Support EU networks active in the areas of social economy and social finance (3-year action grants)

No, the UK is not an eligible country under this call

According to Section 7 “Financial and operational capacity and exclusion” of the Call, for their financial capacity, the applicants must have stable and sufficient resources to successfully implement the projects and contribute their share. Organisations participating in several projects must have sufficient capacity to implement all these projects.

The financial capacity check will be carried out on the basis of the documents the applicants will be requested to upload in the Participant Register during grant preparation (e.g. profit and loss account and balance sheet, business plan, audit report produced by an approved external auditor, certifying the accounts for the last closed financial year, etc). The analysis will be based on neutral financial indicators, but will also take into account other aspects, such as dependency on EU funding and deficit and revenue in previous years. The financial capacity check aims to make sure that the participants have sufficient financial resources to implement the action.

The check will normally be done for all beneficiaries, except for public bodies, international organisations and for individual requested grant amount less than EUR 60 000. If need, it may also be done for affiliated entities. If the contracting authority considers that one or more participants’ financial capacity is not satisfactory, it may require: further information; an enhanced financial responsibility regime, i.e. joint and several responsibility for all beneficiaries or joint and several liability of affiliated entities (see below, section 10); prefinancing paid in instalments; (one or more) prefinancing guarantees or propose no prefinancing or request that the participants are replaced or, if needed, reject the entire proposal.

For more information, see rules-lev-lear-fca_en.pdfPDF . On page 23 of the document, you will find also a link for checking your financial capacity (self-check simulator).

For their operational capacity, the applicants must have the know-how, qualifications and resources to successfully implement the projects and contribute their share (including sufficient experience in projects of comparable size and nature).

This capacity will be assessed, on the basis of the competence and experience of the applicants and their project teams, including operational resources (human, technical and other) or, exceptionally, the measures proposed to obtain it by the time the task implementation starts. Applicants will have to show their operational capacity via the following information: general profiles (qualifications and experiences) of the staff responsible for managing and implementing the project (CVs of the proposed persons who will perform the main tasks, notably project manager and key personnel); description of the consortium participants; applicants’ activity reports of last year; applicants’ list of previous projects (key projects relating to the subject of the call in the last 3 years; template available in Part B).

The operational capacity is part of the selection criteria (together with financial capacity) but it is usually already assessed by the evaluators as part of the award criteria. It aims to check whether the participants have (or will have by the time of implementation) sufficient professional competencies and qualifications (quantity and quality) to implement the project and in particular their action tasks. This includes skilled personnel, authorisations, materials, equipment, etc. The operational capacity is primarily assessed on the basis of the information provided in the proposal (CV, achievements, publications, previous projects, etc). In case of doubt, additional information from other sources may also be used (findings of previous audits, feedback from the management of previous or current projects, reports of monitoring visits or information from the organisation’s website, in particular to confirm lack of the operational capacity and ability to obtain it). Additional supporting documents may also be requested to any applicant, in order to confirm its operational capacity.

A national member-organization typically refers to an organization that represents the interests of a specific sector or group at the national level within an EU member state. A proof of legal entity status is required, as stated in the Article 6. Eligibility of the Call for Proposal document – this also because to register to the Participant Register, the EC REA services will request to upload documents showing legal status and origin.

Entities which do not have legal personality under their national law may exceptionally participate, provided that their representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf and offer guarantees for the protection of the EU financial interests equivalent to that offered by legal persons. More information on this can be found in the Regulation (EU, Euratom) 2024/2509 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 23 September 2024 on the financial rules applicable to the general budget of the Union (eur-lex.europa.eu)

According to Section 8 “Evaluation and Award Procedure”, an evaluation committee will assess all applications. The proposals will first be checked for formal requirements (admissibility and eligibility, see sections 5 and 6 of the call). The proposals found admissible and eligible will then be evaluated against the operational capacity and the award criteria (see sections 7 and 9 of the call) and will be ranked according to their scores.

Therefore, the individual eligibility of an applicant cannot be assessed at this stage, before the submission of an actual application and the submission of the respective supporting documents demonstrating the legal status of the entity.

In any event, according to the call text (section 5), the applicants may be asked during the evaluation phase to submit additional documents (for legal entity validation, financial capacity check, bank account validation, etc).

As stated in the Funding and tender portal under the section “Conditions”, and complemented in the paragraph (6. Eligibility) of the Call for Proposal document, “At proposal submission, the lead applicant will have to confirm that it has the mandate to act for all applicants; that the information in the application is correct and complete and that the participants comply with the conditions for receiving EU funding (especially eligibility, financial and operational capacity, exclusion, etc.) Before signing the grant, each beneficiary and affiliated entity will have to confirm this again by signing a declaration of honour (DoH).”

And also,” Beneficiaries and affiliated entities must register in the Participant Register — before submitting the proposal — and will have to be validated by the Central Validation Service (REA Validation). For the validation, they will be requested to upload documents showing legal status and origin”.

Therefore, the applicant must be able to provide all the documents requested by the Central Validation Service. If the documents will be incomplete, incorrect, or missing, the applicant would be considered not eligible for funding

Yes, in case of a Single Applicant, section number 2.2 Consortium set-up and section 2.4 Consortium management and decision-making can be left blank as N/A.

According to Section 8 “Evaluation and Award Procedure”, an evaluation committee will assess all applications. The proposals will first be checked for formal requirements (admissibility and eligibility, see sections 5 and 6 of the call). The proposals found admissible and eligible will then be evaluated against the operational capacity and the award criteria (see sections 7 and 9 of the call) and will be ranked according to their scores.

Therefore, the individual eligibility of an applicant cannot be assessed at this stage, before the submission of an actual application and the submission of the respective supporting documents demonstrating the legal status of the entity.

In any event, according to the call text (section 5), the applicants may be asked during the evaluation phase to submit additional documents (for legal entity validation, financial capacity check, bank account validation, etc).

Please note that as laid down in section 6 “Eligibility” of the Call Document:

In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:

− be legal entities (public or private bodies)

− be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.: EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs) or non-EU countries: listed EEA countries and countries associated to the ESF+ (list of participating countriesPDF) or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature, − be non-governmental or not-for-profit entities,

− be an EU-level network whose mission falls under the objectives of this call for proposals, or a research centre, network or entity affiliated with a university active at EU level in the fields of social economy.

Applications must cover at least 14 EU Member States and other EaSI strand associated countries, through the applicants’ national member-organisations.

In case of a single beneficiary, the applicant must be:

− an EU Network having national member-organisations in at least 14 Member States of the European Union and EaSI strand associated countries.

In the case of a consortium, the coordinator must be:

− an EU Network having national member-organisations in at least 7 Member States of the European Union and EaSI strand associated countries.

Therefore, a national network / entity could not be eligible as partner in a consortium, unless it is a national entity affiliated with a university active at EU level in the fields of social economy.

Please note that other entities may participate in other consortium roles, such as associated partners, subcontractors, third parties giving in-kind contributions, etc (see section 13).

The “Project Budget” part, p.16 of the call, gives an indication towards the expected overall budget of the projects. The mentioned amounts were set in an effort to reflect the great diversity of the expected project proposals. The parenthesis “maximum grant amount” is not referring to the maximum EU grant amount to be awarded.

As mentioned also in the call text, the reference to the budget range does not preclude the submission/selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

As per the template for the budget preparation, the total amounts will need to be provided. Please note also, that as a result of the evaluation procedure, the grant amount to be awarded may be lower than the amount requested.

The budget of the proposal to be submitted is the total cost of the proposed project and the budget of the activity for the sub-grants has to be included in the total amount.

Yes, it is possible for an EU Network to participate as partner in more than one proposal application. However, it must be ensured that the principle of avoiding double financing is respected. All the tasks/actions to be carried out under each application must be clearly unrelated and distinctly implemented.

Moreover, the value added of each consortium partner will be assessed, along with the financial and operational capacity of all the entities participating in the consortium. Entities participating in several projects must have sufficient financial and operational capacity to implement all the allocated tasks/activities under all projects.

Please note also that under the award criteria, the quality of the project teams and the cooperation arrangements of the consortium will be assessed.

While some overlap is possible between indicators in section 1.2 (Needs Analysis and Specific Objectives) and section 2.5 (Project Management and Quality Assurance), they serve different purposes. Indicators in section 1.2 are outcome-oriented, measuring the achievement of the project's objectives and specific goals, with clear units, baselines, and targets. In contrast, section 2.5 indicators focus on monitoring implementation, quality, and effectiveness of project activities. They include both qualitative and quantitative measures related to project delivery, timelines, and stakeholder satisfaction. It's essential to have distinct indicators for each section, but if some are relevant to both, they can be listed fully in one and referenced in the other. Clarity on how indicators relate to each context is important for transparency, specifying the role they play and what aspect each measures in each section.

Yes, the list of projects can included all projects implemented and relevant with the field of the call, even non-EU funded projects could be included.