This grant aims to protect, promote, and raise awareness of fundamental rights, supporting civil society organisations in implementing the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and strengthening Union values and the rule of law.
- Target recipient: Civil society organisations (NGOs).
- Size: Not specified.
- Sector: SECTOR-SPECIFIC - focused on fundamental rights, rule of law, and civic engagement.
- Geographic scope: Projects can be national or transnational. Specific eligible countries are detailed in the full Call document (not provided here).
- Key filtering criteria: Applicant must be a civil society organisation; project must address one of the five specified priorities related to the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
- Grant frequency: Recurring (part of the annual CERV Work Programme).
Financial Structure
Total budget for the call: EUR 18,000,000.
Specific minimum or maximum grant amounts per project are not provided.
Eligible and ineligible costs, as well as co-financing and financial reporting requirements, are described in Section 10 of the Call document (not provided in this analysis).
Matching fund requirements are not specified in the provided materials.
Payment schedules and mechanisms are described in Section 10 of the Call document (not provided in this analysis).
Financial reporting and audit requirements are described in Section 10 of the Call document (not provided in this analysis).
Currency is not explicitly stated in the provided text, but for EU grants, it is typically EUR.
Eligibility Requirements
Organization Type
Eligible organisations are civil society organisations.
Geographic Requirements
Projects can be national or transnational. Specific eligible countries are described in Section 6 of the Call document (not provided in this analysis).
Financial and Operational Capacity
Requirements regarding financial and operational capacity, as well as exclusion criteria, are described in Section 7 of the Call document (not provided in this analysis).
Application Process
Application Timeline
Publication of the call: 2025-05-13.
Deadline for submitting applications: 2025-09-18 17:00 (Brussels time).
Evaluation period: October 2025 – February 2026.
Information to applicants: March 2026.
Signature of grant agreement: June 2026.
Required Documentation
The specific application form for this call (Standard application form CERV) is available in the Submission System.
Model Grant Agreements (MGA), CERV Work Programmes, EU Financial Regulation, and other relevant documents are referenced.
Submission Process
Applications must be submitted electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal.
The process is a single-stage submission procedure.
Application Support
An Online Info Session was organised on June 10-11, 2025.
Technical support is available via the IT Helpdesk for issues like forgotten passwords, access rights, or submission technicalities.
An Online Manual provides step-by-step guidance for the portal processes.
A Q&A section on the Topic page (CERV-2025-CHAR-LITI) addresses call-specific questions.
Non-IT related questions can be directed to the CERV National Contact Point (if established) or via email to [email protected], explicitly referencing the call and topic.
Evaluation Criteria
Award Criteria
Evaluation criteria, scoring, thresholds, and the overall process are described in Section 9 of the Call document (not provided in this analysis).
Compliance & Special Requirements
Regulatory Compliance
Admissibility conditions, including proposal page limits and layout, are described in Section 5 of the Call document (not provided in this analysis).
Eligible countries and other eligibility conditions are described in Section 6 of the Call document (not provided in this analysis).
Legal and Financial Set-up
The legal and financial framework for the grants is described in Section 10 of the Call document (not provided in this analysis).
Strategic Focus
Projects must address only ONE of the following five priorities:
Priority 1: Capacity building and awareness raising on the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.
Priority 2: Promoting rights and values by empowering the civic space.
Priority 3: Strategic litigation.
Priority 4: Protecting EU values and rights by combating hate crime and hate speech.
Priority 5: Supporting an enabling environment for the protection of whistleblowers.
Cross-cutting Themes
Projects should contribute to strengthening Union values and respect for the rule of law.
Expected contributions include fostering a more democratic Union, democratic dialogue, transparency, and good governance.
Grant Details
access to justice
civic space
civil society organisations
court of justice of the european uni
directive on whistleblower protectio
eu charter of fundamental rights
fundamental rights
hate crime
hate speech
hate speech online
human rights
human rights defenders
ngos
strategic lawsuits against public pa
strategic litigation
whistleblowers
union values
rule of law
democratic dialogue
transparency
good governance
awareness raising
capacity building
european union
justice
Call for proposals to promote civil society organisations’ awareness of, capacity building and implementation of the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights
CERV-2025-CHAR-LITI
Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values Programme (CERV)
NGO
AT
BE
BG
HR
CY
CZ
DK
EE
FI
FR
DE
GR
HU
IE
IT
LV
LT
LU
MT
NL
PL
PT
RO
SK
SI
ES
SE
Grants8