equality Strategy for 2020-2025, Gender equality in the European Research Area), has drawn up and published the gender equality policy and action plan which is its action plan to promote the securing of equal opportunities between women and men. EKT participates as a partner in the GENDERACTIONplus project which strengthens the effort to integrate gender equality in the new European Research Area, promoting it in the European Research and Innovation System.