1. First Call – Alleviating household energy poverty in Europe (LIFE-2024-CET-ENERPOV)
In recent years, European households have continued to spend an increasing share of income on energy, leading to higher rates of energy poverty and negatively affecting living conditions, well-being, and health. Most recent estimates suggest that 9.3% of Europeans are unable to keep their homes adequately warm. Under the Energy Efficiency Directive of the Fit for 55 package, Member states have the responsibility to implement energy efficiency improvement measures prioritising households affected by energy poverty, vulnerable customers, people in low-income households, and where applicable, people living in social housing.
Opening Date: 18 April 2024
Deadline Date: 19 September 2024, 17:00 Brussels time
Available budget: EUR 6 000 000. The reference amount for one proposal is up to EUR 1.75 million to allow the specific objectives to be addressed appropriately but this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.
Scope
Actions should contribute to actively alleviating energy poverty and build on the tools, indicators, and resources of existing initiatives, such as the Energy Poverty Advisory Hub or the energy poverty pillar of Covenant of Mayors. The proposed action should cover maximum two of the following bullet points:
• Support the renovation of private multi-apartment buildings with energy poor residents, with a special focus on reinforcing and adapting the governance and decision-making structures of building management and homeowners or tenants associations, tackling related regulatory framework barriers (e.g. property and/or rental laws), split incentives (where relevant), and setting up and coordinating relevant support services. The renovation actions supported should consider the ability of residents to stay in their homes to avoid gentrification.
• Support national authorities in their obligation to empower and protect energy poor households by implementing the relevant provisions of the EED (recast). This support should help analyse the national policy mix and combine and pull the different energy poverty-related provisions together to allow for the effective and coherent application of measures at the national level. The action should also support relevant authorities to evaluate the impact of different implementation options, considering the specific national needs and context on energy poverty.
• Actions should facilitate the delivery of capacity-building for national, regional, and/or local authorities and societal intermediaries, and support these actors in setting up long-term, cross-sectoral coordination structures to tackle energy poverty. Such structures could include setting up national energy poverty observatories. The actors involved are expected to represent all relevant sectors (e.g. energy, social, health, and housing) to ensure a holistic participatory approach to the alleviation of energy poverty in the long term and to improve social cohesion. This capacity-building should lead to the relevant actors co-designing and rolling out integrated interventions and support schemes for the benefit of energy poor households; however, it is not expected that such interventions or support schemes are delivered as part of the action.
• Support obligated parties in setting up and testing schemes for energy efficiency improvement measures for the benefit of people affected by energy poverty, vulnerable customers, people in low-income households and, where applicable, people living in social housing under the energy efficiency obligation schemes of the EED (recast), including, where applicable, working together with local authorities or municipalities, and/or relevant networks such as the Covenant of Mayors. It is expected that obligated parties are either directly involved or their support is clearly demonstrated in the proposal.
Other considerations:
• Addressing more than one bullet point does not necessarily increase the relevance of the proposal.
• Proposed actions should take note of multiple benefits such as improved health, comfort, air quality, better social inclusion and could focus on groups which are more at risk of being affected by energy poverty or more susceptible to the adverse impacts of energy poverty and including the gender perspective, where relevant.
• The proposed actions should involve local authorities and intermediaries such as consumer or social organisations, energy companies, healthcare providers, homeowners or tenant associations, energy communities etc.
• Proposals that include the development of any tools, databases or platforms should add value to existing ones and can be reused by other initiatives.
Expected Impact:
• Proposals should present the concrete results which will be delivered by the activities and demonstrate how these results will contribute to the topic-specific impacts.
• Proposals submitted under this topic should demonstrate how they will contribute to the reduction of energy poverty for the targeted households and the development of successful approaches for improvements in the energy efficiency and use of renewable energy solutions, which can be replicated in other regions or Member States.
• Proposals should quantify their results and impacts using the indicators provided for the topic when they are relevant for the proposed activities.
Who are eligible:
To be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
− be legal entities (public or private bodies)
− be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
− EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
− non-EU countries: listed EEA countries and countries associated to the LIFE Programme (e.g. Iceland, Ukraine)
− the coordinator must be established in an eligible country
How to apply: Proposals must be submitted by at least 3 applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities) from 3 different eligible countries. Proposals must be submitted electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System
The call document can be found here. Recordings of the information session can be found here.
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2. Second call – SKI.F.T. Skills for Transition – Call for social economy enterprises to receive advisory services and coaching to support green transition to increase the impact of micro and small social economy enterprises.
This call is under Cascade Funding (a mechanism to to distribute public funding to assist beneficiaries in the uptake or development of digital innovation) and is co-funded by the European Union. The SKI.F.T. – Skills for Transition – Increasing the Impact of Micro and Small Social Economy Enterprises aims to support the development of small and micro cooperative and social economy enterprises (SMEs) for green transition. The lead coordinator of SKI.F.T is Kooperationen (DK).
Opening date: 21 May 2024
Deadline dates: 30 September 2024, 12:00 (Brussels time)
Deadline model: multiple cut-off
Budget: Total of EUR 484 200 (first call: EUR 30 000; second call: EUR 402 000, third call: EUR 52 200)
Objectives:
The project’s aim is to contribute to strengthening the resilience, innovation capacity, competitiveness, and sustainability of small and micro cooperative and social economy enterprises (SEEs) with a social mission or impact across Europe, enabling them to embrace green transition.
Activities supported by the call: This Call will provide each selected organization with advisory and coaching activities meant to contribute to develop sustainable business models, structured as follows:
Understanding: A first interview to understand applicant’s needs for green transition.
Goal setting: Elaboration of a dedicated path to meet the identified needs.
Advisory: Thematic webinars, workshops or on the job accompaniment.
Coaching: Individual or group coaching and exchange with other organisations and networks.
Strategy: Final assessment pattern of the green transition model of the beneficiary organisation.
The training sessions will be organised online and/or in presence, in English or other languages admitted by the call (Danish, Italian, Polish).
Who are eligible: Applicants must meet all the following requirements:
• Be a Social Economy Enterprise (SEE), as defined by the European Commission: A social economy enterprise is an operator in the social economy whose main goal is to have a social impact rather than make a profit for their owners or shareholders. It operates by providing goods and services for the market in an entrepreneurial and innovative fashion and uses its profits primarily to achieve social objectives. It is managed in an open and responsible manner and involves employees, consumers and stakeholders affected by its commercial activities.
• Be a Micro and Small (Social Economy) Enterprise as defined by the EU, will be considered as such if coherent with the Commission Recommendation 2003/361/EC and the SME user guide.
• Be established/registered (legal office) in one of the following countries:
> EU Member State
> EEA countries and countries associated to the COSME part of the Single Market Programme
• Be compliant with the following situations, is not bankrupt or being wound up, is not having affairs administered by the courts, etc.
• Apply as an individual organisation (i.e. consortia are not eligible to apply for their members). Applications must be submitted by a single applicant.
How to apply:
Applicants must submit their application in English or other languages admitted by the call (Danish, Italian, Polish) by completing the application form. Applicants of this call can access advisory and coaching services by sending the application form and will be selected according to the criteria specified in the call for proposals.
The expected total number of SEEs to be selected is at least 60.
Furthermore, for a selected number of applicants that will compete successfully in the Advisory and Coaching Activities (Phase 1), there is the opportunity to apply in a following call for social economy enterprises to receive financial support for purchasing capacity building services (Phase 2) to be launched in October 2024 and the opportunity to participate in one transnational seminar on green transition at European level (Phase 3) planned for January-February 2025.
For more information, please access the call document here.
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3. Third Call – Call for proposals on the assistance, support, and integration of third country national victims of trafficking in human beings (AMIF-2024-TF2-AG-THB-01)
This call supports transnational measures aimed at enhancing the identification, protection, assistance, support, and integration of trafficking victims in the host country, considering their specific needs, vulnerabilities, and circumstances.
Opening date: 21 May 2024
Deadline date: 21 August 2024 17:00:00 Brussels time
Deadline model: single-stage
Budget/Grant Amount: EUR 6 000 000. The grant amount must range between minimum EUR 500 000 and maximum EUR 1 000 000.
Duration: Projects must have a maximum 24 months (extensions are possible, if duly justified and through an amendment).
Objectives:
This call aims at strengthening the actions of relevant stakeholders in the context of the implementation of the revised Anti-trafficking Directive and the Strategy on Combatting Trafficking in Human Beings 2021-20257 in relation to victims.
Proposals under this call should take into account, and explain their relevance in relation to, the priorities and key actions of the EU Strategy on Combatting Trafficking in Human Beings (2021-2025), the Common Anti-Trafficking Plan to address the risks of trafficking in human beings and support potential victims among those fleeing the war in Ukraine, and other relevant policy initiatives, including the New Pact on Migration and Asylum, the EU Action Plan on Integration and Inclusion 2021-2027 and the Renewed Action Plan against Migrant Smuggling 2021-2025.
The specific objectives of this call are to:
• facilitate the prevention of labour exploitation of third-country nationals, as well as awareness raising, including in third countries on the risks of labour exploitation and fake job offers;
• facilitate the prevention of sexual exploitation of third-country nationals, as well as awareness raising, including in third countries on the risks of trafficking in human beings, considering the online dimension of the crime;
• raise awareness on the demand that fosters trafficking in human beings for the purpose of labour and sexual exploitation;
• facilitate the early identification of third-country national victims trafficked for the purpose of labour exploitation, including in the context of labour inspections and through cooperation with the private sector;
• facilitate the identification of third-country national victims of trafficking, especially children, trafficked for the purpose of exploitation of criminal activities;
• provide specialised assistance and support, including in specialised facilities/shelters, to third-country national victims of trafficking in human beings for all exploitative purposes, considering their specific needs, such as age, sex, and the physical and psychological consequences of the form/s of exploitation they have been subjected to;
• with the contribution of the above, facilitate durable solutions for:
– the integration of third-country national victims of trafficking in human beings in the host society, which considers the individual needs of the victims and aimed at preventing re-trafficking; or
– the safe and sustainable voluntary return of third-country national victims of trafficking in human beings, which build upon appropriate risk assessments and prevent their re-trafficking.
Activities that can be funded:
• initiatives for setting up and improving transnational multi-stakeholder and multi-disciplinary coordination, especially related to identification. These initiatives should facilitate exchanges of experiences and best practices among relevant actors, such as law enforcement, judiciary, migration, and asylum;
• authorities, social workers, labour inspectors, border guards, civil society organisations and other services, or international organisations. These may include:
– Capacity-building and sharing of best practices for the identification of victims, including those trafficked for the purpose of labour exploitation or for the exploitation of criminal activities, with specific attention to children and other vulnerable groups;
– creating safe environments for victims of trafficking in human beings with the aim of: i) fostering cooperation with relevant authorities in relation to the offence of which they were victims; ii) avoiding exposure to secondary victimisation, intimidation, or retaliation in the context of criminal proceedings;
– specialised training to officers and all practitioners likely to enter in contact with victims of trafficking in human beings, including those trafficked for the purpose of labour exploitation and exploitation of criminal activities. Such training should be provided in a gender-sensitive and child-rights-based manner and should be adapted to the needs of victims of trafficking in human beings who are migrants;
• initiatives aimed at improving the prevention of trafficking in human beings, in particular for the purpose of labour and sexual exploitation. These initiatives may include awareness raising campaigns, including in cooperation with third countries:
– on the risks of trafficking in human beings for third-country nationals;
– aiming to reduce the demand that fosters trafficking in human beings for the purpose of labour exploitation, both in the EU and in third countries;
• initiatives aimed at improving the referral of victims of trafficking for all exploitative purposes to protection, assistance and support services, considering the personal circumstances and specific needs of victims, notably those related to health, psychological and legal services. This may include measures to improve the functioning of national and transnational referral mechanisms, both within the EU and with non-EU countries;
• initiatives aimed at enhancing the provision of specialised assistance and support services, including in specialised facilities/shelters. These could include cooperation and exchange of best practices among existing shelters from different Member States in relation to the provision of assistance and support to victims of trafficking in human beings including those trafficked for the purpose of labour exploitation and for forced criminality;
• transnational measures facilitating the integration of victims via access to, among others, education, language and vocational training, apprenticeship programmes, job placement services, skills enhancement, workplace training and mentoring, entrepreneurship training, community-led and peer-mentoring programmes involving victims of trafficking. This should include sharing and exchanging experiences, information, knowledge, and best practices concerning the integration of third-country national victims of trafficking in human beings;
• initiatives aimed at improving cross-border cooperation on concrete cases, such as in the context of transfer of third-country national victims to the Member State where they first arrived, or the safe and voluntary return of victims to their non-EU country of origin. This can be facilitated by national and transnational referral mechanisms, as well as by relevant authorities and
• civil society organisations involved in identification, protection, assistance and support.
Additional notes: Proposals should be targeted and should not try to cover all activities listed above. Applicants should consider the online aspect of trafficking and the increasing use of the digital space in the recruitment and exploitation of victims.
Proposals should include ALL the following components:
1. tailored communication strategy defining:
– the target audience and its segmentation (gender, age, education, profession, etc.);
– the geographical scope (which country/region and which part of that country in particular);
– the key messages to be used throughout the period of implementation of the activities and the key visual elements;
– the communication channels to be used depending on the target audience, ensuring a mix of traditional and social media;
– alternative communication tools where appropriate, such as theatre plays, community-led debates, school visits, testimonials, involvement of celebrities etc.;
2. monitoring and evaluation plan including:
– key performance indicators (KPIs), both qualitative and quantitative, with baseline and targets to be used to monitor the implementation and to assess the result of the project, as well as measure the outputs and results of the project against programme performance indicators included in Annex VIII, Regulation (EU) 2021/1147, in particular as regards the Specific Objectives in Article 3(2)(a), (b) and (c);
– KPIs should relate to the identification, assistance, support, and integration of third-country national victims of trafficking.
– lessons learnt and good practices for future actions; and,
3. strategy for the sustainability of the activities, particularly by engaging with national authorities and civil society throughout the action, with a view to sharing know-how and best practices, raising awareness, and building ownership
Expected impact:
Proposals should have a concrete operational impact on the identification, assistance, support of third-country national victims of trafficking in human beings, be it in the context of integration or safe return. Proposals should focus on contributing to the achievement of at least one but ideally more of the following outcomes:
• improved identification, protection, assistance, support, and integration of third-country national victims of trafficking in human beings, including in the context of labour inspections and in the fight against organised crime, considering children and other vulnerable groups, and high-risk sectors and high-risk environments;
• improved transnational cooperation between local and regional authorities and civil society for the identification, integration, as well as voluntary and safe return of third-country national victims of trafficking and for finding durable solutions for particularly vulnerable victims of trafficking in human beings, including children;
• improved identification, protection, assistance and support to victims through stronger consideration of the online dimension of trafficking in human beings;
• developing practical approaches, tools, and guidelines, where relevant and appropriate, by building on results of past projects.
Who are eligible:
To be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
− be legal entities (public or private bodies)
− be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
− EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)), excluding Denmark
− non-EU countries: countries associated to the AMIF (associated countries) or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature
Proposals must be submitted by:
− minimum three applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities) from three different participating Member States
− profit-making entities and international organisations can NOT apply as coordinator
− profit-making entities can NOT apply as beneficiaries / affiliated entities / associated partners
Applicants must have stable and sufficient resources to successfully implement the projects and contribute their share. Organisations participating in several projects must have sufficient capacity to implement all these projects. Applicants must have the know-how, qualifications, and resources to successfully implement the projects and contribute their share (including sufficient experience in projects of comparable size and nature).
How to apply:
Beneficiaries and affiliated entities must register in the Participant Register — before submitting the proposal — and will have to be validated by the Central Validation Service (REA Validation). For validation, they will be requested to upload documents showing legal status and origin.
Proposals must be submitted electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System. Paper submissions are NOT possible. At proposal submission, you will have to confirm that you have the mandate to act for all applicants.
For more information, please visit the call document.
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4. Fourth Call – Horizon Europe Framework Programme (HORIZON): A European Social Innovation Advisory Network in support of EU Mission Objectives (HORIZON-MISS-2024-CROSS-01-01)
Opening date: 18 April 2024
Deadline date: 25 September 2024, 17:00:00 Brussels time
Deadline type: Single stage
Type of Action: Coordination and Support Actions
Indicative budget: EUR 2.50 million (but this does not prevent submission and selection of a proposal requesting different amounts)
Objectives: This call seeks proposals for a Coordination and Support Action (CSA) that will set up an advisory network that bridges between EU Missions and socially oriented entrepreneurs in the missions’ context on the one hand and impact investors on the other. Activities are expected to include capacity-building in the missions’ contexts, networking among impact investors, supported by actions described below, and matchmaking between the groups with the objective of enhancing the financing environment for social innovation across Europe.
Scope: This coordination and support action serves the EU Missions by:
• supporting the recognition of social innovation in the EU Missions;
• identifying social innovations with the potential to advance the EU Missions;
• identifying the social innovators and entrepreneurs to carry out the upscaling;
• setting up a network and build the capacity of social innovators and entrepreneurs, and impact investors to advance the EU Missions by scaling up social innovations;
• establishing a community of practice;
• providing an interface between the EU Missions and the network to match the demand for and supply of social innovation solutions as well as social innovation investment;
• enabling social innovators and social entrepreneurs to navigate the complex challenges of scaling up across complex public systems and markets better;
• expanding the range of financial instruments and sources of support so that the innovations continue to scale, after the support provided;
• establishing a framework for the implementation of a future research agenda to ensure that experience is gathered and learning, shared, building the profile of social innovation within and across the EU Mission fields;
• identifying the most favourable national legal entity to support social innovation projects on a case-by-case basis.
Activities that can be funded:
• create and animate a network of entities interested in scaling up social innovations to advance the EU Missions as well as entities interested in investing in social innovation ventures, for the purpose of raising awareness and facilitating information exchange;
• create a favourable environment to upscale social innovation with the financial support of beneficiaries like entities interested in investing in such social innovation ventures;
• offer advisory services and mentoring for ‘social innovators’ wishing to expand the geographic scope of their activities within the EU and countries associated to Horizon Europe or interested in taking up social innovation from abroad.
Expected Outcomes:
• Social innovation advances the EU Mission societal and environmental transition objectives;
• The EU Missions embrace the potential of social innovation as means of achieving their objectives;
• Social innovators and social entrepreneurs and funders of social innovation benefit from moderated learning and experience sharing and liaise better with projects and support activities in the EU Missions environment;
• The project establishes the foundation for a networked fund targeting the scaling up of existing, demonstrably successful social innovations to advance the EU Missions.
Other considerations:
• Applicants should propose (and document) convincing cooperation models with the relevant Commission services to ensure that the project contributes to the objectives of the EU Missions, with comparable added-value and synergies.
• Actions should envisage, as appropriate, cooperation with other ongoing and future social innovation projects funded under Horizon 2020 or Horizon Europe projects
• Applicants are encouraged to seek additional resources from public and private sources to ensure the continuation of the network beyond the project duration.
• The Commission invites applicants to consult the Horizon 2020 European Social Catalyst Fund pilot
Who are eligible: Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from non- associated third countries or international organisations (including international European research organisations) is eligible to participate (whether it is eligible for funding or not), provided that the conditions laid down in the Horizon Europe Regulation have been met, along with any other conditions laid down in the specific call/topic.
How to apply: Beneficiaries and affiliated entities must register in the Participant Register before submitting their application, to get a participant identification code (PIC) and be validated by the Central Validation Service before signing the grant agreement.
For more information, please click here.
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5. Fifth Call – EUI-Innovative Actions Third Call for Proposals
The European Urban Initiative – Innovative Actions has released its third Call for Proposals targeting innovative projects on energy transition; and ‘technology in cities’. This call has an indicative budget of EUR 90 million via the ERDF. Each project can receive up to a maximum of EUR 5 million ERDF co-financing and project implementation should take place within a maximum period of 3.5 years.
Submission is now open and will close on 14 October, 14:00 CEST. Cities interested in applying are invited to begin developing their project proposals as early as possible utilizing the various resources available on this Call page. The call is meant for eligible urban authorities as defined in the guidance document. Interested Cities should set up project partnerships with relevant entities (e.g. public and private partners, NGOs, universities, SMEs, etc.).
Eurodiaconia members who are interested in this project can contact their local urban authorities/cities.