Legal status

Q1: We are not registered as a formal organisation, nor are we currently affiliated with a registered entity. Is it possible for an unregistered group of activists to apply directly, or must the applicant be a legally registered organisation or coalition?

A: Indeed, one of the eligibility requirements as listed in section ‘Eligibility Criteria to Receive Support’ in the call is to be a legally established CSO or allied with a legally established organisation or platform. This is because the grant agreement needs to be signed with an officially registered entity (which must be non-for-profit) to be able to receive the funds.

Q2: Do you have any recommendations for how an unregistered group/initiative might partner with a registered entity to be eligible to apply?

A: Our advice is to check within your network or allies whether there is a non-for-profit registered organisation based in an EU country that you can partner with to submit an application. The call does not include a partner‑identification mechanism, and the project team is not able to facilitate connections. Applicants are encouraged to draw on their own networks and partnerships.

Please keep in mind that the eligibility criteria listed in the call apply to the registered entity with which you will potentially submit the application with. So, please read them carefully.

Geography

Q3: Is geographic eligibility determined by the legal seat of the organisation, or can an exception be made based on the geographic location of the project's impact or activities?

A: The eligibility criteria require that both the organisation’s legal seat and the location where activities targeting the primary audience(s) will take place are in one or more of the eligible country locations. Please note that these requirements are set by the donor (the European Commission), and we are obliged to adhere to them when sub‑granting to third parties.

Q4: Could you please clarify the sentence: ''priority will be given to organisations with activities targeting the following countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, France, Germany, Hungary, Ireland, Portugal, Spain, Croatia, Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Serbia, and Slovenia". Can organisations based in other eligible country locations still apply?

A: The list of priority countries was meant to simply indicate where applications are particularly encouraged. This relates to the project’s wider set-up, regional balance, and the presence of implementing partners who can support identification and accompaniment. It does not exclude applicants from other eligible countries. All organisations meeting the eligibility criteria are welcome to apply.

Q5: Based on Annex M, are organisations registered and operating outside Europe, i.e., not based in EU Member States or EU candidate countries, eligible to apply?

A: In principle, any organisation based in an eligible country location may apply. However, please note that the eligibility criteria need to be considered as a whole; geographic location alone is not the only factor. While all applicants legally based in eligible country locations are welcome to apply, they must also meet the other eligibility criteria and be able to propose and implement a project that is a good thematic fit and can contribute to achieving the wider project objectives. As outlined in the call, our project, funded by the EU DEAR programme,  focuses on engaging and empowering EU citizens, particularly youth, to take action on global challenges through the interconnected lenses of economic, gender and climate justice. In this context, proposed activities must demonstrate a clear and credible link to the EU and contribute to reaching/engaging EU citizens in line with these objectives.

Q6: Is it acceptable for a Global South organisation to lead a proposal while collaborating with EU-based partners for outreach and mobilisation within Europe?

A: Yes, applying as a lead while collaborating with EU-based partners for outreach and mobilisation within Europe is acceptable. In general, the design of the project structure is left to the applicant(s). For organisations based outside the EU, establishing collaborations with EU‑based partners is one way to ensure the link with EU target audiences but it is not a formal requirement. The chosen structure should reflect what is most feasible and coherent for the proposed activities.

Q7: Are Annex M–based organisations (outside Europe) eligible to directly receive and manage sub-grant funds, or is an EU-based fiscal host recommended or required?

A: Organisations based in all Annex M locations are eligible to directly receive and manage subgrants, provided they are registered as non-for-profit and have an organisational bank account. Having an EU-based fiscal host is not a formal requirement.

Budget

Q8: We are an unregistered initiative planning to submit an application in partnership with a registered NGO. We would appreciate clarification on whether personnel costs eligible under the grant must be limited exclusively to staff from the registered organisation, or whether it would also be possible to contract independent professionals (such as facilitators, designers, etc.) to support the planned activities.

A: It is acceptable to include staff costs, as long as they are justified and proportionate to the time spent on the project. It is also acceptable to include the costs of independent contractors to carry out the project activities (facilitation, design, etc.).

Q9: Can the 10% co-funding requirement be met through in-kind contributions such as volunteer time, calculated to equal 10% of the requested grant amount, rather than through cash contributions or funding from another source?

A: In-kind contributions cannot be included in the project budget, hence cannot be part of co-financing. Please consult the budget template guidelines under section ‘Types of ineligible costs.’

Q10: Does the 10% co-financing need to be fully secured at the time of application submission?

A: While the co-funding amount does not necessarily need to be secured in full at the time of the application, please note that we only commit to funding up to 90% maximum of any project’s eligible expenses; there is no possibility to cover more. It is therefore advisable to design the project budget based on the funding sources that are already available or can be secured with reasonable certainty. For example, if you are able to secure 1500 euros from other sources with reasonable certainty within the next year or so, then the total project budget (including co-financing) should ideally not exceed 15000 euros.

Q11: We would like to understand the reimbursement mechanism for subgrants awarded within this call, is there a pre-financing? Are there interim payments?

A: Successful applicants to the call will go through the contracting stage. This involves signing a grant agreement with clear conditions, reporting, and payment deadlines. The design of the reporting periods and schedules depends on the length of the proposed (successful) project. In general, as a common practice, future subgrantees receive a pre-financing payment of about 30-40% of the grant value following the signature of the agreement; remaining payments follow the approval of interim reports. About 10% is normally withheld as final payment that can only be released upon approval of the final report of the subgrantee.

Q12: The call states that subgrantees will have the opportunity to participate in one in-person project coordination meeting as part of the capacity-building component. Could you please clarify whether travel and accommodation costs for this meeting should be included in the proposed project budget, or will these costs be covered separately by the project consortium?

A: The intention was to have applicants already include an estimated cost of a one-person participation in a project coordination meeting. Flight, accommodation and per diem should be covered from the project budget. The figure only needs to be approximate at this point and should be included in the budget category named “Activity costs” as per the instructions in the budget template.

Q13: Could you please clarify how much of the grant can be allocated towards salary/administrative costs?

A: We did not set a specific maximum percentage for salary and administrative expenses (the category named Support Costs in the budget). It depends on what the project entails and which costs are necessary to implement it. In general, any salary costs included need to be justified and proportionate to the time spent working on the project. For further information, please consult the budget guidelines in the first sheet in the budget template.

Other DEAR projects subgrant applications

Q14: We have applied recently to a call for subgrants from another current DEAR project, but we still do not know the outcome of our application. Can we still apply to the Connecting the Dots call?

A: As outlined in the call, an organisation cannot receive more than one subgrant from DEAR projects awarded within the EC DEAR 2022 CfP EuropeAid/173998/DH/ACT/Multi. Since you are not yet a subgrantee under the call launched by the other DEAR project, in principle, you may still apply to the Connecting the Dots call. However, should your application to the other project be successful, your application to our call cannot be considered and you should inform us immediately. In fact, at the end of the application form, you are asked to sign a declaration regarding this matter, and we will be sure to have successful applicants sign a declaration before the actual contracting.

Capacity criterion

Q15: We would appreciate further explanation of what is meant by “high-capacity organisations able to compete directly for institutional funding.” We would be grateful if you could clarify how this criterion is defined and applied in the context of the call.

A: Please note that the call for subgrants is aimed specifically at small and medium organisations, youth groups, student groups, local CSOs and grassroots movements, particularly those with youth leadership and constituencies. We stated in the call that “high‑capacity organisations capable of competing for institutional funding directly are not the target of the call” to make it clear that the sub-granting mechanism supports actors who typically do not already have access to such funding streams (EU, other institutional donors). In this context, “high‑capacity” refers to organisations whose size of operations, organisational structure, and funding sources indicate that they are able to apply directly for institutional funding (including EU funding) or already have several funding streams. Organisations in this category are not the intended beneficiaries. We did not set a specific numerical threshold for annual income/budget as operational budgets vary significantly across countries, and we did not want to impose a single numerical threshold that would not be meaningful or fair across contexts. Instead, the application form collects information on funding sources and organisational structure over the past two years (2024 and 2025). Please see section 1.5 in the application form. This allows us to understand each applicant’s scale and capacity in relation to the objectives of the call, which targets small and medium organisations.

Q16: Could you please clarify what is meant by “You did not have the financial, administrative or operational capacity to compete directly for EU funding under the EC DEAR 2022 CfP EuropeAid/173998/DH/ACT/Multi.”

A: If an organisation applied (as lead or co-applicant)—successful or not—to the EC DEAR 2022 CfP EuropeAid/173998/DH/ACT/Multi call, it is considered to have had the capacity to compete directly for that funding and is therefore not eligible for this sub-granting opportunity. If your organisation applied to the EC call (EuropeAid/173998/DH/ACT/Multi) as lead or co-applicant, then it is strictly ineligible.

Existing initiatives

Q17: Do the initiatives need to be brand new or are existing initiatives also eligible (example: second season of a podcast, additional series of training, etc.)?

A: Existing initiatives may be eligible, provided that the proposed activities fall within the scope of the call, meet the eligibility criteria, clearly contribute to the objectives and are attributable to this project only. In all cases, the proposal should clearly outline the specific activities to be supported under this subgrant.