Network of Safer Internet Centres (SICs)

As indicated in the call document, the awarded consortia need to provide a centre for awareness raising. As part of this awareness strand, the consortia need to provide a YOUTH PANEL to engage directly with children from different demographic groups, including the organisation of regular youth participation activities. Therefore, the youth panel needs to be included in the proposed activities. It is at the discretion of the consortia whether to include the Youth Panel and related activities as a standalone work package or as a component within the Awareness Centre work package.

The objective of the Call DIGITAL-2025-BESTUSE-08-NETWORKSICs is to continue supporting national Safer Internet Centres (SICs), which may consist of one or more NGOs, government bodies/agencies and/or private sector organisations. Additionally, page 16 of the call document clearly states that funding will be limited to one Safer Internet Centre per eligible country. Therefore, each SIC should be composed of entities from the same country.

This call does not require the Safer Internet Centres (SICs) to become Trusted Flaggers; it refers to the fact that SICs may be appointed Trusted Flaggers under the Digital Services Act (DSA) subject to the conditions specified by the DSA.

The inclusion of “Trusted Flaggers” in the project consortium is not obligatory under the call.

The Better Internet for Kids (BIK+) strategy, adopted by the European Commission in May 2022, emphasises the importance of the 116 111 helpline as a critical resource for children and young people facing online challenges, particularly cyberbullying. While the situation in each Member State differs due to varying national contexts, collaboration is strongly encouraged.

As indicated in the call document, the awarded consortia need to provide the following strands, i.e. the awareness-raising strand, including a youth panel, the helpline strand and preferably the hotline strand. It is at the discretion of the consortia to decide on how to best distribute and structure the proposed activities by work package linked to the strands of the Safer Internet Centre.

The amount of EUR 3,700,000 represents the indicative maximum EU contribution that can be requested per project and the other 50% comes from the Safer Internet Center's own resources.

The indicative budget of 7-10% for the DSA-related activities is a recommendation rather than a formal requirement. Moreover, the recommended allocation refers to the project’s overall budget.

The consortia have the discretion to determine the budget allocated to DSA-related tasks and activities in their proposal, as well as the budget assigned to the different components of the SICs, depending on their involvement in those tasks.

For detailed information on expected DSA-related activities, outcomes, and deliverables, please refer to pages 16 and 17 of the call document.

As indicated on page 29 of the call document, the project starting date and duration will be fixed in the Grant Agreement (Data Sheet, point 1). Normally the starting date will be after grant signature. A retroactive starting date can be granted exceptionally for duly justified reasons as per Article 196(2) of the EC Financial Regulation applicable to the general budget of the Union (recast, September 2024). The starting date cannot be earlier than the proposal submission date. Therefore, the start date will be only confirmed at the moment of the signature of the Grant Agreement, although discussions can already happen during the Grant Agreement preparation. However, it is also important to remind that the invitation to Grant preparation does NOT constitute a formal commitment for funding.

For the KPI related to the number of participants in surveys or studies related to emerging risks to privacy, safety and security (support to enforcement of the DSA, where applicable), the minimum target per Safer Internet Centre is 500 participants per survey or study (if the SIC intends to carry out surveys or consultations as part of their planned activities).

For the KPI related to the number of participants in mandatory annual surveys on the protection measures taken by online platforms in response to the Guidelines under article 28 of the DSA, the minimum target per Safer Internet Centre is 500 participants per year.

As indicated in the call document, the mandatory annual survey on children’s and young people’s experience of the protection measures taken by platforms in response to the Guidelines under article 28 of the Digital Services Act (DSA) will be conducted annually and the data should be submitted in March of every year. The questions of the survey are to be agreed with the European Commission.

The mandatory annual survey is part of the deliverable 10 "Annual report on the support activities to the implementation of the DSA (where applicable)".

Further guidance on this deliverable will be provided at the Grant Agreement preparation stage.

The consortia have the discretion to determine the nature of project outputs, whether as deliverables or milestones. For details on the list of mandatory deliverables, please refer to page 30 of the call documentPDF.

No, it is not mandatory for the SIC to be composed of three entities. For example, the same entity can manage the awareness centre and the helpline and another entity can manage the hotline.

Moreover, according to the call document, Safer Internet Centres (SICs) must be composed of an awareness centre and a helpline, and preferably a hotline. If a hotline is not part of the SIC, this must be duly justified in the proposal.

As outlined in the call document, Safer Internet Centres (SICs) can be comprised of one or more NGOs, government bodies or agencies, and/or private sector organizations. For further details on eligible participants, please refer to Section 6 - Eligibility, on page 21 of the call document.

In the context of the BIK+ strategy, ‘youth’ also refers to children below 18 years old, in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

The project duration in the call document is indicative. This derives from the combined reading of the call with the DEP Work Programme 2025 which explicitly reads that the envisaged 36-month duration of projects under topic for Network of Safer Internet Centres (SICs) is indicative. Therefore, the proposed duration of the project can be shorter.

Please note that the shorter duration of the project proposed in an application will be evaluated by the experts in relation with the overall achievement of the project’s objectives, in consideration of several qualitative elements, including the respective efforts and budget allocated for the proposed shorter duration of the project.

As mentioned in the call document, it is expected that the proposal identifies and fosters synergies and complementarities with other EU-funded projects under similar or different funding programmes (such as EDMO or other projects dealing with activities relevant to the SICs), and collaborates on similar topics to showcase added-value and achieve greater impact.

As mentioned in the call document, and without prejudice with any enforcement activity under the DSA, the SICs are expected to, among others, cooperate with popular platforms and digital services to assist the public, in particular children, when confronted with harmful and illegal content.

The Better Internet for Kids (BIK+) strategy, adopted by the European Commission in May 2022, places significant emphasis on enhancing age assurance and age verification mechanisms to protect children online. BIK+ outlines a multifaceted approach to ensure that digital services are safe, age-appropriate, and respect children's rights.

As part of their activities, SICs are expected to promote and expand the usage of effective age verification tools and parental control tools and tools to flag abuse or obtain support, and access to age-appropriate content.

Yes, the SIC can involve children and young people who are not necessarily part of the Youth Panel in the national surveys or studies related to emerging risks to privacy, safety and security (support to enforcement of the DSA, where applicable).

On the basis of Article 6.1 of the Digital Europe Programme Model Grant Agreement, if the participation of youth to an event is outside of the lifetime of the Grant Agreement, the costs incurred are not considered eligible.

Building upon existing frameworks such as the Digital Services Act (DSA) and the Better Internet for Kids (BIK+) strategy, the priorities of the call align with the European Commission's latest Political Guidelines for 2024–2029, where child online protection is a central focus. Tacking cyberbullying and the impact of addictive online designs on children's mental health, promoting digital literacy and age-appropriate services as well as empowering children through youth participation will all be pivotal in implementing a multifaceted approach to protect children online.

Letters of support are not required under this call. However, it would be of added value if, in Application form Part B of the proposal, any support from national authorities and other relevant institutions is described.

The support to monitoring of digital impact on children under the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) platform could be effectuated e.g., through provision of statistics and data from national context.

As mentioned in the call document, if additional surveys or studies are planned in the proposal, they should incorporate questions agreed with the European Commission and consult children and young people about their views and experience on matters such as (but not limited to) emerging risks to privacy, safety and security on online platforms and in particular VLOPs/VLOSEs. The consultation with children should include the impact of social media on their wellbeing.

The costs of the mandatory annual survey on children’s and young people’s experience of the protection measures taken by platforms in response to the Guidelines under article 28 of the Digital Services Act (DSA) are eligible. The proposals should earmark an indicative amount of 7–10% of the overall budget for the DSA-related tasks and activities.

The mandatory annual survey on children’s and young people’s experience of the protection measures taken by platforms in response to the Guidelines under article 28 of the DSA is not the same task as Youth panels consultation regarding risks to privacy, safety, and security on online platforms. However, it is at the discretion of the consortia to decide if these tasks will be delivered in parallel or separately.

Yes, the draft questions for the mandatory annual survey on children’s and young people’s experience of the protection measures taken by platforms in response to the Guidelines under article 28 of the DSA will be provided during the Grant Agreement preparation process.

The mandatory annual survey on children’s and young people’s experience of the protection measures taken by platforms in response to the Guidelines under article 28 of the DSA is expected to be done at national level (similar to how the SICs run activities in their respective countries). It is at the discretion of the consortia and their internal division of work to decide which strand of the consortium will deliver the survey.

Proposals will be evaluated against the three main award criteria and subcriteria as indicated in the call document section 9 and ranked according to their scores. Proposals that pass both the individual threshold score of 3 AND the overall threshold score of 10 will be considered for funding — within the limits of the available budget (i.e. up to the budget ceiling). Other proposals will be rejected.

According to the call document section 9, the evaluation subcriteria 1.3, 1.4 and 3.3 are NOT applicable for any of the two topics under the call DIGITAL-2025-BESTUSE-08. Consequently, the corresponding sections 1.3, 1.4 and 3.3 of the Application form Part B are not applicable and can be left empty.

The evaluation and award procedure of the proposals is described in section 8 of the call document. The award criteria is indicated in section 9 of the call document. The proposal must be structured along the award criteria, providing the information required by the call document and as requested under each heading of the Application form.

Proposals will be evaluated and ranked as described in the call document sections 7, 8 and 9. Successful proposals will be invited for grant preparation; the other ones will be put on the reserve list or rejected. For the proposals on the reserve list, if additional funding is made available, they may be invited for grant preparation, within the limit of the available funds.

Note that the Granting Authority reserves the right not to award all available funds or to redistribute them between the call priorities, depending on the proposals received and the results of the evaluation.

The list of mandatory deliverables does not include an annual hotline report. It is at the discretion of the consortia whether to include such a deliverable in addition to the required periodic hotline report.

The mandatory deliverable 'Annual report on emerging trends on child sexual exploitation material (CSEM), including AI-generated material' should provide a comprehensive overview of emerging trends on CSEM, including those related to AI-generated material. This deliverbale must be submitted annually throughout the duration of the project. Further details will be elaborated on during the Grant Agreement preparation phase.

The mandatory deliverable 4 'Annual awareness raising report' refers to the annual data that is submitted by each SIC to the Better Internet for Kids (BIK) platform.

As indicated in the call document, the reporting and payment arrangements are fixed in the Grant Agreement (Data Sheet, point 4 and art 21 and 22). There will be one or more interim payments (with cost reporting through the use of resources report). All mandatory deliverables are mentioned in the call document and will be clearly indicated in the Grant Agreement (GA).

During the lifetime of the project, there may be intermediate project monitoring meetings to assess the progress and to report on the implementation of the project, however, these intermediate progress meetings are decided on a bilateral basis with the Project Officer.

Information on the Grant Agreement preparation will be provided to successful applicants at that specific stage.