How EMPOWER and HER TECH met at the All digital SUMMIT in Belgrade, Serbia on the 22-23 September 2026 and decided to join forces?
At the All Digital Summit Lighting Talks, among many conversations about digital skills and inclusion, two European projects found they were working on the same challenge from different angles. EMPOWER and HER TECH each gave a lightning talk about their work, and by the end of the day they had agreed to collaborate.
Meeting Point
At the All Digital Summit 2026 in Belgrade (22–23 September), Europe’s digital education community gathered around the theme of digital wellbeing for a competitive Europe. As part of the programme, EMPOWER and HER TECH each delivered a lightning talk, a short pitch introducing their project to an audience of experts in digital skills and education.
Sitting in the same audience, we quickly realised that we were tackling the same challenge from different angles: the underrepresentation of women in ICT. After the talks we met, compared notes, and agreed to support each other’s work.
Both projects took the stage to present their goals, their partners and their first results. The overlap was obvious. Both are funded by Erasmus+, and both are working to reduce the underrepresentation of women in the ICT sector.
About HER TECH
HER TECH is an Erasmus+ project that aims to develop a teaching framework and policy interventions that create a gender-sensitive educational environment, encouraging girls and women to pursue ICT studies and careers. It brings together partners from seven countries: Croatia, Finland, Sweden, Ireland, Italy, Belgium and Germany. The project runs from March 2025 to February 2028, and its research looks at the structural and social factors that affect women’s participation in ICT and STEM.
About EMPOWER
EMPOWER (Enhancing Mentorship and Professional Opportunities for Women through Education and Role-modelling in ICT) is an Erasmus+ project that tackles the persistent gender gap in ICT by addressing its root causes: stereotypes, a lack of role models, and gender-insensitive teaching practices. Its work rests on two core interventions, gender diversity training for teachers and role-model presentations by female ICT professionals, which together aim to build more inclusive classrooms and inspire girls to pursue careers in tech. By combining policy and practice, piloting inclusive strategies and involving national authorities, EMPOWER also supports the development of sustainable, gender-responsive educational frameworks across its partner countries. The consortium brings together 11 partners from 6 countries.
More information at the EMPOWER project website.
Why collaborate?
The two projects complement each other. The two projects complement each other: EMPOWER offers hands-on tools for teachers and inspiring role models, while HER TECH adds research evidence and a policy-oriented teaching framework across seven countries, so each can strengthen the other’s results. Concretely, we agreed to:
- share resources, findings and good practices;
- amplify each other’s activities and events through our channels;
- explore opportunities for joint actions in the future, such as webinars, joint dissemination, cross-participation in events and more.
What’s next
Having agreed to support each other’s work, EMPOWER and HER TECH will now explore concrete ways to collaborate, starting with sharing project updates, resources and events through both projects’ channels and looking for opportunities to take part in each other’s activities. By combining our networks and expertise, we hope to reach more young women and educators, and to show that closing the gender gap in ICT is easier when European projects work together. We invite you to follow both projects to stay up to date with what comes next.
