Questions and Answers

Question 1: Would it be possible for a university to apply in the call?

Yes. Universities can apply to the call as public entities.


Question 2: What is the percentage of financial participation for each partner?

There is no predefined percentage, but there is a ceiling defined for the budget available for each partner. Accordingly, the individual budget for any partner can be maximum €85.000.

Please refer to Call for Proposals, Section III. Budget Available (page 4):

“The Council of Europe intends to award EUR 260 000 (two hundred and sixty thousand Euros) for the call(s) of proposals per Thematic Priority. Namely, one or two projects will be funded with an overall amount from 130.000 to 260.000 Euros per project under each Thematic Priority (see more about Thematic Priorities below under Section IV). The maximum budget for each implementing partner shall not exceed €85 000.”

Co-financing is a requirement and the financial contribution for each partner is dependent on the project design and the partner’s role and involvement in the activities.

Please refer to Call for Proposals, Section IV, Item 5. Budgetary Requirements (page 8):

Irrespective of the thematic priority, each project proposal shall be accompanied by:

  • One estimated budget per implementing partner (See Template Budget, in Appendix II) covering its part of the Project proposal. Each budget of a specific implementing partner will be assessed and scored separately from the budgets of other implementing partners of a concerned proposal.
  • One estimated global budget summing up the budgets of all the implementing partners (See Template Budget, in Appendix II). This global budget is to be submitted for information purposes only, as only budgets of implementing partners will be scored.

The estimated budgets of each implementing partner must therefore be consistent, accurate, clear, complete and cost-effective, in the light of the activities proposed.

Each implementing partner shall also be required to contribute to the project either by way of its own resources or by contribution from third parties. Co-financing may take the form of financial or human resources, in-kind contributions or income generated by the action or project.

The budgets (see below) made available to the project will not cover operating costs of national administration personnel assigned to the project, but only direct, eligible costs such as travel, hotel, special costs associated to meetings (venue, interpretation, stationery, secretariat, etc.). Exceptions may be made for non-governmental entities to participate in the project, for expertise and research.”

Co-funding should be clearly specified and explained in the project proposals for each implementing partner.


Question 3: Are African countries eligible to apply to this grant?

No. The grant scheme is open to the 50 countries which are signatories of the European Cultural Convention.

Please refer to Call for Proposals, Section IV, Geographical Scope (page 7):

"Geographical scope of implementation (cumulative requirements)

For either of the thematic priorities, the project proposals shall:

 involve several implementing partners (minimum 3 and maximum 6),

AND

 be implemented in countries which are signatories to the European Cultural Convention (at least half of the applicants being Member State(s) of the European Union)."


Question 4: Our organisation is composed of members who all have more than two years of experience in carrying similar activities in the country. Moreover, the idea of creating this association and mobilising people around it started more than two years ago. However, the organisation itself officially exists only since the second half of 2016. Would our project still be eligible?

Whether or not your organisation will be eligible for this call is up to the Evaluation Committee to decide. The eligibility criteria are set forth in the call for proposals. Each criterion listed in the call shall be met by each applicant independently (e.g. by each potential implementing partner of a single project proposal). As to your question about the calculation of the years of experience, please note that 2 years of experience refers to the experience of an organization as such and not to the experience of its individual members. Please, note that project proposal will still be assessed, however ineligible applicant(s) will be dropped out.

Please refer to Call for Proposals, Evaluation and Selection Procedure, Eligibility Criteria (page 12):

In order to be eligible for a grant, each applicant (i.e. each potential implementing partner of a single project proposal), must:

  •  be legally constituted as a non-for-profit structure (e.g. NGO or public entity) active in the field of citizenship and human rights education;
  •  have 2 (two) years of experience (as confirmed in the Application Form) in carrying out relevant activities in the country concerned;
  • ...

In case of ineligibility of one or more applicants of a single project proposal, the concerned applicant(s) will be dropped out of the project concerned. This will not affect the assessment of eligibility criteria with regard to other applicants of the same project proposal.


Question 5: We are three NGOs from the same country and we would like to submit our project proposal, could you please clarify whether the project action may take place in one country only, or the involvement of additional partners based in any of the country mentioned under paragraph H of the proposal template is mandatory.

This specific call is for international co-operation projects, and therefore, partnership between 3-6 countries is mandatory. These countries could be any of the 50 states party to the European Cultural Convention, with half of them being EU member states. When one or more of these countries are among those mentioned under paragraph H of the project proposal form, it is considered during the assessment of the proposals as one of the award criteria.

Please refer to Call for Proposals, Section IV, Geographical Scope (page 7):

Geographical scope of implementation (cumulative requirements)

For either of the thematic priorities, the project proposals shall:

 involve several implementing partners (minimum 3 and maximum 6),

AND

 be implemented in countries which are signatories to the European Cultural Convention (at least half of the applicants being Member State(s) of the European Union).

Please also refer to Call for Proposals, Evaluation and Selection Procedure, Award Criteria (page 13):

  • ....
  • Participation of the States party to the European Cultural Convention, which had not previously taken part in the projects (10%).

Question 6: Can one institution be involved as a partner in two different projects?

No. Multiple applications are not allowed and shall lead to the exclusion of all applications concerned.

Please refer to Call for Proposals, Evaluation and Selection Procedure, Eligibility Criteria (page 12).


Question 7: Can higher education institutes apply to this call?

Yes.


Question 8: According to the call applicants are expected to provide information about baseline and target value for each indicator relevant to each objective. Could you please give a more detailed description or example of how this might look and how to determine the baseline value for certain objectives? What are the expected sources of data for these indicators?

Please see the Council of Europe Project Management Methodolgy Handbook for guidance on project design and for the specific elements of the logframe.


Question 9: Can two implementing partners from the same country apply (ex. one school and one NGO)? 

In principle, there should be one applicant per country, and if the project proposal is selected for the award, grant agreements will be signed with one institution per country. There has been cases in previous cycles of the programme where an NGO was the applicant and implemented the activities in one or more school(s).


Question 10: If the project is selected, is the budget allowed to the implementing partner in charge or is the budget sent to all the parnets on basis of the planned budget? Does each partner have to send an application form?

It should be underlined that the project proposal should be submitted by the coordinating partner (implementing partner in charge). The completed Project Proposal Form, the estimated global project budget and the project logframe should be finalised and signed (the Proposal and the budget shall be signed) by the coordinating partner. In addition, the coordinating partner should collect and submit the application forms, sub-budgets and articles of Association/Statutes or other relevant document showing legal constituency of an organisation of each implementing partner (including its own).     

Please refer to Call for Proposals, Section V, How to Apply? (page 10).

"Each project proposal shall contain:

To be signed (where relevant) by the implementing partner in charge only:

 One completed and signed Project Proposal Form (See Appendix I)

 One estimated global budget (using the template reproduced in Appendix II) for information purposes only;

 One log-frame (using the template reproduced in Appendix III) for information purposes only;

To be signed (where relevant) by each implementing partner (including the one in charge):

 One completed and signed Application Form (See Appendix IV)

 One estimated sub-budget related to the implementing partner organisation concerned (using the template reproduced in Appendix II);

 Articles of Association/Statutes or other relevant document showing legal constituency of an organisation (translated in English).

The implementing partner in charge shall not forget to submit its own completed and signed Application Form (See Appendix I) and its own estimated budget related to its part of the Project proposal."


Question 11: How should we calculate travel and daily allowances? Is there an amount determined by the Council of Europe for travel and daily allowances?

There is no legal requirement that applicants use a specific daily allowance and travel rate. However, rate used should respect Article 6.2 of Rule 1374 of 16 December 2015 on the grant award procedures of the Council of Europe to be considered eligible. Justification for the calculation of these rates could also be mentioned in the proposal.


Question 12: "If we want to make 19 month project, it will be almost impossible to do it without at least partly covering administration costs, still our last hope is last sentence about exceptions for NGO's. Does it really mean that we can expect that national coordinators will be covered at least partly?"

It should be noted that this is a co-funding scheme and each applicant is required to contribute to the project either financially or by means of in-kind contribution. Concerning human resources, as mentioned Call for Proposals, Section IV, Item 5. Budgetary Requirements (page 8): The budgets (see below) made available to the project will not cover operating costs of national administration personnel assigned to the project, but only direct, eligible costs such as travel, hotel, special costs associated to meetings (venue, interpretation, stationery, secretariat, etc.). Exceptions may be made for non-governmental entities to participate in the project, for expertise and research.” Accordingly, operating costs of national administration personnel assigned to the project cannot be covered from the project budget and only staff from non-governmental entities could be paid for their expertise, which may include co-ordination of project related activities, and research.


Question 13: a- "How long is the first coordination meeting going to last and will there be time - within the “official” program - to have kick-off meeting of the projects? So we don’t have to plan extra kick-off right after Strasbourg?" and b- For how many people per country will COE cover participation costs?

a- The provisional idea is to organise the first coordination meeting long enough to allow projects enough time to have their kick-off meetings. b- One or two people will be covered by the CoE depending on the number of projects awarded, and the number of partner countries in each project.


Question 14: If we plan to contribute by means of an in-kind contribution, we describe this contribution just and only in the Appendix IV/8 CO-funding? Does it mean that we don’t describe that anyhow in Appendix II even if it could be expressed in numbers (parttime, toners etc.)?

If co-funding is planned by means of financial contribution the amount shall be mentioned both in the Appendix IV/8 and in Appendix II, line 9 "Contribution by Grantee". Similarly, if it is planned by means of in-kind contribution it needs to be explained both in Appendix IV/8 and in Appendix II, line 9 "Contribution by Grantee" (see also footnote 1 in Appendix II).


Question 15: If we plan to contribute by means of an in-kind contribution this contribution is not going to be part of total sum of the budget? That means we could apply e.g. for 85.000 EUR per partner and additionally have in-kind contribution (that equals to 5.000 EUR for example).

Yes, it is not a part of the total sum of your budget. Please also refer to question 14 on how to mention / describe the amount and method of co-funding.


Question 16: In the current project proposal form (EU/CoE Joint Programme for international cooperation projects; REF 2017 EDC/HRE DISCO) when choosing thematic priorities, under Thematic priority 2 there are CoE tools to be specified, i.e. which will be used in the proposed proposal, but these are all, if I am not mistaken, titles of former CoE projects (there are six titles and when searched online project descriptions come up).

In section A about priorities, you just tick only one of the thematic priorities and there is no need to specify any tools in that Section. The tool in the heading refers to the priorities.


Question 17: "Can we demand a course fee when we organize a course activity for all partner countries with a certain number of participants in one of the partner countries?"

Please refer to Call for Proposals, Section IV, Item 5. Budgetary Requirements (page 8):

"Each implementing partner shall also be required to contribute to the project either by way of its own resources or by contribution from third parties. Co-financing may take the form of financial or human resources, in-kind contributions or income generated by the action or project."

In case of such income generated by course fees, it could solely be used for the project purposes, it should be foreseen in the budget and later on reported on with supporting documents related to the income generated and its use in project activities.


Question 18: Shall the Appendix II be signed (that would mean scan of printed Excel table) or you would prefer to have it in digital form (digital Excel, no scan, no signature)?

Appendix II shall be printed, signed and scanned.