News

• The “European Partnership for Innovation in Local Development” (EPIDL) presents tools and recommendations for integrating gender equality in rural Europe

• The final conference of the “GRASS CEILING” project brought together political dialogue, rural innovation and recognition of women entrepreneurs through the “Rural Women Innovators Award” (RUWI)

• The “RUWI” 2025 award was given to the Spanish company Grenoucerie SL

Gender equality is becoming firmly established as an essential pillar for building fairer, more innovative, and more sustainable rural areas. Rural innovation led by women has become a key element in shaping future rural and agricultural policies.

This was demonstrated by the European Association for Innovation in Local Development ( EAIDL ) during the Final Conference of the GRASS CEILING project , held on December 3 and 4, 2025, at the European Economic and Social Committee in Brussels. There, the organization presented concrete policy tools, new recommendations, and dialogue forums aimed at strengthening gender equality in rural Europe.

Award for the Spanish company Grenoucerie SL

One of the highlights of the event was the Rural Women Innovators Award ( RUWI ) ceremony, coordinated by AEIDL, which this year received 64 nominations from 28 countries. The 2025 award went to the Spanish company Grenoucerie SL , specializing in the sustainable breeding of the Iberian frog and led by Paula Echenique and Fabián Simón .

Their proposal was recognized for combining scientific innovation, environmental sustainability and revitalization of rural areas, demonstrating how women and mixed teams drive transformative initiatives with real impact in their territories.

Policy tools for inclusive rural territories

AEIDL presented the main political results developed within the framework of GRASS CEILING, including:

• Policy recommendations to advance gender equality in agriculture and rural development.

• A set of policy tools for designing evidence-based policies.

• The “Rural Women’s Innovation Compass”, a tool that analyzes nine key areas that condition female innovation in the rural world.

European Forum on Innovation Policies

In parallel, the AEIDL also coordinated the European Forum on Local Innovation   (ELIF), this time focusing on women-led innovation policies, and which brought together more than 150 policymakers and researchers from the 27 Member States of the European Union (EU).

This forum served to validate results, exchange perspectives and strengthen the design of inclusive policies at the European and national levels.

During the opening presentation, Blanca Casares, an expert in agricultural policy and gender at AEIDL, highlighted the opportunity offered by the future “National and Regional Partnership Plans (NRPP)” to incorporate gender equality as a horizontal and legally binding principle in the post-2027 framework.

Casares also highlighted the role of the new “Performance Framework”, whose indicators will allow for a better assessment of real progress in equality.

AEIDL also presented the “Roadmap” to Advance Gender Equality in Rural Areas, which includes 77 actions distributed across seven areas, with goals defined for 2025, 2030 and 2035.

The Roadmap to Advance Gender Equality in Rural Areas and the Performance Framework mentioned in this news item are part of the technical and political work presented within the framework of the European project GRASS CEILING and the current debates on the next programming period after 2027.

Currently, these documents have not been published as official publicly accessible archives, so direct external links are not available. The information included in this news item comes from presentations given during the project's Final Conference and from materials shared by the participating teams.

Beyond the project

With the conclusion of GRASS CEILING, AEIDL will transfer its community from the European Policy Forum to the Community Group of the Rural Pact on Women in Rural Areas , which already has over 130 members. It will also continue to promote exchange and dialogue platforms such as the European Local Innovation Forum (ELIF) to ensure that gender-responsive rural innovation continues to gain prominence on the European agenda.

About GRASS CEILING

GRASS CEILING is a multi-stakeholder project funded by Horizon Europe whose objective is to empower rural women and increase the number of innovations led by them in agriculture, rural economy and local communities.

The PAC Network already reported on the birth of this project through the following news .

Furthermore, the final results of the project have been compiled in the following video .