European Commission seeking Proposals for “Sport as a tool for Integration and Social Inclusion of Refugees”

Deadline: 1 June 2020

The European Commission has announced a Call for Proposals for Sport as a tool for integration and social inclusion of refugees.

Sport is one of the available tools for the successful integration of refugees, and local sport projects have an increasing role in facilitating refugees’ integration into new communities. Across the European Union, at Member States’ level or within European Union programmes, a wide range of initiatives have been taken and innovative projects are already being implemented.

The potential of sport as a tool for social inclusion has now been well documented; sport projects support the social inclusion of refugees in host communities and the opportunities they provide are more and more exploited in many EU Member States. This Preparatory Action is a contribution to this effort and to a better integration of refugees through sport.

Objectives

In the continuation of the 2016 call for proposals on “Promoting HEPA policy measures and actions for refugees”, and of the 2017, 2018 and 2019 call for proposals “Sport as a tool for integration and social inclusion of refugees”, the current preparatory action aims at supporting sport projects focused on the integration of refugees. Through concrete actions aiming at integrating refugees through sport, the expected outcomes of this preparatory action will include:

Promoting the direct engagement of refugees and host communities;
Promoting a Europe-wide approach, increasing the potential for host communities to successfully engage and integrate refugees through sport.

Expected Outputs

The expected outputs would be the following:

Organise sport activities for refugees
Promote the practice of sport and physical activity by refugees
Promote the cooperation of refugees and host communities in the organisation of sport activities.

Funding Information

The total budget earmarked for the co-financing of projects under this call for proposals is estimated at 1.650.000 EUR.
Size of Grants
- Grants will be of a maximum of 300.000 EUR per project
- Grants will be of a minimum of 200.000 EUR per project

Duration

The duration of the project will be of a minimum of 24 months and of a maximum of 36 months. Implementation period:
- Activities may not start before 01-01-2021
- Activities are to be completed by 31-12-2023
Applications for projects scheduled to run for a shorter or longer period than that specified in this call for proposals will not be accepted.

Eligibility Criteria

In order to be eligible, projects must be presented by applicants meeting the following criteria:

Be a public or private organization with legal personality who are mainly active in the sport field and that regularly organise sport competitions, at any level;
Have their registered legal office in one of the EU Member States.
Proposals may be submitted by any of the following applicants (the list is not exhaustive and is given for example only):
- International or European Sport federations
- Non-profit organization (private or public);
- Public authorities (national, regional, local);
- International or European organizations;
- Sport clubs;
- Universities;
- Educational institutions;
- Research centres;
- Companies

Eligible Activities

The activities must be enshrined within the framework of European common values and respect these essential principles and more particularly non-discrimination, tolerance and gender equality. A non-exhaustive list of the main activities eligible under this call for proposals is listed below:

Sport activities aimed at promoting participation of refugees into EU societies
Preparation and training of sport coaches and staff who will work on integration and social inclusion of refugees through sport
Development, of activities and identification of good practices about participation of refugees into sport activities aimed at their integration into host societies.
These activities must take place in the EU Member States.

Award Criteria

Award criteria Eligible applications will be assessed on the basis of the following criteria:

Relevance of the project (maximum 40 points – minimum threshold of 20 points): The extent to which the proposal contributes to the objectives and priorities of the action referred above;
- The proposal contributes to the objective of supporting refugees’ integration into EU host societies through sport.
- The proposal is based on relevant and concrete identification of the needs of refugees and of the local host communities;
- The objectives of the proposal are clearly defined, realistic and address issues relevant to the refugees, and to the local host communities.
Quality (maximum 40 points – minimum threshold of 20 points): The quality of the overall design of the activities proposed and methodology for achieving the objectives, including cost efficiency, sustainability of the proposed actions (the extent to which the actions will be carried out also after the end of the project) and budget proposal;
- The quality and feasibility of the activities involving refugees.
- Cost efficiency (the extent to which the project is cost-effective and allocates appropriate resources to each activity);
- Sustainability of the proposed actions (the extent to which the actions will be carried out also after the end of the project);
- Budget proposal (the consistency between project objectives, methodology, activities and budget proposed);
Management of the project (maximum 20 points – minimum threshold of 10 points): The extent to which the applicant demonstrates its ability to organise, coordinate and implement the various aspects of the proposed activities;
- The applicant demonstrates its ability to organise, coordinate and implement the various aspects of the proposed activities.
- The project team involves an appropriate mix of experiences and expertise supporting the successful delivery of the project expected results;
- The composition and appropriateness of the proposed team and the roles allocated to the members of the team.