Call for Proposals: Good Practices for Increased Autonomy of Persons with Disabilities

Deadline: 16-Sep-25

The European Commission (EC) has launched the call for proposals for Good Practices for Increased Autonomy of Persons with Disabilities including physical, mental, intellectual and sensory disabilities.

Scope

• The UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities recognises the right to individual autonomy and independence for persons with disabilities, including the freedom to make their own choices. Ensuring this right requires a differentiated landscape of measures in all areas of society, including ensuring accessibility and quality person-centred support services.
• Having affordable and community-based services and measures in place, which meet the individual needs of persons with disabilities, is a basic pre-condition for autonomy and independence. Social and support services and measures need to be inclusive and accessible for persons with disabilities of any age and with any disability. The proposals may focus on a specific disability or address several of them. Research (including from SSH disciplines) should address barriers and solutions with regard to specific disabilities to increase inclusiveness, decision-making and autonomy, taking into account the integrated and person-centred support provided by families. The role of the family as carers and as the first agent to promote inclusion needs to be addressed. Different solutions for accessible and inclusive housing could also be explored.
• A key aspect of the autonomy and independence of persons with disabilities is the access to inclusive education, training, active labour market measures and employment in the open labour market. Promising support practices in these areas should be mapped, analysed and tested, including the integration and communication between different services for a user-centred approach.
• European Education Area initiatives such as the Council Recommendation on Pathways to School Success aim to address equity and inclusion in education. A wide range of actions and peer learning activities aimed at supporting inclusive education are also implemented, in particular through two European Education Area strategic framework Working Groups: Working Group on Equality and Values in Education and Training and Working Group on Schools – Pathways to School Success.
• The proposals should consider the impact – including the impact on the self-esteem of persons with disabilities – of inclusive education versus special needs education or special schools/classes for promoting the autonomy of persons with disabilities. The proposals may also consider the role of special training and lifelong learning adapted to persons with physical, mental, intellectual or sensory disabilities.

Funding Information

• The check will normally be done for the coordinator if the requested grant amount is equal to or greater than EUR 500 000, except for:
  • public bodies (entities established as a public body under national law, including local, regional or national authorities) or international organisations; and
  • cases where the individual requested grant amount is not more than EUR 60 000 (low value grant).

Eligible Activities

• The following activities are generally eligible for grants under Horizon Europe:
  • Research and innovation actions (RIA) — Activities that aim primarily to establish new knowledge or to explore the feasibility of a new or improved technology, product, process, service or solution. This may include basic and applied research, technology development and integration, testing, demonstration and validation of a small-scale prototype in a laboratory or simulated environment.
  • Innovation actions (IA) — Activities that aim directly to produce plans and arrangements or designs for new, altered or improved products, processes or services. These activities may include prototyping, testing, demonstrating, piloting, large-scale product validation and market replication.
  • Coordination and support actions (CSA) — Activities that contribute to the objectives of Horizon Europe. This excludes research and innovation (R&I) activities, except those carried out under the ‘Widening participation and spreading excellence’ component of the programme (part of ‘Widening participation and strengthening the European Research Area’).
  • Programme co-fund actions (CoFund) — A programme of activities established or implemented by legal entities managing or funding R&I programmes, other than EU funding bodies. Such a programme of activities may support: networking and coordination; research; innovation; pilot actions; innovation and market deployment; training and mobility; awareness raising and communication; and dissemination and exploitation.

Expected Outcomes

• Projects should contribute to some of the following expected outcomes (minimum three outcomes):
  • Develop innovative evidence-based policy approaches to promote the autonomy of persons with disabilities of any age and any origin of the disability or impairment.
  • Develop practices that facilitate the full inclusion and participation of persons with disabilities in different areas of life, including education, family life, employment, living arrangements, leisure, arts, culture and sport on equal basis with others.
  • Address the seamless use of accessible and assistive technology, including digital technologies and artificial intelligence, in the community and related services and infrastructure. If possible, identify specific measures and tools for different addressed areas of lives of persons with disabilities, such as education, recruitment, hiring, return to work, and independent life.
  • Identify and compare the usefulness of different options for policies and measures aiming to increase the autonomy and quality of life of persons with disabilities, as well as the quality of life and well-being of their families, using a person-centred approach, taking into account the individual needs of persons with disabilities and ensuring their full enjoyment of human rights and fundamental freedoms on equal basis with others.
  • Identify relevant actors to achieve effective results (public actors, civil society organizations, private sector, social economy actors, etc.) and explore their roles and interaction, with a view to assessing integration among different social, support and essential services (including e.g. transport or housing) necessary to promote autonomy and inclusion in the community.

Eligibility Criteria

• Any legal entity, regardless of its place of establishment, including legal entities from no 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.
• A ‘legal entity’ means any natural or legal person created and recognised as such under national law, EU law or international law, which has legal personality and which may, acting in its own name, exercise rights and be subject to obligations, or an entity without legal personality.
• Specific cases:
  • Affiliated entities — Affiliated entities (i.e. entities with a legal or capital link to a beneficiary which participate in the action with similar rights and obligations to the beneficiaries, but which do not sign the grant agreement and therefore do not become beneficiaries themselves) are allowed, if they are eligible for participation and funding.
  • Associated partners — Associated partners (i.e. entities which participate in the action without signing the grant agreement, and without the right to charge costs or claim contributions) are allowed, subject to any specific call/topic conditions.
  • Entities without legal personality — Entities which do not have legal personality under their national law may exceptionally participate, provided that their representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf, and offer guarantees to protect the EU’s financial interests equivalent to those offered by legal persons.
  • EU bodies — Legal entities created under EU law including decentralised agencies may be part of the consortium, unless provided for otherwise in their basic act.
• Eligible Countries
  • To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the following countries:
    • the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions:
      • Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden.
    • the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States:
      • Aruba (NL), Bonaire (NL), Curação (NL), French Polynesia (FR), French Southern and Antarctic Territories (FR), Greenland (DK), New Caledonia (FR), Saba (NL), Saint Barthélemy (FR), Sint Eustatius (NL), Sint Maarten (NL), St. Pierre and Miquelon (FR), Wallis and Futuna Islands (FR).
    • countries associated to Horizon Europe
      • Albania, Armenia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Canada, Faroe Islands, Georgia, Iceland, Israel, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, New Zealand, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Tunisia, Türkiye, Ukraine, United Kingdom.

For more information, visit EC.