Collaboration Grants

Deadline: 2 May 2012
Open to: independent artistic or cultural organizations based in Europe

Grants  are  at  the  core work of European Cultural Foundation.  The  connecting  power  of  culture  is  essential  for creating open, inclusive and democratic societies: for  ‘building Europe’. ECF is  looking for  projects  that  have  the  potential  to  inspire  people  to  transcend  boundaries  in  this process.

ECF  grants  programme  stimulates  transnational  cultural  collaboration,  artistic expression and  the mobility of artists and  cultural actors. Various  grants  schemes relate to different ECF focus areas and to specific regions of the European continent.

All activities of ECF revolve around the three strategic guiding principles outlined below. Applications  that  tie  in  with  these  principles  will  receive  a  higher  score  in  the assessment procedure.

Guiding principles of ECF

1. Empowerment of People through Art and Culture – to support different communities  in  Europe  and  encourage  the  exchange  and  empowerment  of underrepresented groups.
2. Connecting Sources of Knowledge – sharing and connecting knowledge is vital in creating an open Europe.
3. Linking Policy and Practice – interest in projects that help build this open Europe by contributing to cultural policy development locally, nationally, regionally and at European level

Eligibility Criteria

Collaboration grants fund transnational, cross-sectoral activities by artistic and cultural organizations working together or with organizations from other sectors. Applications must be in line with all the eligibility criteria. Please read these carefully, as proposals which do not meet the criteria will not be considered.

1. Who is eligible?

•  Lead applicant: independent artistic or cultural organisation based in Europe
•  Partnering applicant: organisations from the cultural or other sectors

2. What is eligible?

There are six different eligibility criteria. All of  them are equally  important. Proposals that do not meet these criteria will not be considered.
*Partnership working methodology
*Cultural focus – the project should have a strong cultural objective and a concrete end product
*European dimension – the  project must  be  organised  by  a  cultural  organisation  in  Europe
*Sustainability
•  The project must have a clear end‐result that can be evaluated.
•  Ideally, the project is a starting‐point for sustainable cooperation between the partners.
*Time frame
*Financial
•  ECF  can  support  up  to  80%  (max)  of  the  total  budget.  We  encourage applicant organisations and their partners to demonstrate their own contributions and to apply to other funders. This should be shown in the budget outline.
•  ECF  provides  an  average  collaboration  grant  of  Euro  15  000.  The  maximum  grant awarded is Euro 30 000.
•  ECF specifically welcomes the  involvement of  local funding partners, as we believe this helps embed the project within the local context.
•  ECF may  select  your project  even  if  your  remaining budget has  not  yet been  secured when  you  are  applying.  Payment  of  the  grant  will  be  conditional  on  an  agreed percentage of other  funding having been  secured at  least one month before  the  start date of your project.

Funding

Investment of grant
•  Operating costs of an organisation’s regular activities
•  Touring/exhibition of an existing work
•  Production costs of a one‐off performance or art work
•  Awards, competitions or residencies
•  Independent  literary  works,  translations  or  running  costs  of  an  ongoing  series  of publications  or  cultural  reviews  (publications  documenting  your  collaborative  project, however, may be included in your application)
•  Projects that rely entirely on ECF funding

Nature of collaboration
•  Organisations without committed partners
•  Bilateral or local projects lacking a European dimension
•  Projects  in  which  the  main  applicant  consists  of:  student  bodies,  commercial organisations,  state  institutions,  amateur  organisations,  or  organisations  focusing primarily on education, religion or heritage
•  Independent  cultural  or  artistic  organisations  applying  more  than  once  as  main applicant and/or more than once as project partner in a given grant round.

Focus of the project
•  Activities that focus only on the academic sector or represent traditional approaches to research  and  education  (e.g.  school/university  exchanges,  scholarships,  research  or education programmes firmly located within a traditional institution)
•  Institutional approaches to arts education or art therapy
•  Folkloric events and projects that focus on conserving European heritage
•  Initiatives based solely on tourism.

After the deadline is closed, the eligible applications are first evaluated by the grants team. The pre-selection is distributed among a group of external advisers, who come from all over Europe and  have  different  fields  of  expertise.  Each  proposal  is  assessed  by  two  advisers.  After  this assessment,  ECF  decides  which  projects  it  will  support  and  the  amount  of  each  grant.  Both awarded  and  rejected  applicants  are  notified  by  e‐mail  around  5‐8 weeks  after  the  deadline. Decisions are final.

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