The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food announces the 13th "Excellence Awards for Innovation for Rural Women" 2022

• The deadline for submitting applications is from June 20 to July 8.
• The objective of these awards is to recognize projects that recognize the work and role of women in rural areas.
• First, second, and third prizes will be awarded in each category: 18,000, 12,000, and 7,500 euros, respectively.
• This year, the entry requirements for the awards have been modified to facilitate the participation of coastal territories and small municipalities.

The Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food has published today in the Official State Gazette the call for applications for the 13th edition of the "Excellence Awards for Innovation for Rural Women" for 2022.

Since 2010, the Ministry has held these awards annually to highlight the work and life projects of women in our rural areas and the essential work they do to maintain and revitalize these territories, by recognizing new, excellent, original, and innovative projects carried out by rural women.

Categories

The awards include 4 categories:

1. “Excellence for innovation in agricultural activity ”
2. “Excellence for innovation in fishing or aquaculture activities ”
3. “Excellence for Innovation in the Diversification of Rural Economic Activity ”
4. “ Excellence in communication ”

In each of these categories, three initiatives will be awarded, with first, second, and third prizes of €18,000, €12,000, and €7,500, respectively.

These categories include an honorary award for "Special Recognition for a Career in Supporting Women in Rural Areas and Rural Fishing Areas."

Submissions and deadlines

The deadline for submitting applications for these awards is July 8, 2022 , fifteen business days after their publication in the Official State Gazette (BOE).

You can find more information about these awards and download the registration forms on the Ministry's website .

News 2022

This thirteenth edition of the awards includes new features compared to previous years, incorporated by Order APA/510/2022, of June 2 , which modifies the regulatory bases for granting the Excellence Awards for Innovation for Rural Women with the aim of adapting them more closely to the reality of our rural environment:

• The geographical scope of the awards has been expanded to include projects located in municipalities with fewer than 5,000 inhabitants, regardless of their population density .
• The access requirements have been adapted to the demographic characteristics of the coastal areas where fishing activities are located, to allow applications from municipalities where port and fishing facilities cause higher population densities. This is made possible through the introduction of a new definition of " rural fishing areas ," which encompasses municipalities with fewer than 30,000 inhabitants where fishing or aquaculture activities are carried out .
• The category of “ excellence in innovation in fishing or aquaculture activities ” now includes all those candidates related to the fishing and aquaculture sector , whether they relate either to the activity itself in the different segments of the value chain, or to the diversification of these activities .
• For applications from individuals, the requirement that the individual reside in a rural area has been replaced so that the project or economic activity is located in a rural area or, where appropriate, in rural fishing areas.
• The evaluation criteria for the categories have been updated, placing greater emphasis on the socioeconomic impact of projects and increasing support for those developed in less populated municipalities, in the case of categories A, B, and C, and giving greater weight to the scope of the projects in the case of category D.