WIN-BIG Wins the Atlantic Award 2025 for Blue Skills and Ocean Literacy

We’ve got fantastic news to share: WIN-BIG has just won the Atlantic Award 2025 in the “Blue Skills and Ocean Literacy” category!

The award was received by WIN-BIG coordinator Helena Vieira (Universidade de Aveiro) and Hasmik Grigoryan and Stephen Hynes (University of Galway) during the 12th Atlantic Stakeholders Platform Conference in Galway, Ireland.

This recognition means a lot to us. It celebrates the work our project is doing to support women across Europe’s sea basins, helping them grow their skills, confidence and careers in the Blue Economy. The award highlights WIN-BIG’s effort to make the Blue Economy more equal, more diverse and more welcoming for women. From mentoring and learning labs to storytelling and networking, our project has been building spaces where women can learn, connect and lead.

Seeing this work recognised at the Atlantic level feels like a huge boost and a reminder that change really does happen when communities come together.

We want to give a huge thank you to CINEA and DGMARE for believing in the importance of gender equality and for supporting projects that make the Blue Economy more inclusive and future-ready. Their trust helps us push forward with even more confidence and ambition.

And of course, thank you to everyone in the WIN-BIG family: the partners, mentors, speakers, ocean champions, students, entrepreneurs and supporters who bring energy and passion to this project every single day. This award belongs to all of you!

We’re taking a moment to celebrate, then we’re diving right back in. WIN-BIG still has plenty of work ahead, more tools to launch, more stories to share, more women to support and a growing community to strengthen.