EU4Youth Call for Proposals: Fostering Youth Employment and Societal Change through Social Entrepreneurship

Deadline: 29 March 2019

The European Union is currently accepting proposals from eligible organisations for a program entitled “EU4Youth-Fostering youth employment and societal change through social entrepreneurship”.

Objectives

• The global objective of this call for proposals is to foster the entrepreneurial potential of young people from the EaP region in the field of social entrepreneurship, notably with a view to contributing to social cohesion, employment, inclusion and reduction of inequalities.
• The specific objective(s) of this call for proposals is/are:
  • To provide creative young people from the EaP region with the necessary knowledge and skills to set-up sustainably run social enterprises ;
  • To support the development of a favourable ecosystem for social enterprises to develop and prosper in Eastern Partner Countries.

Priorities

The priorities of this call for proposals are:

• Support in particular social enterprises started or developed by young people that have potential for realising innovative solutions with a clear social and environmental impact, scaling their innovative approach and transferring it to other young entrepreneurs.
• Encourage cooperation and coordination among key stakeholders in the fields of social entrepreneurship, e.g. policy makers, social entrepreneurs, financial intermediaries, international donors.
• Ensure reach-out to disadvantaged youth , including young people from rural areas and young women.

Size of Grants

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

• minimum amount: EUR 750 000.
• maximum amount: EUR 1 500 000.

Eligibility Criteria

• Lead applicant
  • In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
    • be a legal person and
    • be a specific type of organisation such as (among others): social cooperatives, private companies, mutual organisations, non-profit associations, voluntary organisations, charities and foundations
    • be established in an Eastern Partnership Country (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, the Republic of Moldova and Ukraine) or an EU Member State
    • [‘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 Article [insert reference to the Article allowing termination of the grant agreement (change of the legal situation of the beneficiary)] of the grant agreement’.] 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.
  • Potential applicants may not participate in calls for proposals or be awarded grants if they are in any of the situations
• Co-applicant(s)
  • Projects must involve organisations (as lead applicant and/or co-applicants) established in at least two Eastern Partner Countries (Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Ukraine). In other terms, any proposed action must be submitted by a grouping of minimum three entities (i.e. one lead applicant + minimum 2 co-applicant), with minimum two of these entities being registered in two different Eastern Partner Countries.
  • 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.

How to Apply

• The application procedure consists of two phases:
  • Concept notes
  • Full applications
• The concept note together with the declaration by the lead applicant must be submitted at the address given on the website.

For more information, please visit https://bit.ly/2RZIv1U and download the guidelines.