The European Social Catalyst Fund (ESCF) is a new initiative designed to provide financial and capacity building support to help scale proven social service innovations. The objectives of the call include provision of financial support; stimulating collaborations; production of exemplar plans, relevant to challenges; development and dissemination of knowledge and skills.
The applications must address social challenges within at least one of the following focus areas ageing, poverty and marginalisation, homelessness, disability, mental health, migration, promoting gender equality, dementia, digital inclusiveness, employment and job creation, inequalities, education, training, skills, community development, the role and place of young people in society, inter-generational solidarity, ecological and social transition.
Preference will be given to innovations that have the most robust evidence of success and that aim to reach the most significant scale. Each selected application will receive a planning grant of up to €100,000 along with capacity building support. A minimum of €600,000 will be allocated to support at least 6 plans.
The ESCF has been established and co-funded by the European Union’s Horizon 2020 Research and Innovation Programme, Genio (Ireland), the Robert Bosch Stiftung (Germany) and the King Baudouin Foundation (Belgium).
Deadline for applications: the 11th of September 2020.
For further details on the call’s objectives and application process, please visit ESCF’s website.