“Culture Helps / Культура допомагає”. Collaboration grants for integration through culture up to 40.000 EUR

“Culture Helps / Культура допомагає” — a project co-funded by the EU Creative Europe Programme and implemented by Insha Osvita (UA) and zusa (DE) — opens a call for applications for collaboration grants. You can receive up to €40.000 for the implementation of international partnership projects between 2 or 3 organisations, focused on the integration through Culture for people, who were forced to leave their homes because of the Russian full-scale war against Ukraine. 

The Collaboration grants programme offers support for cultural organisations that emphasises work with people, who have been forced to move to safer regions of Ukraine or Creative Europe countries because of Russia’s war against Ukraine. The project idea must be focused on displaced people or refugees, facilitate their integration into new contexts through culture to promote dialogue and mutual understanding, and offer activities that respond to processing war trauma and support of their mental health. Additional efforts should be put into involving families and children in the project activities. The proposed activities can have the form of workshops, co-creation processes, educational projects, art therapy or similar.             

Facts on the Collaboration grants’ programme

• “Culture helps” includes 3 calls for Collaboration grants, which will be announced in 2023-2024.
• The next call will be launched in August 2023. Each call will support around 10 project grants. 
• 50% of the total grants are expected to be disbursed in Ukraine, 50% in other Creative Europe countries.
• Maximum amount of the grant is €25.000 for collaboration between two organisations, maximum €40.000 for collaboration between three organisations. 

To apply for the grant, you need to be (eligibility criteria)

• Applicants should be based in Ukraine and other Creative Europe country and correspond to one of the following categories:
  • non-profit organisations, 
  • public or private bodies, provided that 
    • they can prove the organisation’s non-commercial status
    • the project proposal will not generate any profit
• At least one of the applicants must actively work on the integration of displaced people or refugees from Ukraine into new realities and communities through culture, in particular families and children. 
• Applicants should not receive the funding from any other Creative Europe scheme for the project(s) they apply with. 

It is possible to team up for 2 or 3 partner organisations to prepare the collaboration. In the case of 3 organisations, 2 organisations can be registered in Ukraine and 1 in another CE country, or 1 in Ukraine and 2 in different other CE countries. We will not accept applications from 2 organisations from the same CE country (that is not Ukraine). 

Organisations without existing partners who are interested in applying for grants will have the opportunity to participate in a series of online moderated community calls that will serve as a helpdesk, providing assistance with grant applications and facilitating matchmaking between organisations.

Application and timeline

• Applications need to be submitted in English via the link. You can find all questions from the form here and the proposed budget template can be downloaded here.
• Deadline for applications is August 3, 2023, 23:59 Kyiv time.
• Results of the selection process will be announced no later than August 28, 2023.
• Activities under this call should end by March 31, 2024. 
• Reporting deadline by April 30, 2024. 

Selection process and criteria

The selection process will include:

• Check for eligibility – make sure you are eligible to apply for the call, otherwise your application will not be considered.
• Assessment of proposals by jury.

The following aspects will be assessed: 

• Relevance to grant objective: organisations’ portfolios and project concept (25 points).
• Quality of partnership, capacity and competences of the team (15 points). 
• Uniqueness/innovation of partnership (5 points). 
• Feasibility of collaboration project concept and budget (10 points).
• Perspective of collaboration beyond project period, contribution to building long-term relations between cultural actors based in Ukraine and Creative Europe countries (10 points). 
• Environmental awareness in the proposal (3 points).

At least 10 projects with the highest score will receive a grant of up to €25.000 for collaboration between two organisations or up to €40.000 for collaboration between three organisations.

Representatives of all selected collaborations are obliged to participate in mentoring activities, online webinars and one network meeting.

Do you have any questions left? Use one of the possibilities to prepare a better application: 

• Join an online info session on June 20, 2023, 16:00 Kyiv time, 15:00 Berlin time. Please register via the link for the session, and we will send you an invitation with a Zoom link. 
• The info session will be conducted in English. It will be recorded and published on our social media for those who cannot participate. 
• Contact us via email: culturehelps@zusaculture.org

“Culture Helps / Культура допомагає” is co-funded by the European Union.