The Minerva Informatics Equality Award (MIEA) recognises outstanding European initiatives and best practices that encourage and support women's careers in Informatics research and education.
This year, the Award enters its 11th edition, welcoming SAP as our new Award sponsor. Nomination opens now!
The Award annually recognises impactful initiatives that have successfully supported women's careers at all stages in Informatics research and education. These initiatives serve as best practice exemplars, inspiring broader adoption across institutions.
Until 2022, the Award followed a three-year cycle, each year focusing on a different career stage. As of 2023, the Award considers initiatives at any stage of the career pipeline, including but not limited to:
- Encouraging female students to enrol and persist in Informatics/Computer Science programmes;
- Supporting PhD and postdoctoral researchers in transitioning to faculty positions;
- Advancing the careers of female faculty through retention and promotion.
The Award carries a prize of 5,000 EUR.
Nominations for the Award are open to individuals or groups. Eligible nominees should be affiliated with institutions located in one of the European countries. Members of the Award Committee are not eligible as Award recipients.
The Award Committee will review all nominations received and reserves the right to divide the prize between up to two winners. Additionally, to encourage the broader adoption of gender equality initiatives, all nominated entries will be showcased as best practice exemplars on our webpage here and may be featured in future Informatics Europe publications.
Key Dates
- Abstract Submission Deadline: 22 June 2026 (indication of interest)
- Full Submission Deadline: 15 July 2026 (required for Award consideration)
- Notification of winner(s): late August 2026
- Award Ceremony: 27 October 2026
The Award will be presented during the 22nd European Informatics Leaders Summit (ECSS 2026) in Porto (Portugal), between 26th and 28th of October, where a representative of the winning proposal(s) may be invited to give a short talk on their achievements.
How to Submit
Your submission package should include:
By 22 June 2026
- Names and addresses of the applicant or applicants;
- Indication of whether the submission is on behalf of an individual or a group;
- A brief abstract (at least 150 words) which can be made public;
By 15 July 2026, in addition to the abstract submission as a PDF file
- Description of the initiative (max 2 pages);
- Evidence of its impact (max 2 pages);
- An optional reference list (which may include URLs of supporting materials);
- At least one letter of support and a maximum of two. The letters of support may come, for example, from female faculty members who have benefited from the scheme, or the Dean/Head of the organisation of the applying Institution confirming the impact;
- The CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 copy-right licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0), as an indication that the submission can, among others, be featured as an exemplar of best practices on the Informatics Europe webpage and possible future Informatics Europe publications.
Submit the nomination via our EasyChair platform here: https://easychair.org/conferences?conf=miea2026
Only full nominations received will be evaluated. Submissions not conforming to the above rules and applications outside the scope of the Award will be rejected without consideration and notification.
2026 Award Committee
- Ana Belén Gil, University of Salamanca, Spain (Chair)
- Anca Dobrovat, University of Bucharest, Romania
- Malvina Latifaj, Mälardalen University, Sweden
- Lili Nemec, University of Maribor, Slovenia
- Eirini Ntousi, Fakultätentag Informatik, Germany
- Ileana Ober, IRIT, Université de Toulouse, France
- Ayushi Rastogi, University of Groningen, the Netherlands
- Sirja Sulakatko, Tallinn University of Technology, Estonia
- Claudio Zandron, University of Milano-Bicocca, Italy
Netlogica