Apply for a Capacity Building in the field of Youth or European Youth Together project
The EACEA webinars presented the criteria for these projects in this year's call and tips on how to write a good proposal.
On Tuesday 12 December, the European Commission and EACEA co-hosted information webinars on the two Erasmus+ centralised youth actions. During the webinars, participants learned about the main objectives of both projects, the changes in the call compared to last year and recommendations on how to write a good project application.
Capacity Building in the field of youth
At the beginning of the webinar, the main objectives of the Youth Capacity Building projects were highlighted: capacity building should benefit the participating youth organisations from the partner countries, projects should create synergies between formal and non-formal education, support the development of youth work in the participating partner countries and contribute to the implementation of the EU Youth Strategy and its 11 objectives. Furthermore, projects should develop interregional cooperation and promote non-formal education.
This year, organisations from three neighbouring EU regions can participate in this type of project: the Western Balkans (Region 1), the Eastern Neighbourhood (Region 2) and the Southern Mediterranean (Region 3). A novelty compared to last year is the possibility to involve the Eastern Partnership, which was introduced in the context of the war in Ukraine, and the rule that cross-regional partnerships are not possible. Another new feature is that organisations from Armenia and Azerbaijan can be involved as partners but not as coordinators. The Commission representative also pointed out that, unlike other types of youth projects, Capacity Building does not target youth directly, but youth organisations.
In the second part of the webinar, participants were provided with tips and recommendations on how to write a good project application. First of all, the deadline for applications is 6 March 2024 at 17:00 and applicants should not postpone the submission of their application to the last minute to avoid possible technical problems and late submission. Although this type of project primarily targets youth organizations, other organizations or institutions (e.g. private companies or universities) may be involved as partners as long as their contribution is clearly explained. EACEA officials also recommended that consortia should focus on one or fewer priorities in a project rather than trying to cover all of them. Finally, they explained the minimum composition of the consortium: a total of at least 4 organisations should be involved, at least 1 of which should be from the programme country and at least 2 organisations from two different eligible partner countries from the same region (minimum one organisation per country).
European Youth Together
In the first part of the webinar the political context of the European Youth Together projects (deadline 7 March) was presented. It is very important that the projects aim at implementing EU policies in the youth field, in particular the EU Youth Strategy and the legacy of the European Year of Youth, as well as the outcomes of the Conference on the Future of Europe. The link between the local project level and the policy level is crucial in this type of projects, as European Youth Together is part of Erasmus+ Key Action 3, the part of the programme focusing on systemic impact and policy reform. Therefore, he recommended that those interested in this project should study all the above-mentioned initiatives and documents and reflect their objectives in their project (e.g. strengthening partnerships between youth organisations across Europe, promoting European values, encouraging young people to get involved in society, involving disadvantaged young people or strengthening the European dimension of the activities of smaller and less experienced youth organisations). He also said that projects could also focus on the upcoming European Parliament elections.
As in the case of Capacity Building, the second part of the webinar was focused on the conditions for getting involved in the call and gave participants advice on how to write a successful project application. This type of project aims at promoting and creating regional partnerships, active European citizenship and is targeted at young people. Projects should actively involve young people, for example in the design and implementation of the project itself. The European Youth Together projects can only involve organisations from EU Member States or Programme Associated Countries and should be geographically balanced (it is important to involve organisations from both North and South, West and East of Europe). The minimum composition of the consortium is 5 organisations from 5 different countries.
Applicants are also advised to avoid overly general project proposals focused on political ambitions and to clearly link political objectives to real problems 'on the ground' and the solutions to which the project is intended to contribute.
Recordings and presentations from both webinars can be found on the EACEA website. More details on the specific technical details of completing and submitting an application on the FTOP portal can be found in these materials :