Indirect funding

Nearly 80% out of the total of EU budget is managed through national or regional authorities, and these are the indirect funds.

Associations and organisations can apply for such funding through five different funds, all falling under the European Structural and Investment Fund. These are:

• European Regional Development Fund – regional and urban development;
• European Social Fund – social inclusion and good governance;
  
• Cohesion Fund – economic convergence by less-developed regions;
• European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development;
  
• European Maritime and Fisheries Fund;

The so called “managing authorities” must be addressed to in the member State where the organisation has its main headquarter.

Direct funding

The direct funding is the one managed by the European Commission, without any intermediary institution. There are two kinds of funds: the grants, that usually follow a call for proposals, refer to projects that relate to European policies. Any business or association working in the field can answer the call, as long as it runs projects fostering the interests of the EU or implement EU programmes or policies.

The contracts are slighlty different types of funding, issued by EU institutions to buy services, goods or works that they need for their operations – such as studies, training, conference organisation or IT equipment.

For these last kind of funding, associations can apply through the new Funding and Tenders portal.

L'articolo Quick overview on EU funding possibilities proviene da Youth Networks.

What type of activities the strands supports

The strand – Democratic engagement and civic participation offer grants to:
– Activities covering civic participation, focusing in particular on European Union policies
– Initiatives developing opportunities for mutual understanding, intercultural learning, solidarity, societal engagement and volunteering at EU level

For that reason, it includes three specific measures:
Town twinning – supporting projects bringing together citizens from twinned towns. By mobilising citizens at local and EU levels to debate on concrete issues from the European political agenda, this measure will seek to promote civic participation in the EU policy making process and develop opportunities for societal engagement and volunteering.
Networks of towns – providing funding to municipalities and associations working together on a common theme in a long term perspective, and wishing to develop networks of towns to make their cooperation more sustainable
Civil society projects – supporting projects gathering citizens in activities directly linked to EU policies, providing an opportunity for direct participation in the policy making process. Funded activities may include: promotion of societal engagement and solidarity, gathering of opinions, volunteering.

Type of grants available under the umbrella of Europe for Citizens

For actions with a limited lifetime during which proposed specific activities are implemented
Town twinning (town/municipalities and non-profit organisations representing local authorities):
* The maximum eligible grant for a project is 25 000 EUR
* The maximum project duration is 21 days
Networks of towns (Town/municipalities or their twinning committees or networks, other levels of local/regional authorities, federations/associations of local authorities, non-profit organisations representing local authorities:
* The maximum eligible grant for a project is 150 000 EUR
* The maximum project duration is 24 months
Civil society projects (Non-profit organisations, including civil society organisations, educational, cultural or research institutions):
* The maximum eligible grant for a project is 150 000 EUR
* The maximum project duration is 18 months

In order to apply, you must create an EULogin (European Commission Authentication Service) account. Furthermore, each organisation involved in your project (applicant and partners) must register in the Participant portal and receive a Participant Identification Code (PIC). The PIC will be requested in the application form. To access the Participants’ portal, you will need your EULogin username and password.
Finally, create your official electronic application form, also called the eForm. To create your eForm, your will be asked to go through the follow steps, without interruption:
* Select the funding opportunity
* Even more select a language option
* Select the organisation(s) participating in your proposed activity (applicant and partners)
* Even more create the application eForm
* Above all save the application eForm to your local computer or network drive
* Finally fill in the e-form and save regularly

Your project has better chances to be approved it it has consistency with the objectives of the Programme and Programme strand, quality of the activity plan of the project, a good dissemination plan and a real impact and citizen involvement.

Read more here.

L'articolo Europe for citizens – how to access the Programme proviene da Youth Networks.

What are Lifeline Advocacy Grants?
Lifeline rapid response advocacy grants give local nonprofits the resources to push back against closures of civic space as they arise. Lifeline advocacy grants are highly flexible, and can support a wide variety of activities: community mobilization, policy and legal analysis, civil society coalition building, strategic litigation, awareness raising campaigns, and advocacy capacity building.

Applications can be made directly to CIVICUS.

The CIVICUS Crisis Response Fund, established in 2007, serves as a mechanism for mobilizing quick, principled and effective advocacy responses to events that threaten civil society’s fundamental right to associate and assemble freely.

Advocacy supported through the Crisis Response Fund
The Crisis Response Fund will provide small grants of 10,000 USD maximum to primarily national civil society organisations in order to conduct advocacy activities over a course of a maximum of 6 months. These activities, designed by the applying organization, should be relevant and have the largest chance of bringing about positive change. These activities could be, but are not limited to:

– National workshops with civil society actors to discuss and plan advocacy strategies, such as to repeal restrictive legislation;
– Advocacy meetings with decision makers at to give recommendations on how to ensure freedom of association and assembly within the given context;
– Public engagement campaigns conducted via social media, traditional media or alternative advocacy tools;
– Fact-finding and report publication with the aim of conducting evidence-based advocacy;
– Regional networking with other civil societies under siege to exchange best practices and share legal expertise;
– Solidarity visits or missions by international high level bodies and/or celebrities.

How to apply
1. Please read the Crisis Response Fund Guidelines and Protocols document to know the criteria for applying
2. Complete the Crisis Response Fund Application Form
3. Complete the Crisis Response Fund Budget.
4. Email the completed Crisis Response Fund Application Form and the Crisis Response Fund Budget to crisis.response@civicus.org

Download the documents here or  discover other advocacy grants here.

L'articolo Civil society organisations, supported by Lifeline proviene da Youth Networks.

The ILGA-Europe Documentation and Advocacy Fund started in 2006 as a pilot project. Since then it has grown to collect valuable evidence about LGBTI human rights violations on a systematic basis. First of all, it supports small grant applications from member organisations. Besides that, ILGA-Europe and its members use this evidence strategically for advocacy purposes.

Therefore, their goal is to promote documentation of cases of discrimination, hate crimes and other human rights violations against LGBTI people according to international human rights standards.

How can be achieved the goal?

1. Work  towards LGBTI equality by gathering evidence of human rights violations
2. Support evidence-based advocacy throughout Europe
3. Build capacity of LGBTI organisations in Europe. Likewise, monitor and document human rights violations on the grounds of sexual orientation, gender identity and gender expression
4. Enable the use of well-documented information for advocacy purposes at the national level
5. Develop methodology and tools that can be replicated in other European countries
6. Promote documentation of cases of discrimination, hate crimes and other human rights violations against LGBTI people. Furthermore, these should be according to international human rights documentation standards.

Open calls for grants

Calls for proposals are announced once or twice a year, with almost 5 to 10 grantees per call. There are two types of grants – a documentation grant and an advocacy grant.

About ILGA Europe and human rights

ILGA-Europe are an independent, international non-governmental umbrella organisation bringing together 490 organisations from 45 European countries. ILGA-Europe are a driving force for political, legal and social change in Europe and Central Asia. Therefore, their vision is of a world where dignity, freedoms and full enjoyment of human rights are protected and ensured to everyone regardless of their actual or perceived sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression and sex characteristics.

More info here.

L'articolo Grants up to 10.000 euro for LGBTI non-profits proviene da Youth Networks.

Lines of actions for Knowledge Alliances

Furthermore if you have in mind a project who aim to:
* develop new, innovative and multidisciplinary approaches to teaching and learning;
* stimulate entrepreneurship and entrepreneurial skills of higher education teaching staff and company staff;
* facilitate the exchange, flow and co-creation of knowledge.

Activities supported by Knowledge Alliances who are:
1) Boosting innovation in higher education, business and in the broader socio-economic environment:
* developing and implementing new learning and teaching methods (like new multidisciplinary curricula, learner-centred and real problem-based teaching and learning)
* organising continuing educational programmes and activities with and within companies
* jointly developing solutions for challenging issues, product and process innovation (students, professors and practitioners together)

2) Also, developing entrepreneurial mind-set and skills:
* creating schemes of transversal skills learning and application throughout higher education programmes developed in cooperation with enterprises aiming at strengthening employability, creativity and new professional paths
* introducing entrepreneurship education in any discipline to provide students, researchers, staff and educators with the knowledge, skills and motivation to engage in entrepreneurial activities in a variety of settings
* opening up new learning opportunities through the practical application of entrepreneurial skills, which can involve and/or lead to the commercialisation of new services, products and prototypes, to the creation of start-ups and spin-off

3) Similarly, stimulating the flow and exchange of knowledge between higher education and enterprises:
* study field related activities in enterprises which are fully embedded in the curriculum, recognised and credited
* set-ups to trial and test innovative measures
* exchanges of students, researchers, teaching staff and company staff for a limited period
* involvement of company staff into teaching and research

For that reason Knowledge Alliances may organise learning mobility activities of students, researchers and staff. They support/complement the other activities of the Alliance and bring added value in the realisation of the project’s objectives. Seems like mobility activities do not constitute the main activities of a Knowledge Alliance; extending and scaling-up these activities would need to be supported via the Key Action 1 of this Programme or other funding instruments.

Beneficiaries of Knowledge Alliances

First of all, a participating organisation can be any public or private organisation established in a Programme Country or any Partner Country
Hence, such an organisation can be:
* A higher education institution
* Also, a public or private, small, medium or large enterprise (including social enterprises)
* A research institute
* Certainly a public body at local, regional or national level
* An organisation active in the field of education, training and youth
* Even more, an intermediary or association which represents education, training or youth organisations
* An intermediary or association which represents enterprises
* Also, an accreditation, certification or qualification body

Timetable
Publication of the call for proposals: 25 October 2017
Deadline for submission: 28/02/2018 (Midday CET)
If approved: Project start date: 01/11/2018 or 01/01/2019
The duration of the project must be chosen at the application stage. Consequently, it can vary from 2 to 3 years.
In exceptional cases, the duration of a Knowledge Alliance may be extended, upon request by the beneficiary and with the agreement of the Executive Agency, of up to 6 months. In such a case, the total grant will not change.

How does it work
Organisations interested in participating must do so as part of a consortium, including:
* a minimum of six independent organisations from at least three Programme Countries
* of which least two must be higher education institutions (HEIs), and
* of which at least two must be enterprises/businesses (consultancies and intermediaries are eligible on the understanding that they demonstrate pertinent experience and commitment in the relevant field).

Discover more grants and funding opportunities by exploring our page

Read more about Knowledge Alliances here.

L'articolo Get familiar with Knowledge Alliances Grants proviene da Youth Networks.