Funding programme

The Asylum, Migration and Integration Fund (AMIF) provides funding for actions in the field of asylum, legal migration and integration, return and countering irregular migration.

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Call overview

This call aims to stimulate and support capacity building and the sharing of experience among national authorities and other stakeholdersin the field of protection of migrant children.

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Background

This AMIF call is complementary to the Commission Contact Committee meetings for Pact implementation and EUAA updated Practical Guide on Age Assessment. The objective of the topic is to stimulate and support capacity building and the sharing of experience among national authorities and other stakeholders on how to conduct age assessment in line with the multi-disciplinary approach required by Article 25 of the Asylum Procedures Regulation (2024/1348). (’APR’)

The number of migrant children arriving to the EU unaccompanied or separated from their parents has been again on the rise over the last years. In 2023, 271,700 people seeking asylum were under 18 years old, and almost one out of seven (40,400) were unaccompanied children. This was similar to the level in 2022 (-5%) and the second highest since 2025.

Read more in the call document.

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Activities that can be funded

Proposals should include activities aimed at increasing the capacity and knowledge amongst relevant actors, such as the determining authorities within the meaning of the APR, but also other bodies and professionals conducting age assessments and otherwise being involved in any way in the age assessment process (for example, guardianship services, insofar as guardians must assist the persons during the age assessment procedure):

• Capacity building for offering training to multidisciplinary teams combining professionals from various fields (e. g psychologists, education or child protection specialists, social workers, cultural mediators, paediatricians etc.) who will be tasked to carry out multi-disciplinary age assessment under the new requirements of the Asylum Procedure Regulation 2024/1348.
• Developing training modules and/or (physical presence or online) knowledge-sharing platforms for professionals conducting age assessment under the multi-disciplinary method.
• Study visits and exchange programs for allowing peer to peer learning of national authorities or other entities involved in applying the multi-disciplinary age assessment method;
• Developing recommendations, guidance, SOPs and/or workflows for national authorities and professionals responsible for applying the multi-disciplinary age assessment method that are consistent with the EUAA guidelines;
• Developing practical non-invasive age assessment tools, including introducing new (digital) tools that could be used in age determination process, while maintaining hight ethical standards (e.g age-assessment checklists, interview techniques tailored to minors, tools for cognitive testing or developmental assessments etc).
• Conferences/workshops/seminars/thematic meetings to advance the knowledge about the multidisciplinary age assessment methodology or relevant methods, and to facilitate communication between different stakeholders involved in age assessment;

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Eligibility

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

+ be legal entities:

+ be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:

• EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)), excluding Denmark,
• non-EU countries: countries associated to the AMIF (associated countries) or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature

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Consortium composition

Proposals must be submitted by

• minimum three applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities) from at least two different participating Member States.
• Affiliated entities and international organisations cannot be counted for reaching the minimum number of participating Member States
• There must be at least one national authority in charge of age assessment per participating Member State (the determining authorities with the meaning of the APR, e.g. responsible ministry/body entrusted by the competent authority’s mandate, depending on the national structure)
• the following entities can NOT apply as coordinator or co-beneficiary: profit making entities

The European Commission welcomes:

• proposals with broad geographical scope engaging applicants from relevant partners from national, regional and local levels across the EU.
• proposals involving applicants from more Member States than the minimum number identified in the eligibility criteria, as long as they are relevant for the design of the action.

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Duration

Projects must have a maximum duration of 24 months.

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Budget

The available budget for this topic is EUR 6 000 000.