EU supported Scholarship Programme to Combat Discrimination by Improving Inclusiveness in Compulsory Education

Deadline: 31 January 2020

The European Union is currently accepting proposals from eligible organisations for a program entitled “Support to Combating Discriminations by Improving Inclusiveness in Compulsory Education – EU Supported Scholarship Programme”.

Objectives of the Programme and Priority Issues

The global objective of this call for proposals is to advance full and equal access of children from disadvantaged and vulnerable groups into quality education and training.

The specific objective of this call for proposals is to support, by means of a scholarship programme, children with disabilities into education. The call will encourage and secure attendance of children with disabilities to primary school, to increase their individual levels of social inclusion, social and educational development (the quality of teaching service and educational support), to increase school enrolment numbers of children with disabilities and to reduce drop out levels of children with disabilities. The objective is also to support primary schools to more effectively support access to quality education of children with disabilities.

The priority of this call for proposals is to increase number of enrolment in primary education and regular school attendance of children, girls and boys, targeted by this call (children with disabilities) as well as the quality of education they receive in an inclusive environment.

Size of Grant

Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:

Minimum amount: EUR 1,150,000.00
Maximum amount: EUR 1,200,000.00

Location

Actions must take place in the Republic of North Macedonia.

Duration

The initial planned duration of an action may not be lower than 32 months nor exceed 36 months.

Eligibility Criteria

Lead applicant
- In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
  - be a legal person and
  - be non-profit-making and
  - be established at least 2 years before the call is launched in the Republic of North Macedonia or in a Member State of the European Union or country covered by the Regulation 236/2014 laying down common rules and procedures for the implementation of the Union’s instruments for financing external action.
  - For British applicants: Please be aware that eligibility criteria must be complied with for the entire duration of the grant. Unless sector-specific eligibility rules provide otherwise, if the United Kingdom withdraws from the EU during the grant period without concluding an agreement with the EU ensuring in particular that British applicants continue to be eligible, applicants will cease to receive EU funding (while continuing, where possible to participate) or will be required to leave the project on the basis of the grant agreement’.
  - This obligation does not apply to international organisations, and
  - be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the co-applicant(s) and affiliated entity(ies), not acting as an intermediary.
Co-applicant(s)
- The lead applicant must act together with a minimum of one (1) co-applicant and a maximum of two (2) co-applicants.
- Co-applicants participate in designing and implementing the action, and the costs they incur are eligible in the same way as those incurred by the lead applicant.
- Co-applicants must satisfy the eligibility criteria as applicable to the lead applicant himself.
Affiliated entities
- The lead applicant and its co-applicant(s) may act with affiliated entity(ies).
- Only the following entities may be considered as affiliated entities to the lead applicant and/or to co-applicant(s):
  - Only entities having a structural link with the applicants (i.e. the lead applicant or a co-applicant), in particular a legal or capital link.
  - This structural link encompasses mainly two notions:
    - Control, as defined in Directive 2013/34/EU on the annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements and related reports of certain types of undertakings:
      - Entities affiliated to an applicant may hence be:
        
        Entities directly or indirectly controlled by the applicant (daughter companies or first-tier subsidiaries). They may also be entities controlled by an entity controlled by the applicant (granddaughter companies or second-tier subsidiaries) and the same applies to further tiers of control;
        
        Entities directly or indirectly controlling the applicant (parent companies). Likewise, they may be entities controlling an entity controlling the applicant;
        
        Entities under the same direct or indirect control as the applicant (sister companies).
    - Membership, i.e. the applicant is legally defined as a e.g. network, federation, association in which the proposed affiliated entities also participate or the applicant participates in the same entity (e.g. network, federation, association,…) as the proposed affiliated entities.