Brussels time
The Employment and Social Innovation (EaSI) programme aims to support employment, social policy and labour mobility across the EU. EaSI is a strand of the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) programme.
This call aims to implement and evaluate innovative projects and/or policy measures through social experimentation, piloting and evaluating social innovation practices in the field of homelessness and housing exclusion.
This call for proposals aims at selecting and supporting financially a limited number of beneficiaries, active in the greatest number of Member States, capable of interventions in the field of homelessness and housing exclusion. The beneficiaries may opt to implement the funded activities through re-granting to third parties. The following priorities will be implemented:
(1) Social experimentation interventions defined as policy interventions that offer innovative response to social needs, implemented on a small scale, prior to being implemented in other contexts or on a larger scale, if the results prove convincing. These interventions should provide valuable information for policy-makers, avoiding the costs of launching large-scale programmes before being tested. Some social experimentations may also fail, being nevertheless an important source of information for policy-makers.
(2) Capacity building of key stakeholders active in the experimentation interventions, notably local, regional and national stakeholders and civil society organisations. This includes knowledge transfer and mentoring, expertise, tools, methods and models to suitable organisations in the Member States.
To meet the above-mentioned objectives, the activities funded and carried out by a limited number of beneficiaries, in at least 3 eligible countries, should fall in the following categories:
1. Social experimentation interventions that offer an innovative response to social needs, implemented on a small scale, prior to being implemented in other contexts or on a larger scale, if the results prove convincing. This activity is mandatory.
2. Linked to point (1), capacity building of key stakeholders involved in the implementation of the social experimentation projects. These can be the non-profit-making sector, public authorities or social enterprises/ social cooperatives, active at local, regional and national level in order to carry out activities in the area of homelessness and housing exclusion. This activity is optional.
In order to implement these activities, the beneficiaries can foresee the provision of financial support - re-granting - to third parties of maximum EUR 60 000 per sub-grant. The targeted third parties must be from the non-profit-making sector, public authorities or social enterprises/ social cooperatives - active at local, regional and national level and carrying out activities in the homelessness area.
In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must be legal entities (public or private bodies) and be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
- EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
− non-EU countries: listed EEA countries and countries associated to the ESF+ or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature
− be non-profit organisations (private or public), public authorities (national, regional, local), international organisations, universities, educational institutions, research centres or companies
Proposals by both single applicants and consortia are allowed. Proposals submitted by a consortium should be composed of at least 2 applicants(beneficiaries; not affiliated entities), which complies with the following conditions:
The lead applicant must be either:
- an umbrella civil society organisation, a network of local and regional authorities and/ or social services providers at European level (covering at least 14 eligible countries), an International Organisation or an International Financial Institution, including Multilateral Development Banks,
or
- a civil society organisation, local or regional authority, social service provider, or national development bank, at national level.
In the case of a lead applicant at national level, at least two co-applicants should be from two other eligible countries. In this case, the consortium should be comprised of at least 3 organisations.
Co-applicants can include research centres/institutes and higher education establishments (private and public). The majority of the applicants must be active in the area of the call (part of statutory aim)
Projects should normally last 36 months.
The estimated available call budget is EUR 15 000 000. The Commission expects to fund between 3 and 5 proposals ranging between 2 million and 5 million EUR each.
Brussels time
