Horizon Europe - Gender Equality Plans (GEP) recognition prize scheme

Horizon Europe - Gender Equality Plans (GEP) recognition prize scheme is sponsored by European Commission (Horizon Europe). This call recognizes organizations that have achieved outstanding results through Gender Equality Plans (GEPs). It aims to strengthen inclusiveness across the European Research Area, with an emphasis on addressing diversity and intersectionality, including sexual orientation.

EU Award for Gender Equality Champions - Research and innovation EU Award for Gender Equality Champions Play carousel Pause carousel EU Award for Gender Equality Champions Since 2022, we celebrate EU Gender Equality Champions in Research and Innovation through this Horizon Europe prize.

Meet the EU Gender Equality Champions in Research & Innovation The EU Award for Gender Equality Champions is here to complement and boost the eligibility criterion requirement for higher education and research organisations applying to Horizon Europe to have in place a Gender Equality Plan (GEP) incentivize gender equality plans and policies within the new European Research Area (ERA) policy agenda support the transformation agenda for universities set in the new ERA, and in line with the new European Strategy for Universities This prize is creating a community of champions who inspire other academic and research organisations to become gender equality champions themselves, and to raise public awareness of the importance of addressing gender equality in academic and research organisations through institutional change.

Designed by the European Commission (DG Research and Innovation), the prize is managed by the European Research Executive Agency (REA) and its winners are selected by an independent expert jury for each prize category.

Meet the EU Gender Equality Champions in R&I 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 GEP.

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

Inclusive Gender Equality Champions : Organisations that have developed the most innovative inclusive GEP – i.e. a 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.

Applicants can only apply to one of these three categories and winners from past editions cannot re-apply to another category. Each winner will receive a trophy and a €100 000 prize. In case there is/are no winner(s) in one or more categories, the corresponding prize amount will be reallocated to the highest-ranking proposal(s) in another category/ies (for more, see the Rules of contest 2025 below).

For the last edition, we awarded one winner in the prize category “Sustainable Gender Equality Champions”, two winners in the prize category “Newcomer Gender Equality Champions”, and one winner in the prize category “Inclusive Gender Equality Champions”.

Each year, the prize is open to universities, higher education institutions, and other research performing organisations (public or private), established in an EU Member State or a Third Country associated to Horizon Europe.

Admissibility, eligibility and award criteria are detailed in the Rules of Contest , to be read carefully by all applicants before submitting their application: The call for applications for the fourth edition were opened online via the Funding and Tenders Portal from 16 June until 29 September 2026 – 17:00:00 CET. The European Commission will reveal the names of the next champions in March 2027.

To know more about the application process, consult the DO’s and DON’ts for applicants. For more information on the next call for application, please contact us at REA-HE-GENDER-CHAMPIONS ec [dot] europa [dot] eu Who are Europe’s next gender equality champions?

Applications are now open Research and innovation news alert: For the first time, this edition expands eligibility to organisations active in research and innovation from countries currently holding candidate status for EU accession. See all gender equality news