EC offers Grants to Implement Zero-Tolerance Approach towards Gender-based Violence

Deadline: 9-Mar-23

The European Commission (EC) has launched the Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON) to facilitate the implementation of a zero-tolerance approach towards gender-based violence (GBV) in the European Research Area (ERA).

Objectives

• To address these requirements, Destination 3 of part 11 of the Horizon Europe work programme will support efforts to reform and enhance the European R&I system. Destination 3 is built around four strands corresponding to the four objectives set out in the ERA Communication:
  • Prioritising investments and reforms in research and innovation;
  • Improving access to excellence, progressing towards excellence across the whole EU and striving for stronger research and innovation systems;
  • Translating R&I results into the economy to meet the digital and green transition objectives, and boost the resilience and competitiveness of our economies and societies;
  • Deepening the ERA, to further progress the free circulation of knowledge and to ensure an upgraded, efficient and effective R&I system.
• The principle of excellence, meaning that the best researchers with the best ideas that offer the best solutions to the societal challenges obtain funding, remains the cornerstone for all investments under the ERA.

Scope

• Gender-based violence (GBV), including sexual harassment, sexual assault and psychological violence, occurs at all career levels of higher education and research and in all disciplines. It has destructive consequences for individuals, disrupts careers, damages institutions, and affects the quality of research and education itself. Nevertheless, very few countries have comprehensive policies in place to address the issue, as relatively little public policy attention has been given to GBV in universities and research institutions in the EU. With the institutional change approach through gender equality plans, measures to address GBV (e.g., through a code of conduct or a protocol for complaints), are expected to advance among R&I organisations, as they are recommended components of these plans, defined in the Horizon Europe eligibility criteria. However, a more comprehensive and strategic policy coordination is needed to ensure that R&I entities in Member States and Associated Countries are supported in implementing the necessary institutional changes to foster safe and inclusive working environments in academia. Interplays between gender-based violence and more subtle forms of psychological violence, such as stress and pressure, often inherent in reward-based and hierarchical systems such as academia, should also be taken into account.
• This action should support Member States, Associated Countries, as well as national research funding organisations (RFOs) and research performing organisations (RPOs), with the implementation of a strategic zero-tolerance approach towards gender-based violence in higher education and research. This action should directly contribute to the outcome, and support the implementation of EU Presidencies priorities.
• During its lifetime, the action should:
  • Support the sharing of information, mutual learning, best practice sharing, training, and awareness raising on tackling GBV in academia across Member States, Associated Countries, RPOs and RFOs. Providing support and advancing the knowledge of R&I actors in Widening countries is thereby of particular importance. The action should build on the zero-tolerance policy established by the Communities of Practice, under call topic HORIZON-WIDERA-2021-ERA-01-81;
  • Facilitate the implementation of an EU baseline code of conduct on zero-tolerance towards GBV, including sexual harassment, adapted to a wide range of RPOs, including higher education institutions, RFOs and other research organisations in Member States and Associated Countries;
  • Foster dialogue, awareness-raising and training to counter more subtle forms of psychological violence, including cases that result from PhD supervisor/PhD candidate, mentor/mentee dependencies, and other forms of hierarchical relationships;
  • Particular attention should be given to protection mechanisms for internationally mobile students and researchers, as well as early-career stage researchers in precarious positions;
  • Monitor and evaluate the implementation process of the code of conduct on zero-tolerance of GBV at a wide range of higher education institutions, RPOs, RFOs, and other research organisations.
• The action should develop close cooperation with relevant R&I stakeholders, including umbrella organisations, share knowledge and evidence, and build on the outputs and recommendations of related actions, e.g., Horizon 2020-SwafS funded UniSAFE project, the GEAR tool, as well as on other key initiatives at national level and institutional level from gender equality plan (GEP) implementing projects. Proposals should also build on the results of projects funded under earlier Framework Programme actions. Notably, applicants are expected to cooperate with relevant projects funded under call topic HORIZON-WIDERA-2021-ERA-01-81 and call topic HORIZON-WIDERA-2022-ERA-01-81 of Horizon Europe, to ensure synergies and complementarity of outcomes.

Funding Information

The check will normally be done for the coordinator if the requested grant amount is equal to or greater than EUR 500 000, except for:

• public bodies (entities established as a public body under national law, including local, regional or national authorities) or international organisations; and
• cases where the individual requested grant amount is not more than EUR 60 000 (low value grant).

Expected Outcome

• Projects are expected to contribute to the following expected outcomes:
  • Support to various national R&I entities, including national administrations, with adopting a zero-tolerance approach towards gender-based violence (GBV), including sexual harassment at higher education institutions and research organisations;
  • Cooperation between national R&I actors from Member States and Associated Countries, including with less advanced organisations, to facilitate the exchange of information, mutual learning, and best practice sharing on the implementation of measures to tackle GBV;
  • Training and awareness-raising activities for research funding and performing organisations, and other research and innovation actors on how to best implement a zero-tolerance approach towards GBV at their organisation;
  • Data collection and monitoring on the implementation of GBV measures at higher education institutions and other research organisations, in line with the Ljubljana Declaration on gender equality in research and innovation.
• These targeted outcomes in turn contribute to medium and long-term impacts:
  • Research entities in Member States and Associated Countries having measures in place to effectively address cases of gender-based violence, including sexual harassment, and to provide victim support and hold perpetrators accountable;
  • Research talents, particularly women and LGBTIQ+ persons, remain in academic careers due to safer, gender-inclusive, and mental health supportive working environments;
  • A safe and gender-inclusive higher education and academic sector, benefitting from a strong network and knowledge base on the prevention of and protection from GBV.

Eligible Activities

• Applications will only be considered eligible if their content corresponds, wholly or in part, to the topic description for which it is submitted.
• Projects must focus exclusively on civil applications and must not:
  • aim at human cloning for reproductive purposes;
  • intend to modify the genetic heritage of human beings which could make such changes heritable (except for research relating to cancer treatment of the gonads, which may be financed);
  • intend to create human embryos solely for the purpose of research, or for the purpose of stem cell procurement, including by means of somatic cell nuclear transfer.
• Projects must, moreover, comply with EU policy interests and priorities (environment, social, security, industrial policy, etc.).
• The following activities are generally eligible for grants under Horizon Europe:
  • Research and innovation actions (RIA) — Activities that aim primarily to establish new knowledge or to explore the feasibility of a new or improved technology, product, process, service or solution. This may include basic and applied research, technology development and integration, testing, demonstration and validation of a small-scale prototype in a laboratory or simulated environment.
  • Innovation actions (IA) — Activities that aim directly to produce plans and arrangements or designs for new, altered or improved products, processes or services. These activities may include prototyping, testing, demonstrating, piloting, large-scale product validation and market replication.
  • Coordination and support actions (CSA) — Activities that contribute to the objectives of Horizon Europe. This excludes research and innovation (R&I) activities, except those carried out under the ‘Widening participation and spreading excellence’ component of the programme.
  • Programme co-fund actions (CoFund) — A programme of activities established or implemented by legal entities managing or funding R&I programmes, other than EU funding bodies. Such a programme of activities may support: networking and coordination; research; innovation; pilot actions; innovation and market deployment; training and mobility; awareness raising and communication; and dissemination and exploitation.
  • Innovation and market deployment actions (IMDA) — Activities that embed an innovation action and other activities necessary to deploy an innovation on the market. This includes the scaling-up of companies and Horizon Europe blended finance.
  • Training and mobility actions (TMA) — Activities that aim to improve the skills, knowledge and career prospects of researchers, based on mobility between countries and, if relevant, between sectors or disciplines.
  • Pre-commercial procurement actions (PCP) — Activities that aim to help a transnational buyers’ group to strengthen the public procurement of research, development, validation and, possibly, the first deployment of new solutions that can significantly improve quality and efficiency in areas of public interest, while opening market opportunities for industry and researchers active in Europe. Eligible activities include the preparation, management and follow-up, under the coordination of a lead procurer, of one joint PCP and additional activities to embed the PCP into a wider set of demand-side activities.
  • Public procurement of innovative solutions actions (PPI) — Activities that aim to strengthen the ability of a transnational buyers’ group to deploy innovative solutions early by overcoming the fragmentation of demand for such solutions and sharing the risks and costs of acting as early adopters, while opening market opportunities for industry. Eligible activities include preparing and implementing, under the coordination of a lead procurer, one joint or several coordinated PPI by the buyers’ group and additional activities to embed the PPI into a wider set of demand-side activities.

Eligibility Criteria

• Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from nonassociated third countries or international organisations (including international European research organisations) is eligible to participate (whether it is eligible for funding or not), provided that the conditions laid down in the Horizon Europe Regulation have been met, along with any other conditions laid down in the specific call topic.
• A ‘legal entity’ means any natural or legal person created and recognised as such under national law, EU law or international law, which has legal personality and which may, acting in its own name, exercise rights and be subject to obligations, or an entity without legal personality.
• Beneficiaries and affiliated entities must register in the Participant Register before submitting their application, in order to get a participant identification code (PIC) and be validated by the Central Validation Service before signing the grant agreement. For the validation, they will be asked to upload the necessary documents showing their legal status and origin during the grant preparation stage. A validated PIC is not a prerequisite for submitting an application.
• Specific Cases
  • Affiliated entities — Affiliated entities (i.e. entities with a legal or capital link to a beneficiary which participate in the action with similar rights and obligations to the beneficiaries, but which do not sign the grant agreement and therefore do not become beneficiaries themselves) are allowed, if they are eligible for participation and funding.
  • Associated partners — Associated partners (i.e. entities which participate in the action without signing the grant agreement, and without the right to charge costs or claim contributions) are allowed, subject to any conditions regarding associated partners set out in the specific call conditions.
  • Entities without legal personality — Entities which do not have legal personality under their national law may exceptionally participate, provided that their representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf, and offer guarantees to protect the EU’s financial interests equivalent to those offered by legal persons.
  • EU bodies — Legal entities created under EU law including decentralised agencies may be part of the consortium, unless provided for otherwise in their basic act.
• To become a beneficiary, legal entities must be eligible for funding.
• To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the following countries:
  • the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions: Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden
  • the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States: Aruba (NL), Bonaire (NL), Curação (NL), French Polynesia (FR), French Southern and Antarctic Territories (FR), Greenland (DK), New Caledonia (FR), Saba (NL), Saint Barthélemy (FR), Sint Eustatius (NL), Sint Maarten (NL), St. Pierre and Miquelon (FR), Wallis and Futuna Islands (FR).
  • countries associated to Horizon Europe; Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine.

For more information, visit EC.