NOFO: The Future of Democracy and Civic Participation
Deadline: 20-Apr-22
The European Commission (EC) is pleased to announce a call for proposals for “The Future of Democracy and Civic Participation”.
The interface between these movements and processes and the representative institutions of liberal democracies has often been chaotic or conflictual. However, attempts are also made to improve these interactions and embed them in formal mechanisms. The digitalisation of societies and their governments poses an opportunity to reinforce civic participation.
Proposals should include a specific focus on inequalities in civic participation, including ethnicity, gender, intersectionalities and digital divides, and explore and propose remedies. They should examine how civic participation and co-creation in its various forms, including social activism and social innovation, articulates with the traditional mechanisms and institutions of representative democracy, including acting outside them. Proposals should reflect on the potential of digitalisation and new ICT for enhancing citizen participation, including for public policy making processes. They should propose ways to improve the interaction between policymakers and citizens to enhance the public sphere, including robust and transparent mutual feedback between policymakers and citizens.
Proposals are encouraged to include experimental research and design thinking to test the insights gathered and to deploy innovative solutions to demonstrate the solutions proposed. Social innovation might be also considered by proposals if solutions require social change, new social practices or social ownerships.
Funding Information
The check will normally be done for the coordinator if the requested grant amount is equal to or greater than EUR 500 000, except for:
public bodies (entities established as a public body under national law, including local, regional or national authorities) or international organisations; and
cases where the individual requested grant amount is not more than EUR 60 000 (lowvalue grant).
Expected Outcomes
Projects should contribute to both of the following expected outcomes:
Enhance and expand the implementation of civic participation as well as co-creation in democratic life at scale, including the least engaged communities and categories of the population, at all levels from local to European.
Improve the articulation between deliberative processes and representative institutions in liberal democracies, including through experimental approaches. Research should elucidate how to open up traditional institutions of representative democracy and increase trust in democratic governance through direct participatory processes as well as clear and transparent feedback mechanisms to citizens.
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible for funding, applicants must be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
the Member States of the European Union, including their outermost regions;
the Overseas Countries and Territories (OCTs) linked to the Member States;
eligible non-EU countries:
countries associated to Horizon Europe;
low- and middle-income countries.
For more information, visit https://bit.ly/3tKwh3D