Girls and Women in Digital

Overview

Objectives

The calls aims to enhance girls’ and women’s involvement in ICT, to contribute to the target of employing 20 million ICT specialists in the EU by 2030. More specifically, the call aims to:

• Identify the main obstacles girls and women encounter when choosing educational and professional pathways in ICT;
• Showcase practical, effective, and feasible actions to boost their representation in the digital sector; and
• Create a network of expertise and a community of stakeholders, so the Commission stays informed about effective best practice to encourage and support female participation in ICT across Europe.

Activities/actions supported

Proposals will need to include the following actions:

• follow up on developments in the MS with regards to the Women in Digital Declaration, and in particular identify best practice and promising initiatives;
• create a network of expertise and community of stakeholders, so the Commission stays informed about effective best practice to encourage and support female participation in ICT across Europe. This investment will support an increase in the number of girls and women studying and working in ICT;
• provide insights into the gender gap in the ICT professions in the EU, collecting information on the gender gap in ICT professions in the Member States, identifying and analysing best practices to tackle it;
• provide a comparison of the gender gap in ICT professions in the EU with the situation in non-EU countries with economic relevance or with high shares of female ICT specialists;
• provide a set of recommendations on activities needed to fight the gender gap in ICT professions in the EU.

Anticipated outcomes

Expected outcomes include:

• Create an overview of national actions, i.e., a systematic and structured review of national and regional/local strategies, measures, national roadmaps;
• Establish a forum, i.e., a platform, where experts and stakeholders can interact and bring gender convergence to the fore;
• Generate a report, which will identify the most significant and common obstacles faced by girls and women when choosing/following a career in ICT, as well as recommendations for practical, effective, and feasible actions to increase the number of girls and women in the ICT sector.

Institution providing the funding

European Commission

Size of funding

A total of EUR 2.000.000

Conditions

Overview of eligibility criteria

To be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:

• be legal entities (public or private bodies)
• be established in one of the eligible countries (i.e. EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)), or EEA countries and countries associated to the Digital Europe Programme)

Proposals must be submitted by a consortium of minimum 3 independent applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities) from 3 different eligible countries. The following applicants are encouraged to apply: civil society and research organisations as well as businesses.

Overview of award criteria

Project proposals will be assessed taking into account the following 4 criteria, for a maximum of 15 points:

• Relevance (maximum 5 points)
• Implementation (maximum 5 points)
• Impact (maximum 5 points)

The threshold for individual criteria is 3 points.

Procedures

Application procedures

All proposals must be submitted directly online via the Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System.

Application support available

For further information, please check the text of the call (link below). Furthermore, you can consult the Online Manual: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/common/guidance/om_en.pdf

Useful links

Link to funding opportunity

Link to the programme for more info