REF: VP/2014/008

The European Programme for Employment and Social Innovation «EaSI» 2014-2020 is a  European-level  financing  instrument  managed  directly  by  the  European  Commission  to  support Union’s objectives in terms of promoting  a high level of quality and sustainable  employment,  guaranteeing  adequate  and  decent  social  protection,  combating  social  exclusion  and  poverty  and  improving  working  conditions  and  contribute  to  the  implementation of the Europe 2020 strategy.

Τhe  overall  purpose  of  this  call  for  proposals  is  to  foster  innovation  and  reforms  in  the social  services  to  tackle  the  main  challenges  identified  above  and  to develop  innovative responses corresponding to national, regional and local realities and in line with the social investment approach.

This call foreseen under EaSI Progress axis promotes the social  policy  experimentation as a method for testing and evaluating innovative solutions with a view to up-scaling them.

Main Objectives 

1)  using social policy innovations for undertaking structural reforms  in  the  context  of  the  Europe  2020  Strategy,  in  particular  the  Country  Specific Recommendations received by the Member States as part of the European Semester; 

2) Employment, Social Affairs & Inclusion VP/2014/00810 strengthening  partnerships  between  public,  private  and  civil  society  sector  to  involve  in awareness raising activities about the use and benefits of social policy innovation.

Eliigibility

The social policy experimentation project has to be submitted and driven  by a consortium of stakeholders involved in the process of social policy innovation.  This consortium shall bring together key public, private and civil society stakeholders active in the field of social service planning and/or delivery.Providing information pertinent to policy decisions is the primary rationale for conductinga social policy innovation project. Therefore, the lead applicant must be a public authority or a public body at national, regional or local level having a role to play in policy setting or delivering  social  services.  The  role  of  the  public  authorities  consists  in  being  actively  committed to the project by ensuring strong policy leadership and steering of the project, and in securing the use of results beyond the grant period.

Broadening cooperation between the public sector, the private sector and the civil society provision of the services. Accordingly,  the lead applicant should involve  at least one coapplicant.  Co-applicants  must  be  public  authorities  at  central,  regional  or  local  level,  or bodies  governed  by  public  law,  and/or  civil  society  organisations,  and/or  private  sector organisations.  Including  academic  structures,  research  organisations  or  international organisations is strongly encouraged.

 Project Scedule 

The deadlinefor the submission of applications (and indicative amounts) is as follows:

Duration of the Project

The duration of the project must be between 24 months and 36 months

Financing

The overall indicative amount made available for this call is 9 200 000.The  grant requested must be 750 000 € minimum and 2 000 000 € maximum. The European Union financial aid granted will not exceed 80% of the total eligible costs of the  action.  The  consortium  members  must  guarantee  the  co -financing  in  cash  of  the remaining 20%. Contributions in kind are not accepted as co-financing. 

Direct link to the Call for Proposal:

http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=629&langId=en&callId=408&furtherCalls=yes