Tackling Gender-Based Violence in Different Social and Economic Spheres Programme

Deadline: 16-Sep-25

Applications are now open for the Tackling Gender-Based Violence in Different Social and Economic Spheres Programme.

Scope

• Gender-based violence (GBV) is a prevalent issue, with 1 in 3 women in the EU having experienced physical and/or sexual violence, 22% of women in the EU having experienced violence by an intimate partner, and 55% having been sexually harassed. GBV has destructive consequences for individuals, organisations, the economy, and society as a whole. Gender-based violence is violence directed against a person because of that person’s gender or violence that affects persons of a particular gender disproportionately. It can be sexual, physical, verbal, psychological, or economic and occur in different forms, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty. However, important knowledge gaps remain on the prevalence and impact of gender-based violence across different social and economic areas. For example, in certain sectors, occupations and work arrangements, like night work, healthcare, hospitality, social services, emergency services, transport and education, workers are more exposed to violence and harassment, although comparable, intersectional data is often still lacking in these fields. While the restrictions imposed during the COVID-19 pandemic led to an increase in domestic violence, still little is known about the impact of the associated rise in teleworking on women’s working conditions, including the safety of their working environment. Moreover, in sports, initial studies on sexual GBV showed that a significant percentage of female athletes in Europe are exposed to sexual harassment, but no comprehensive pan-European data is available on this.
• Another research field, which requires further attention is the impact of tech-facilitated GBV, including non-consensual sharing of sexually explicit images, manipulated intimate images (e.g., deepfakes and other forms of generative AI), or child sexual abuse online, as well as the potential positive and negative use and effects of AI on GBV.
• Therefore, proposals should look at gender-based violence in one or more of the following areas:
  • GBV in the world of work,
  • GBV in sports
  • GBV on online platforms.

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).

Eligible Activities

• 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 (part of ‘Widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area’). Also eligible are bottom-up coordination actions which promote cooperation between legal entities from Member States and Associated Countries to strengthen the European Research Area, and which receive no EU co-funding for research activities.
  • 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.

Expected Outcomes

• Projects should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:
  • Collect data and analyse the prevalence and impact of gender-based violence (GBV), including tech-facilitated GBV, in different socio-economic contexts and legislative frameworks, and provide policymakers at regional, national and EU level with recommendations to address it.
  • Support employers, policymakers, practitioners, and civil society organisations in their work on the prevention, protection, prosecution, and provision of services in addressing GBV, including through promoting best practice sharing, mutual learning and education material focused on consent.

Eligibility Criteria

• Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from no associated 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.
• 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 – (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 specific call/topic 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 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, Canada, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Tunisia, Türkiye, Ukraine, United Kingdom.

For more information, visit EC.