European Cooperation Projects Small Scale

Section 6 "Eligibility – Consortium composition" of the Call for ProposalsPDF defines the conditions the consortium must meet to be eligible.

If an organisation participates in more than three (3) applications submitted under the Call (regardless the topic chosen (COOP1, COOP2 or COOP3) and the role chosen (coordinator, partner, associated partner, or affiliated entity)), all concerned applications will be assessed without taking this organisation into account.

The application may become ineligible if the minimum consortium composition is no longer fulfilled.

Section 6 "Eligibility – Consortium composition" of the Call for ProposalsPDF defines the conditions the consortium must meet to be eligible.

Regardless the topic chosen (COOP1, COOP2 or COOP3):

As partner, associated partner, or affiliated entity, you may apply as part of a maximum of three (3) different applications under this Call.

As coordinator, you can only apply once (1) under this Call, but you may participate in up to 2 additional applications playing another role (partner, associated partner, or affiliated entity).

If an organisation does not respect the limit of participating in 3 applications, all applications concerned will be assessed without taking this organisation into account and the application may become ineligible if the minimum consortium composition is no longer fulfilled.

There are no geographical restrictions regarding the eligibility of activities of the project and their related costs, as long as:

• They are relevant to the proposal submitted;
• They are relevant to the Call for ProposalsPDF (and, in particular, sections 2 "Objectives - Themes and priorities - Activities that can be funded - Expected impact" and 6 "Eligibility");

Please note: the costs of any activities that benefit artists and professionals established in non-participating countries are not eligible (See Call for Proposals section 10 ‘Budget categories and cost eligibility rules’). Such costs cannot be included in the detailed budget table.

Section 6 "Eligibility – Consortium composition" of the Call for ProposalsPDF defines the conditions the consortium must meet to be eligible.

All participants (coordinator and partners) are responsible for ensuring that none of the members of their consortium participates in more than three (3) applications submitted in the Call. The coordinator should certainly ensure that they check this question with all partner organisations, and the partners concerned confirm that their organisation participates in a maximum of 3 applications.

If any organisation exceeds the limit of three (3) applications, all applications involving that organisation will be assessed without taking the organisation concerned into account and the application may become ineligible if the minimum consortium composition is no longer fulfilled.

Eligible and ineligible costs are defined in the AGA – Annotated Grand Agreement, art. 6PDF.

In addition to all ineligible costs mentioned above, section 10 – “Budget categories and cost eligibility rules” of the Call for ProposalsPDF specifies particular types of costs considered to be not eligible under this Call, such as, i.e.:

• Volunteer’s costs,
• Contributions in kind
• Costs relating to the work of Associated Partners,
• Costs of the activities that benefit artists and professionals in non-participating countries,
• The full cost of equipment – only the depreciated cost can be included in the detailed budget.

Please note that, because all costs specified in the detailed budget need to be linked to project activities, the following provisions also need to be respected:

• project financial audit costs are ineligible under this Call because neither a project financial report nor an audit of project costs is necessary for the implementation of the Cooperation projects (See AGA, Art. 6.1(a)iv). The costs of auditing the organisations involved in the projects can be attributed, if required by national legislation, to the indirect costs in the organisations concerned.
• Budgets cannot include contingencies or provisions for unforeseen costs.
• Budgets cannot include costs incurred before the start date and/or end date of the project.

Since the budget table serves as the basis for fixing the lump sums for your grant, you must estimate the costs of your proposal using the same methodology as if these costs were declared under an actual cost-based grant agreement.

In order to compile the budget table accurately you will need to ask each of your partner organisations to supply accurate estimates for the activities that they will be involved in. Each organisation’s budget needs to reflect accurately the likely costs in their own country.

The costs must comply with the basic eligibility conditions for EU actual costs grants (See AGA – Annotated Grant Agreement, art. 6PDF).

The information provided will be used to evaluate your proposal against the "Project management" award criterion (see section 9 of the Call for ProposalsPDF).

Since the budget table serves as the basis for fixing the lump sums for your grants, and it is evaluated against the "Project management" award criterion (see section 9 of the Call for ProposalsPDF), the “effort” equals the amount of time required for each type of staff category to complete their tasks under each work package.

You should ensure that the tasks listed in the work package are sufficiently precise for each partner organisation to calculate their workload.

The “effort” needs to be expressed in months in the detailed budget table. It can be calculated to 2 decimal places (n.nn). If smaller units than full months are required, the month equivalent should be calculated as follows: number of days / 18.

You can find more information and examples on the calculation of efforts or day-equivalents , in the AGA – Annotated Grant Agreement, art. 6.2.A.1.(1.4)PDF.

In section 3) "Budget" of Application Form A "Administrative Forms", you must provide the EU grant amount requested per beneficiary (coordinator, partners and affiliated entities) for the project. This section is not about the total cost of the project.

For each beneficiary, you need to copy the data provided in "Detailed budget table" worksheet "BE-WP Overview" ( "Max EU Grant Amount"), into the section 3 “Budget” of the Application Form Part A.

Make sure to apply the correct maximum grant amount and co-financing rate according to the topic/category selected. See section 10 of the Call for proposalsPDF ("Legal and financial set-up of the Grant Agreements") for more information.

You can also find additional information in the point 16 ‘Instructions’ worksheet of the "Detailed budget table".

The Application From Part C (KPI) is a generic form and, in 2025, under this Call for ProposalsPDF, there is no ‘Annual priority’.

The term ‘Project Participants’ refers to the organisations involved in the partnership (beneficiaries). It includes any type of organisation and not only ‘enterprise’.

The types of project participants are divided per size:

• Micro enterprise means enterprise which employs fewer than 10 persons and whose annual turnover and/or balance sheet total does not exceed EUR 2 million.
• Small enterprise means enterprise which employs fewer than 50 persons and whose annual turnover and/or balance sheet total does not exceed EUR 10 million.
• Medium enterprise means enterprise which employs fewer than 250 persons and whose annual turnover does not exceed EUR 50 million or whose annual balance sheet total does not exceed EUR 43 million.

This is a mandatory section so each box must be completed with a digit.

Please note:

• All other organisations are considered as ‘Large organisations’. Part C does not collect data on Large organisations.
• If all organisations in the consortium are ‘large’, then you need to input ‘0’ in each box.

In the Application Form Part C (KPI), you must identify and select only one (1) objective your project aims to address the most. Even if the project may relate to both objectives.

Description of the two Call for Proposals'PDFObjectives can be found in section 2 "Objectives”.

In the Application Form Part B "Technical description" (section 1.1) you need to explain how your project will address the Call for Proposals' objective that you have selected in Part C.

The information provided will be used to evaluate your proposal under the "Relevance" award criterion.

In the Funding and Tenders portal, before starting your application, you need to choose the topic (categories of projects) under which you want to apply.

The section 2 ‘Objectives - Themes and priorities - Activities that can be funded - Expected impact’, section 6 ‘Eligibility’ and section 10 ‘Legal and financial set-up of the Grant agreements’ of the ‘Call for proposalsPDF’ define the particularity of each topic:

• small-scale - CREA-CULT-2025-COOP1,
• medium-scale - CREA-CULT-2025-COOP2 or
• large scale - CREA-CULT-2025-COOP3.

If you select the wrong topic and you want to correct it, your options depend on when you spot the mistake:

1 - Before submission of the proposal and before the deadline:

The only way to correct the topic is to generate a new proposal and disregard the former one, leaving it as draft.

2 - After submission of the proposal:

• Before the deadline for submission and if there is enough time, you can generate a new proposal, submit it and only then you withdraw the one with the wrong topic;
• After the deadline, contact us via the functional mailbox: EACEA-CREATIVE-EUROPE-COOPERATIONPROJECTS@ec.europa.eu

In the Application Form Part C (KPI), you must identify and select the cultural and creative sectors (at least one and maximum three) your project aims to address the most.

You can find more information in section 1 "Background" and section 2 “Activities that can be funded (scope)” of the Call for ProposalsPDF.

Note that proposals involving exclusively organisations from the audiovisual sector and presenting a predominantly audiovisual content are not eligible under this Call.

The Section 1 “Background” of the Call for ProposalsPDF specifies the Creative Europe Contribution to Overarching EU Priorities. All projects financed under the Call shall integrate and contribute to the overarching EU priorities (i.e. EU greening efforts, inclusion and gender equality, digital transition and international relations – primarily but not exclusively focused on Ukraine and Ukrainian cultural and creative sector). You need to explain in which ways your project will address the EU overarching priorities in Application Form Part B "Technical description" (section 1.4).

The information provided will be used to evaluate your proposal against the "Relevance" award criterion.

In 2025, there are no more specific priorities in the Call for ProposalsPDF,

In the Application Form Part C (KPI), you will find the section ‘Type of projects’ which is a mandatory field. You must identify and select at least one (1) and maximum two (2) ‘Types of projects’ that your project would contribute the most.