Deadline Date: March 03, 2026
The Empowering Women in Agrifood (EWA) Programme 2026 seeks experienced organisations to deliver tailored support to women entrepreneurs across the agrifood sector.
The programme focuses on strengthening the agrifood innovation ecosystem, supporting women at different stages of their entrepreneurial journey, addressing gender gaps in access to skills, networks, funding, and market opportunities, and aligning with EIT Food priority areas such as resilient agriculture, biotechnology, and diversified proteins while embedding a strong women empowerment perspective throughout all activities.
Selected organisations will join the EWA consortium to implement either Module 2 (Grow) or Module 3 (Advance) during the 2026 programme cycle. Module 2 (Grow) will be delivered locally, in national languages, to early-stage women founders or idea-holders with high potential who need structured support to validate and strengthen their business models. Up to 12 organisations will be selected for Module 2, including one in Türkiye, one in Ukraine, and up to ten across other eligible RIS countries. Module 3 (Advance) will be delivered by a single pan-European organisation in English, targeting women-led startups with market traction that require support to become investment-ready and scale internationally.
Implementing Participants will be responsible for the full delivery of their cohort, including outreach and scouting, application evaluation, mentor recruitment, programme design, training delivery, mentoring coordination, ecosystem matchmaking, and organisation of key events such as kick-off sessions, masterclasses, and Demo Days. Each cohort will support up to 10 women entrepreneurs, providing structured training, personalised mentoring, ecosystem engagement, and access to financial awards for top-performing participants.
Organisations applying must demonstrate strong operational capacity, relevant agrifood and entrepreneurship expertise, access to local or international innovation ecosystems, and experience delivering EU-funded or comparable support programmes. They are also expected to contribute to programme sustainability by securing external sponsorship to support participant prize grants.
The total budget for this call is €658,000, with lump-sum funding of up to €50,000 per Module 2 organisation and €58,000 for the Module 3 organisation, with funding tied to the successful delivery of defined deliverables. The programme will run from March 2026 to December 2026.
For more information, visit EIT Food.
