EEA and Norway Grants Fund for Youth Employment
Despite a recent decrease in the youth unemployment rate in the EU, we are still struggling with it. Needless to say, it is indeed one of the main priorities of European agendas. What makes youth unemployment an urgent matter, are the high differences among EU States. While Germany, Czech Republic and the Netherlands face a low rate (<6.3%), other countries, such as Italy, Spain and Greece, see the highest rates all over Europe.
Under this scenario, the Financial Mechanism Office announced a new Call for Proposals for grants for transnational projects with focus on youth employment. The Fund supports projects that promote sustainable and quality youth employment. The aim is to ensure access to work, education or training for NEETs. It is to point out that it operates thanks to the calls designed and launched by Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein.
The 18 beneficiary countries are: Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia and Spain.
With this Call for Proposals for grants on youth employment, the Fund seeks to help European organisations to find new ways of dealing with youth unemployment. The added value is the transnational focus, in line with the European Commission’s priorities for the 2019-2024 period. Therefore the transnational dimension should be a core feature of project activities, outputs and outcomes.
The application form, the template for project contracts and the template for partnerships agreements are available in the fund operator’s electronic application system (EGREG).
The call has 3 principal support areas:
- Innovation and exploration: the projects have to focus on new, experimental solutions to combat unemployment. Another outcome should be increasing the number of sustainable jobs for young people.
- Transfer of know-how and good practice: the projects have to focus on transferring know-how and good practices on youth employment initiatives across European countries. The goal is creating more quality jobs and lower unemployment rates among youths.
- Analysis and research: the Fund supports also transnational research networks. They have to share ideas, theories, practices and experiences on how to evaluate impact studies of youth employment’s initiatives.
Click here, to open the Official Call.