The Gender Equality Partnerships 2026 programme provides grants to support partnerships between higher education institutions in the United Kingdom and seven partner countries, aimed at strengthening gender equality in higher education.

Overview

Gender Equality Partnerships 2026 grants are now open for applications. The programme supports projects that address one or more of the following overarching objectives:

• Contribute to long-term and sustainable institutional change that promotes gender equality in higher education.
• Enhance opportunities for women to access, participate in and progress through higher education and employment pathways.

Projects are expected to contribute to outcomes such as strengthened institutional mechanisms supporting women's leadership, improved gender-responsive policies and governance, increased participation and progression of women in higher education and STEM, stronger education-to-employment pathways for women, and greater integration of intersectional approaches in institutional strategies and systems.

Eligibility

Partnerships must include one eligible UK institution and a partner institution in one of the participating countries. The UK lead institution must be a higher education provider with degree-awarding powers. Lead partner organisations must be higher education institutions or other eligible organisations as defined in the call guidance. Applications must be jointly developed by the UK and overseas lead institutions and submitted by the UK lead institution through the Good Grants platform.

For 2026, UK institutions can partner with organisations in the following countries:

• Bangladesh
• Ghana
• Kenya
• Mexico
• Saudi Arabia
• South Africa
• Ukraine

Research Areas and Activities

Projects may address one or more of the following themes:

• Addressing underrepresentation of women in higher education leadership
• Strengthening pathways into employment
• Creating safe higher education spaces
• Enabling participation of women in STEM

Country-specific thematic priorities are available in the Call Guidance document.

Funding and Benefits

Grant amount: Up to £25,000

Project length: 17 months, starting 1 January 2027

Application Process

Applications must be submitted via the online grant platform at https://goingglobalpartnerships.grantplatform.com/. Applicants should use the form titled "Going Global Partnerships - Multi-country - Gender Equality Partnerships 2026". Online applications can only be started and submitted by the lead UK institution. Registration on the platform is required.

Application documentation, including an offline sample of the application form, is available to download from the programme page.

Deadline and Timeline

Clarification deadline: 24 August 2026

Submission deadline: 21 September 2026, 11:59 a.m. BST

Clarification questions should be sent to goingglobalpartnerships-GEP@britishcouncil.org with "GEP Grants 2026 – clarification question" in the email subject line.

Contact Information

For any questions, contact: goingglobalpartnerships-GEP@britishcouncil.org