The EIT Community is looking for researchers on unconscious gender investment bias in EU early-stage entrepreneurship finance

The EIT Community is calling on researchers to join a game-changing initiative to bring more women into the entrepreneurship and innovation ecosystem.

In 2022, the EIT Community launched the pilot year of the EIT Women Entrepreneurship and Leadership (Supernovas) executed jointly by EIT Food, EIT Manufacturing and EIT Urban Mobility. Supernovas' activities help women-led start-ups scale, facilitate work for women taking their first career steps, bring more women into the early-stage funding industry, and provide mentoring. We believe that a more gender-balanced entrepreneurial and investment ecosystem will facilitate access to finance for women-led start-ups. 

Delivering novel research in the field is of utmost importance to analyse the state of women in tech and business, bring down stereotypes, facilitate data-based policy making and disseminate relevant results. To date, Supernovas has carried out two major studies covering female-led scaleups and deep tech-based start-ups. To support the EIT in this pursuit, this request seeks a service provider to support the EIT in identifying relevant and novel issues regarding what is known as 'unconscious gender investment bias.' That is implicit discrimination that investors might carry in the back of their minds due to socialisation or life experiences that affect the perspective of different groups, ideologies, and individuals, resulting in women-led start-ups being negatively affected. This specific call for offers is managed directly by EIT Food, as contracting entity.

Read the full call