CERV programme: Citizens’ engagement and participation

Research Network
#1

There is a nice call for proposals for EU action grants in the field of Citizens’ engagement
and participation under the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Value Programme (CERV) that will be launched on Thursday, with deadline 10th of February 2022.

The Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values programme provides funding for citizens engagement, equality for all and the implementation of rights and EU values. The programme brings together the former Rights, Equality and Citizenship programme and the former Europe for Citizens programme.

The call provides an opportunity to broadly cover a variety of policy areas, and to contribute to the promotion of EU values, the rule of law, fundamental rights and democracy. While maintaining a bottom-up approach, there will be a specific focus on:

  • the 2024 European Parliament elections, which are central to strengthening and nurturing democracy in the EU, with further efforts needed to promote the participation of citizens in the elections. This priority could also promote EU citizenship rights and contribute to the implementation of the European democracy action plan and the EU Citizenship Report 2020;
  • exploring how the COVID-19 crisis has affected the democratic debate and the enjoyment of fundamental rights;
  • innovative democratic approaches and tools to help citizens make their voices heard and publicly exchange views on all areas of EU action, notably digital tools (‘e-democracy’);
  • countering disinformation and other forms of interference in the democratic debate, empowering citizens to make informed decisions by helping them identify disinformation and promoting media literacy, with journalists’ involvement;
  • engaging citizens and communities in discussions and action related to our climate and environment; there is a growing interest of civil society and associations in discussing climate and green issues and proposing solutions to decision makers.

The available call budget is EUR 17 471 295.
Partnership composition: minimum 3 entities from 3 different eligible countries.

@alberto @nadia @ivan @hugi …

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#2

This is very close to what we have been pitching to the EC, it makes total sense for us to participate. I think we have one German partner who might be interested ( German Federal Association for Sustainability) - Do you want to reach out to them? If yes, then its Martin Wittau.

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#3

Also, there is my local political rep in my hometown Stockholm who I might talk to. We are still in a phase where dialogue across political tribes is still possible, but the infected climate around handling of covid, rise of violent drug gangs (not unsimilar to what’s happening in the Netherlands), antivaxxers etc deepening rifts. If it is possible to do something about that then this is something I personally care about. He’s bright but not sure if he has bandwidth as we have elections coming up…

Anyway, I’m interested provided we are focused on Sweden.

#4

Great find. How about our ethnography of utopia? I can think of several partners to involve right off the bat:

  • Messina – ping @giacomo.pinaffo right away
  • The Italian Forum on Inequalities and Diversities (Fabrizio Barca)
  • Possibly La 27eme Région in France (talking to them next week anyway)
  • And @nadia good idea about the German Federal Association for Sustainability

Next step is finding out who knows about this program: type of partners desired, cut of a single project, etc.

#5

No one knows exactly because it’s new. They merged two programmes: EU for Citizens and Rights, Equality and Citizenship programme. It’s under EACEA. I suppose there will be info sessions (my colleague just attended one in Croatia), so best would be to attend those and talk to trusted partners in the meantime.

Unfortunately I can’t take the lead on this…

#6

@ivan can you look into info-sessions here?

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#7

Sure,

I have sent him a mail a couple of days ago to invite him to the NGI event and to inquire about the state of the play of SERAMA.
I will ask him when they answer.

Also Methis and Lionel Ochs could be a good match.

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#8

Today I talked with DemSoc, they are tentatively in. Also likely La 27eme Region.

This is now going to move forward with a webinar. A description is here. Possible dates are 1, 2, 3 and 6 December. @ivan agreed to set up a Doodle for the key people, whom I have already written to.

#9

DemSoc also pointed out to Horizon calls (deadline April 2022) that might be used for the same purposes:

These are the Horizon calls we’re looking into at this moment:
The Future of Democracy and Civic Participation
The Impact of Inequalities on Democracy
Representative Democracy in Flux

And perhaps a bit further removed from your idea,
Education for Democracy
Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Democracy