Deadline: 25 June 2019
The European Commission is currently accepting proposals from eligible organizations for a program entitled “Reducing youth unemployment: setting up co-operatives to enhance working opportunities in the EU”.
This call aims to improve the development of cooperatives and promote their image among young people. It seeks to embed cooperative entrepreneurial education in secondary and higher education as well as outside the educational environment. The Commission wants to support the project that is innovative, transnational and implemented with a clear intention of replication. Projects should make results public and available for any actor interested in the cooperative business model and entrepreneurial training.
Particularly, the objectives intend to stimulate the transfer and development of competences of the cooperative entrepreneurship in countries
- Where the cooperative tradition is weak and where benefits offered by the cooperative model are not sufficiently well known.
- Struggling with high youth unemployment.
Program Topics
- TOPIC 1: Delivering pilot training courses for students in secondary/higher education level
- The objectives of topic 1 are to support the organisation of training modules/courses to be delivered to young people in a secondary and higher education context using mixed and innovative methods.
- This specific action will help:
- Increase the knowledge and awareness among European youth regarding the cooperative business model and values through educational training at both secondary and higher education level.
- Support the acquisition of concrete knowledge by fostering the involvement of cooperatives during the programs (i.e.: internship, apprenticeship schemes, dual education system).
- Spread good practices and tools relating to cooperative entrepreneurship in secondary schools/higher education and in non-formal learning settings.
- TOPIC 2: Cross-European workshops to share knowledge and learn from practitioners (“train the trainers”)
- The objective of topic 2 is to support the design, development and organisation of training modules to be delivered to educators/professors in secondary and higher education.
- This specific action will help:
- Stabilize comprehension on the co-operative model in terms of concept, philosophy, principle and legislation and integrate the concept in business management courses.
- Promote the cooperative model also as a cross curricular subject and to develop teaching methods and innovative projects based on it.
- Develop skills and attitudes to enable entrepreneurial learning based on the cooperative model.
- TOPIC 3: Fostering the entrepreneurial mindsets of young people to create cooperative outside the educational environment.
- The objective of Topic 3 is to develop the entrepreneurial mindsets of young people to create cooperative outside the educational environment.
- This specific action will help:
- Improve the image of the cooperative model for young people.
- Raise the awareness of the model as a viable career choice.
- Increase the attractiveness of setting up a cooperative in the perception of young people.
Budget and Project Duration
- The total budget earmarked for the co-financing of projects is estimated at €1,950,000.
- The maximum duration of project is 18 months.
- Maximum EU financing rate of eligible costs: The contribution will be up to 90% of the total eligible cost of the action.
Eligible Applicants
- Applications from legal entities established in one of the following countries are eligible:
- EU Member States.
- (Proposals including an entity from a non EU Member State in the consortium or a subcontractor from a non EU Member States will not be eligible).
- For British applicants: Please be aware that eligibility criteria must be complied with for the entire duration of the grant. 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 be required to leave the project on the basis of the grant agreement.
- EU Member States.
- Several applicants, submitting a joint proposal should choose within their midst a lead organisation, referred to as the coordinator. The coordinator and its partners must satisfy the same eligibility criteria. The participation of an entity as coordinator or partner in more than one proposal or in more than one topic is not permitted; applications with an entity that participates in more than one consortium submitting a proposal are not eligible and will be excluded from the call for proposals. Applicants are therefore encouraged to take the necessary measures to ensure that their partners will not participate in more than one proposal or in more than one topic.
- Applications must be submitted by a legal person. Natural persons are not eligible except self-employed persons or equivalent (i.e. sole traders) where the company does not possess legal personality separate from that of the natural person.
- Applications should be submitted by public or private entities, in consortia composed of at least three (3) different entities from at least three (3) different Member States, preferably from economically, socially and culturally diverse parts of Europe. An implication of youth organisations in the projects is strongly encouraged.
- Applicants must be stakeholders such as business advisory services, chambers of commerce, professional organisations, educational institutions, governmental and non governmental organisations, co-operatives enterprises organisations.
- Applicants should demonstrate that they:
- have clear experience in implementing youth entrepreneurship training and education schemes;
- have proven knowledge of and experience with the cooperative model.
- The participation of the same partner in more than one proposal is not permitted; proposals with a member that participates in more than one consortium submitting a project proposal are not eligible and will be excluded from the call. Therefore applicants are encouraged to take the necessary measures to ensure that their partners will not participate in more than one proposal.
- Corporate bodies must be properly constituted and registered under the law. If a body or organisation is not constituted under the law, a physical person must be designated to provide the legal responsibility.
- Legal entities having a legal or capital link with applicants, which is neither limited to the action nor established for the sole purpose of its implementation, may take part in the action as affiliated entities, and may declare eligible costs. For that purpose, applicants shall identify such affiliated entities in the application form. The affiliated entities will have to comply with the eligibility and exclusion criteria.
- Several entities that form together one entity, whether or not this entity is established for the purpose of implementing the action, may apply as a sole beneficiary. The entities will be considered as affiliated entities, which each will have to comply with eligibility, exclusion and selection criteria.
How to Apply
Interested applicants should use electronic submission system (SEP) to submit their proposals via given website.
For more information, please visit https://ec.europa.eu/growth/content/reducing-youth-unemployment-setting-co-operatives-enhance-working-opportunities-eu_en