Funding Programme

Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) is the EU's funding programme for citizens' engagement and the implementation of EU rights and values. Read more about CERV here.

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Call overview

This call aims to address the needs on capacity building and awareness raising on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

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Call details

The Charter Strategy underlines the importance of strengthening the application of the Charter in the Member States, in particular through awareness raising and capacity building initiatives.The projects funded under this priority could address the needs on capacity building and awareness raising on the Charter in general, or they could focus on one or several of the thematics below:

• Rights enshrined in the Charter and awareness of the Charter’s scope of application4In accordance with its Article 51, the Charter is applicable to Member States only when they are implementing EU law. Given the specific nature of this instrument, in comparison with other international Treaties protecting fundamental rights, and considering the increasing number of references to the Charter in the case law of the Court of Justice of the EU, there is a specific need to promote a good understanding both of the rights enshrined in the Charter and of the situations in which the Charter applies, i.e. when EU law is being implemented.
• Protecting fundamental rights in the digital age. To follow up on the Annual Charter Report 2021, on fundamental rights in the digital age, the aim of the priority is to protect fundamental rights by strengthening accountability for the use of automation where rights are at stake. This includes approaches for addressing and combatting bias and multiple/intersectional discriminationbased on gender and on other grounds including ethnic and racial origin,caused or intensified by the use of artificial intelligence systems. Projects will aim to develop guidelines (including measures that ensure gender-sensitive implementation), technical benchmarks and tools, including for algorithm-audits. Projects are expected to develop a concrete tool or a benchmark process in an area of the applicant’s choice with demonstrated relevance for fundamental rights, without prescribing the area or the type of the tool (e.g. it could be software, a benchmark data set, a simulation environment, a procedure).

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Activities to be funded

• Capacity building of civil society organisations and awareness raising activities aiming to increase the knowledge and the use of the EU Charter, including its gender dimension, especially on its scope of application;
• Facilitating cooperation between civil society organisations and other key actors in enforcing the Charter, such as NHRIs, Equality bodies, Ombuds Institutions and Member State authorities (at national, regional and local level);
• Training and train-the-trainer activities for professionals (such as experts, lawyers and legal advisers, communicators, policy and advocacy advisers), including through operational guidance and learning tools;
• Mutual learning, exchange of good practices, development of working and learning methods, including mentoring programmes that may be transferable to other countries;
• Analytical activities, such as sex-disaggregated data collection and research, and the creation of tools or data bases (e.g. thematic databases of jurisprudence);
• Communication activities, including dissemination of information and awareness raising about rights and redress mechanisms, relevant to the priorities of the call;
• Development of procedures, guidelines, technical benchmarks and tools, including for algorithm-audits, to help to protect fundamental rights, including gender equality and non-discrimination, where automation is used.

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Eligibility

In order to be eligible, the applicants (lead applicants “Coordinator”, co-applicants and affiliated entities) must:

- For lead applicants (i.e. the “Coordinator”): be non-profit legal entities (private bodies)

- For co-applicants: be non-profit or profit legal entities (public or private bodies). Organisations which are profit-oriented may apply only in partnership with private non-profit organisations;

- be formally established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.: EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))

In addition:

- Activities must take place in any of the eligible countries (EU Member States);

- The EU grant applied for cannot be lower than EUR 75 000;

- The project can be either national or transnational; the application may involve one or more organisations (lead applicant “Coordinator” and co-applicants).

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Consortium

Proposals must be submitted by a consortium of at least 1 applicant (beneficiary; not affiliated entities).

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Duration

Projects should normally range between 12 and 24 months (extensions are possible, if duly justified and through an amendment).

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Budget

No limit. The grant awarded may be lower than the amount requested.

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