Deadline: 2 May 2012
Open to: independent artistic or cultural organizations based in Europe
Grants are at the core work of European Cultural Foundation. The connecting power of culture is essential for creating open, inclusive and democratic societies: for ‘building Europe’. ECF is looking for projects that have the potential to inspire people to transcend boundaries in this process.
ECF grants programme stimulates transnational cultural collaboration, artistic expression and the mobility of artists and cultural actors. Various grants schemes relate to different ECF focus areas and to specific regions of the European continent.
All activities of ECF revolve around the three strategic guiding principles outlined below. Applications that tie in with these principles will receive a higher score in the assessment procedure.
Guiding principles of ECF
1. Empowerment of People through Art and Culture – to support different communities in Europe and encourage the exchange and empowerment of underrepresented groups.
2. Connecting Sources of Knowledge – sharing and connecting knowledge is vital in creating an open Europe.
3. Linking Policy and Practice – interest in projects that help build this open Europe by contributing to cultural policy development locally, nationally, regionally and at European level
Eligibility Criteria
Collaboration grants fund transnational, cross-sectoral activities by artistic and cultural organizations working together or with organizations from other sectors. Applications must be in line with all the eligibility criteria. Please read these carefully, as proposals which do not meet the criteria will not be considered.
1. Who is eligible?
• Lead applicant: independent artistic or cultural organisation based in Europe
• Partnering applicant: organisations from the cultural or other sectors
2. What is eligible?
There are six different eligibility criteria. All of them are equally important. Proposals that do not meet these criteria will not be considered.
*Partnership working methodology
*Cultural focus – the project should have a strong cultural objective and a concrete end product
*European dimension – the project must be organised by a cultural organisation in Europe
*Sustainability
• The project must have a clear end‐result that can be evaluated.
• Ideally, the project is a starting‐point for sustainable cooperation between the partners.
*Time frame
*Financial
• ECF can support up to 80% (max) of the total budget. We encourage applicant organisations and their partners to demonstrate their own contributions and to apply to other funders. This should be shown in the budget outline.
• ECF provides an average collaboration grant of Euro 15 000. The maximum grant awarded is Euro 30 000.
• ECF specifically welcomes the involvement of local funding partners, as we believe this helps embed the project within the local context.
• ECF may select your project even if your remaining budget has not yet been secured when you are applying. Payment of the grant will be conditional on an agreed percentage of other funding having been secured at least one month before the start date of your project.
Funding
Investment of grant
• Operating costs of an organisation’s regular activities
• Touring/exhibition of an existing work
• Production costs of a one‐off performance or art work
• Awards, competitions or residencies
• Independent literary works, translations or running costs of an ongoing series of publications or cultural reviews (publications documenting your collaborative project, however, may be included in your application)
• Projects that rely entirely on ECF funding
Nature of collaboration
• Organisations without committed partners
• Bilateral or local projects lacking a European dimension
• Projects in which the main applicant consists of: student bodies, commercial organisations, state institutions, amateur organisations, or organisations focusing primarily on education, religion or heritage
• Independent cultural or artistic organisations applying more than once as main applicant and/or more than once as project partner in a given grant round.
Focus of the project
• Activities that focus only on the academic sector or represent traditional approaches to research and education (e.g. school/university exchanges, scholarships, research or education programmes firmly located within a traditional institution)
• Institutional approaches to arts education or art therapy
• Folkloric events and projects that focus on conserving European heritage
• Initiatives based solely on tourism.
After the deadline is closed, the eligible applications are first evaluated by the grants team. The pre-selection is distributed among a group of external advisers, who come from all over Europe and have different fields of expertise. Each proposal is assessed by two advisers. After this assessment, ECF decides which projects it will support and the amount of each grant. Both awarded and rejected applicants are notified by e‐mail around 5‐8 weeks after the deadline. Decisions are final.