Grants to Strengthening the role of Civil Society in Digital Multilateral and Multistakeholder Models

Deadline: 14-Feb-23

The European Commission (EC) is inviting proposals for strengthening the role of Civil Society in Digital Multilateral and Multistakeholder Models.

Objectives

• The global objective of this call for proposals is to promote EU values-based human-centric digital transformation through the multilateral system, whilst supporting the EU’s vision of multi-stakeholderism as a model to help shaping the global narrative.
• The specific objectives of this call for proposals are:
  • to enhance in-depth long-term participation and cooperation of Civil Society Organisations (CSOs) in multilateral- and multistakeholder- fora, with regards to digital for development, Internet Governance, digital rights and principles, standards setting and inclusion; and
  • to enhance “Global-North – Global-South” cooperation of CSOs, inter alia also targeting women’s organisations and gender equality issues and strengthening CSO capacities to allow more efficient engagement on national, regional and global scale.

Priorities

• The priorities of this call for proposals are:
  • To establish efficient CSO cooperation with ITU, IETF, ICANN, IGF and other multistakeholder/multilateral digital organisations;
  • To strengthen CSOs role in digital for development, Internet Governance, digital rights and principles, and standards setting;
  • To establish, enable and promote synergies of Global South and Global North CSOs‘ cooperation in digital domain

Funding Information

• The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 7,500,000. The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.
  • Lot 1 – Enhanced participation and cooperation of CSOs in/with multilateral and multistakeholder organisations and fora in the digital domain.
  • Total available: EUR 4,000,000.
  • Lot 2 – “Global-North-Global-South” cooperation of CSOs in the digital domain. Total available: EUR 3,500,000.
    • Lot 1 : amount: EUR 4,000,000
    • Lot 2: amount: EUR 3,500,000

Eligibility Criteria

• Lead applicant (1) In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
  • Be a legal person and
  • Be non-profit-making and
  • Be a non-governmental civil society organisation (CSO) (please note that the Evaluation Committee will take into consideration the different legal forms of registration in the respective countries, for which the applicant should attach a justification)
  • Be established in:
    • EU Member States, beneficiaries listed in the relevant Annex to the IPA III Regulation and contracting parties to the Agreement on the European Economic Area;
    • Neighbourhood partner countries when the relevant procedure takes place in the context of the programmes of the NDICI-Global Europe regulation in which it participates;
    • Developing countries and territories, as included in the list of ODA recipients published by the OECD Development Assistance Committee, which are not members of the G-20 group, and overseas countries and territories; and
  • Be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the coapplicant(s) and affiliated entity(ies), not acting as an intermediary;
• And, only for the lead applicant:
  • Have managed digital development and cooperation projects, including at least two capacity building and/or cooperation grants (or other forms of financial support). These grants were implemented (totally or partially) during the last five years (2018-2022);
  • To demonstrate the fulfilment of this criterion, applicants must provide with their full application form a scanned version of the relevant grant contracts. In the event of doubt, the Contracting Authority shall request any additional documentary evidence. Please note that these documents shall be uploaded in PROSPECT by the full application deadline.
  • Demonstrate an annual turnover or annual budget of at least EUR 1,000,000 for each financial year during the last three years (2019-2021)
• Co-applicant(s)
  • Actions of both lots must be implemented by a partnership complying with the following minimum criteria:
    • In addition to the lead applicant, the partnership must include at least two co-applicants, and
    • The number of applicants (i.e. lead applicant and co-applicants) established in the Global South must always be equal or greater than the number of applicants (i.e. lead applicant and coapplicants) established in ’Global North’25, and
    • Among the applicants (i.e. lead applicant and co-applicants), at least two of them must be established in two different ’Global South’ countries, and
    • At least one applicant (i.e. lead applicant or co-applicant) must be from a ’Global North’ country.
• Affiliated Entities(s)
  • 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.

For more information, visit European Commission.