Background

Liberties is a network of national-level organizations in 18 EU Member States with a mission to support and encourage the EU and the Member States to respect, protect and promote the values in Article 2 of the Treaty on the EU by supporting civil society organizations active at local, regional or national levels. Our activities foster solidarity through capacity building on communications and litigation, collaborating on research, advocacy, awareness-raising, and dissemination activities on EU-wide issues, individually and in synergy with other transnational organizations. Liberties’ work to strengthen the impact of its Members at the national level contributes to the implementation of rights in other EU policy areas. Building on Liberties’ achievements so far, the activities of STRIVE will (1) foster the network’s ability to provide an expert contribution to the promotion and protection of Union values, (2) strengthen and expand the network, (3) build Members’ capacity to maximize impacts of their work (4) boost public awareness and engagement on EU values and how to protect them.

Goals

Liberties' specific objectives for the year 2023 are in support of three essential components of our mission: network development, capacity building and expert contribution to the rights and values in the EU - in line with our strategic objectives as defined previously in the framework proposal:

• Specific Objective 1 (SO1): Providing expert contribution to the promotion and protection of fundamental rights and Union values in the EU

• Specific Objective 2 (SO2): Strengthening and expanding the network

• Specific Objective 3 (SO3): Building Members’ capacity to maximise impacts on the ground

• Specific Objective 4 (SO4): Boost values-based information and dissemination for enhanced public engagement on rights and values

Regranting Areas and Objectives

The regranting in the scope of CERV-STRIVE 2023 has the following specific objectives:

- to support national initiatives furthering the capacity building for use of the Charter of Fundamental Rights at the national level;

- to support national initiatives in advancing research and positioning of the Charter in fundamental rights litigation;

- to support national initiatives in the use of the Charter through strategic advocacy and campaigning related to fundamental rights litigation based on recommendations and findings of the annual rule of law reports (EC and Liberties reports).

Expected results

• Developed strong partnerships between national initiatives in the use of the Charter of Fundamental Rights

• Increased national research and positioning of the Charter in fundamental rights litigation

• Increased advocacy and campaigns related to the use of the Charter to advance findings of the rule of law reports

Timeframe for project implementation

Duration of supported initiatives will be from 6 to 12 months.

The selection process for applications received in response to this Call for Applications is planned to be finalized by end of June 2023, and start of the approved projects is planned for July 2023. Liberties reserve the right to change the timeline of the application process, as the evaluation period may vary depending on the number of applicants received and following the EC guidance of the process.

Financial frame

The total amount made available under the Call for Project Proposals is EUR 200,000.

Size of grants:

Any grant requested under this Call must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:

●  minimum amount: EUR 20,000

●  maximum amount: EUR 45,000

Co-funding is mandatory for this Call. Liberties (as the contracting party) will cover 80% of the total budget of the successful applications.

Eligibility of applicants

All Liberties members are eligible to apply for the project funding.

Grants will be awarded to Liberties members with a mission and demonstrated experience in the thematic priorities of this Call.

Proposals directly or indirectly addressing lessons learned from the Charter training held by Liberties in 2022, or addressing Union values for Ukrainian refugees in the EU deemed urgent will be given priority.

APPLICATION PROCESS

In order to support high quality of applications and to optimize selection process, the application process for the regranting will have one stage:

1) FULL APPLICATION - Deadline: 20 May 2023. Approval stage: Submitted full applications will be reviewed and evaluated by three independent experts/evaluators. After the evaluation of all full applications, the Selection Committee will decide on the grant recipients.

2) A full application consists of fully completed Application Form and Budget Template.

3) Applications need to be submitted to liberties@liberties.eu with the title "STRIVE 2023 application"; all relevant questions need to be submitted to the same email address before 15 April 2023.

Number of applications and grants per applicant

A member organization may not submit more than one application under this Call for Applications.

All relevant information on rules, conditions, eligibility and evaluation criteria is available in the Guidelines for Applicants.

Read our Questions and Answers for STRIVE2023 Grant applicants