Empowering rural women innovators with the EU-funded GRASS CEILING project

GRASS CEILING’s roadmap to advance gender equality in rural areas outlines a set of recommended actions for implementation by EU, national and regional policymakers in the short, medium and long term, aligned with the key milestones of 2025, 2030 and 2035. These actions are focused on seven interconnected areas: legal and policy frameworks, financial support, data and monitoring, innovation, knowledge exchange, governance, and cultural change. The recommendations call for a fundamental shift from soft law to binding commitments on gender equality, reinforced by dedicated investments, clearer accountability mechanisms, and recognition of women’s contributions beyond traditional agricultural roles.  

The project’s policy rural gender toolkit offers practical support for policymakers, practitioners and stakeholders working to advance gender equality in rural areas, with templates, data resources and step-by-step guidance. At its heart is the Rural Women Innovation Compass, a methodological framework to analyse and connect key data on women-led innovation in rural areas, thus revealing gaps and emerging opportunities across policy programmes. 

The toolkit contains a practical checklist to guide policymakers through the full policy cycle, helping to embed gender equality and inclusiveness from design and implementation to monitoring and review. A benchmarking template, supported by a training webinar, enables users to assess how EU and national policies address gender gaps and promote inclusion. Another tool, a gender proofing template for agriculture, helps identify structural biases and define targeted measures and goals to achieve more equitable outcomes.  

The project’s tools and methodologies offer concrete opportunities to scale up and embed gender-responsive approaches within existing and forthcoming EU initiatives and policy processes. This includes, for example, the vision for agriculture and food, the long-term vision for rural areas, the roadmap for women’s rights, the planned EU Observatory on Farmland, the future European Competitiveness Fund, and the new Women in Farming Platform, which is expected to launch in March.  

Community Group offers space for dialogue and engagement 

GRASS CEILING’s European Policy Forum for Women-Led Innovation gave stakeholders a platform to discuss better integration of gender equality into rural and agricultural policy frameworks, with more than 150 people – primarily policymakers and researchers from all 27 EU Member States – taking part. With the project’s end, the Rural Pact Community Group on women in rural areas provides a continued space for collaboration and policy engagement, hosting exchanges and dialogue.  

The Community Group brings together more than 130 members from around Europe. Join the group to take part in discussions covering topics such as women’s entrepreneurship, access to finance, gender mainstreaming in EU policies – including the common agricultural policy – as well as major events, consultations and the recognition and visibility of rural women innovators. 

GRASS CEILING’s work will also live on in other ways, such as the European Local Innovation Forum’s webinar on 12 March 2026 exploring practical pathways to advance gender equality in agriculture and rural areas, featuring results from the project.  

Boosting capacity among rural women innovators 

With nine Living Labs across Europe, GRASS CEILING strengthened the technical, entrepreneurial and leadership capacity of 72 rural women innovators. These labs fostered peer learning, mentoring and cross-sector collaboration, enabling women to fine-tune and advance their projects, build lasting professional networks, and redefine innovation in ways that value social, environmental and community impact alongside economic outcomes.  

Other project initiatives included the creation of an online academy – a free online course designed to empower rural women and strengthen their role in agricultural innovation and rural development. In addition, the Rural Women Innovators Award gave visibility and recognition to pioneering women-centred initiatives. The award attracted 64 applicants from 28 countries, showing the diversity and dynamism of women-led innovation across Europe. 

Find out more about GRASS CEILING’s results in the project’s final report.  

Explore the latest Rural Pact resources on the topic of women. 

Author: Blanca Casares Guillén, Policy Expert for the GRASS CEILING project 

Gender equality must no longer remain optional or aspirational; it should become mandatory for the upcoming National and Regional Partnership Plans post 2027. This includes clear justification for how measures integrate gender perspectives, the allocation of dedicated budgets, and the assessment of progress through measurable indicators.  — Blanca Casares Guillén (AEIDL)