WIN-BIG project: Making the blue economy gender-balanced

The WIN-BIG project, which started in May 2023 is on a mission to fill the knowledge gap and promote capacity building strategies for women, in line with the EU Gender Equality Strategy 2020-2025.

Despite advancements, the blue economy remains predominantly male-dominated. Women comprise only 29% of the workforce, often occupying lower-paying and lower-status positions with overlooked and undervalued contributions. While some data on gender disparity are available for traditional blue economy sectors, like fisheries or maritime transport, they are still lacking in other blue economy fields.

The project focuses on three highly technological and emerging blue economy sectors:

1. Blue bioeconomy;

2. Blue sports and sustainable tourism;

3. Marine energy and robotics.

Filling the gender gap in the blue economy

Through surveys, interviews, and workshops, the project will:

• Offer a precise dataset regarding gender representation and women's roles in the blue economy;
• Identify skill gaps that hinder women from entering or advancing in their careers;
• Establish learning labs, acceleration programmes, and networking events tailored for women and specific sea basins.
• Develop exclusive communication materials to showcase female role models and promote women-centric advancements in blue economy emerging sectors.

The project covers all six European sea basins (Atlantic Ocean, Mediterranean, Baltic, North, Arctic and Black Seas) and aims to raise awareness of gender-related issues within the blue economy and facilitate women's entry into and progression within blue economy careers.

Led by the University of Aveiro (Portugal), the project consortium benefits from a diversified and complementary expertise spanning from universities and R&D institutions to clusters of network representatives or associations also beyond EU, and NGOs, SMEs and large stakeholders’ representatives.

The WIN-BIG project works in close cooperation with its sister project WINBLUE, also part of the Women in the Blue Economy call, complementing each other’s actions and sharing knowledge and data.

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