European Union: Call for Proposals for ‘Voices of Culture’ Programme

Deadline: 3 September 2018

The European Union (EU) is seeking proposals for a programme entitled “Voices of Culture” to unlock the potential of culture and creativity and provide a framework for discussions among stakeholders and the European Union with regard to cultural needs in Egypt.

Objectives

• Foster accessible and inclusive culture; intangible Cultural Heritage; Cultural and creative sectors: creative economy and innovation; and promotion of cultural diversity;
• Support to culture, creativity and economic development by reinforcing the existing cultural private sector and cultural industries in a way that ensures and sustains cultural diversity (providing cultural content);
• Access to Culture: cultural actions that contribute to equal participation in cultural production and distribution of cultural services; access to culture in public spaces, informal areas and locations that are culturally deprived;
• Provide support to small-medium-sized cultural operators that may play a key role in their communities in promoting cultural creativity and diversity while promoting debates on cultural needs within communities;
• Raise awareness of our common history and values, and to reinforce a sense of belonging in a common European-Egyptian cultural space;
• Use culture in shared public spaces to promote intercultural dialogue and bring communities together;
• Create high quality cultural and artistic productions, and elaborate and find the best forms of cultural activities to promote dialogue within multicultural and multi-religious communities eg. theatre, dance, music, poetry, visual art, intangible heritage, film, literature, and any other artistic language and genres;
• Promote the role of shared public spaces that are being or might be used , even beyond “cultural” spaces like museums, libraries, theatres, heritage sites What are their particular advantages / disadvantages;
• Strengthen the advocacy capacity of the cultural sector in policy debates on culture at a European level, while encouraging it to work in a more collaborative way Attain sustainability by focussing management on a participatory approach by ensuring public participation in the rehabilitation process of cultural tourism sites or monuments of strategic interest. Increase local communities ‘endearment to their heritage in order to set up a more sustainable management of the cultural resources;
• Support Cultural Diversity and Intercultural Dialogue actions aiming at enhancing and preserving the cultural diversity of Egypt, access to cultural productions coming from other countries, the circulation of professionals and cultural productions within the region / Egypt; the organisation of activities seeking a contact with the Other and promoting dialogue with other cultures; encouraging the production and the access to independent cultural productions.

Size of Grants

Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between EUR 15.000,00 and EUR30.000,00.

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: non-governmental organisation, public sector operator, non-state actor, local authority, international (inter-governmental) organisation as defined by Article 43 of the Rules of application of the EU Financial Regulation , or an economic operator working in fields such as culture, cultural heritage, research and development applied to the promotion of cultural activities, development of services, environment, social and economic integration, and tourism.In addition, the following are however also eligible: private sector organisations; financial and private investment organisations, foundations or Funds.
  • be effectively established in an eligible country as defined for the European Neighbourhood Instrument : the Member States of the European Union, the partner countries benefitting from the European Neighbourhood Instrument (Algeria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Egypt, Georgia, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Moldova, Morocco, Palestinian Authority of the West Bank and Gaza Strip, Syria, Tunisia, Ukraine), the contracting parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area (Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway), the Developing countries and territories, as included in the list of ODA recipients published by the OECD-DAC, which are not members of the G-20 group, the overseas countries and territories covered by Council Decision 2001/822/EC, or in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro or Serbia, including Kosovo. This obligation does not apply to international organizations.
  • 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, you will cease to receive EU funding (while continuing, where possible to participate) or be required to leave the project on the basis of Article 12.2 of the General Conditions1 to the grant agreement.
  • 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.
  • Other eligible criteria as appropriate:
    • Either the lead applicant or one of the co-applicants is registered under Egyptian law or bilateral agreements between the organisation and the Government of Egypt.
    • Entities without legal personality cannot apply as lead applicant.
  • Potential applicants may not participate in calls for proposals or be awarded grants if they are in any of the situations
• 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
  • In the case of consortia they could comprise elements of one or more of the following:
    • Cultural Institutions such as cultural institutes of the EU Member States;
    • Academic or Research Institutions;
    • Financial and Private Investment Organisations, Foundations or Funds;
    • Entities with no legal personality.
• 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 applicant may hence be:
        • Entities directly or indirectly controlled by an applicant (daughter companies or first-tier subsidiaries). They may also be entities controlled by an entity controlled by an 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

In order to apply for the grants, applicants have to register themselves in PADOR, an on-line database via given website.

For more information, please visit Europeaid and download the guidelines.