Call for Proposals: EU & China Think-Tank Exchanges

Deadline: 28 May 2020

The European Union (EU) has announced a Call for Proposals to strengthen and stimulate dialogues between EU and partner countries’ civil society organisations and academia in areas of common interest.

This call for proposals aims to create a dialogue on Europe with China. It encourages think-tanks in Europe dealing with European affairs and think-tanks in Europe dealing with China affairs to exchange in a systematic way with respective Chinese experts on China affairs and Chinese experts on European affairs in China. The structured exchanges and systematic collaboration between the European and Chinese think-tanks and academia will then allow the EU and China to gain in-depth insights into each other’s perspective on relevant policy topics. The benefitting think-tanks and academia under this call are expected to examine and intellectually debate challenges and opportunities provided by the new headline ambitions for Europe, reflect on prospects for strengthening the EU China partnership, and point out convergences and perception gaps on global and regional issues. The results of the think-tank exchanges and debates may provide the EU policy makers with qualified opinions, intellectual views and innovative ideas they could further draw upon.

The specific objective(s) of this call for proposals is: to promote structured exchanges and intellectual debate between influential European and Chinese think-tanks and academic institutions on topics of relevance for Europe, the European Union’s international role and the EU China Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.

The priorities of this call for proposals are:

Structured intellectual debates and academic exchanges with China on EU policies, values and principles are promoted.
Support to Chinese studies in the EU is enhanced through regular think-tank exchanges on Chinese policies.
EU positions on shared global concerns and challenges are pointed out and perception gaps on global and regional issues are identified and documented.
EU policy makers are provided with qualified opinions and intellectual views on issues of key importance for the current and future EU China comprehensive strategic partnership.

Size of Grants

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

minimum amount: EUR 250 000
maximum amount: EUR 500 000

Duration

The initial planned duration of an action may not be lower than 24 months nor exceed 36 months.

Location

Actions must take place in one or more of the following countries or regions: P.R. of China and Member States of the European Union.
Proposed activities must alternate between both locations (EU and China).

Eligibility Criteria

Lead applicant(s)
- In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
  - be a legal person
  - be established in a Member State of the European Union , the Peoples’ Republic of China or in an eligible country or territory as defined under the Regulation (EU) N°236/2014 establishing common rules and procedures for the implementation of the Union’s instruments for external action (CIR) for the applicable Instrument.
  - be a public or private think-tank, research institute or academic institution (including higher education institutions) that issues post-graduate and higher level degrees :
    - specialising in academic and/or research activities on European affairs
    - specialising in academic and/or research activities on China affairs
  - 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)
- 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 Entity(ies)
- 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.