Open Call for AU-EU Youth Lab

Deadline: 13-Jun-2023

The European Commission (EC) is inviting proposals for AU-EU Youth Lab that contributes to the empowerment of youth in Africa and to strengthen their involvement in active, meaningful and innovative ways.

The specific objectives are:

• Lot1 -AU-EU Youth Voices Lab
  • To ensure that policy-making and decision-making processes around the Africa-EU Partnership are more youth responsive and inclusive and that youth participation and representation is stronger.
  • To enhance the capacity of young people, youth organisations and key stakeholders active around the AU-EU partnership to advocate for young people’s concerns and priorities at cross-continental, continental, regional and national levels.
• Lot2-AU-EU Youth Action Lab
  • To create joint African-European youth-led cooperation activities that pursue long term impact and positive change.These should be supported by the award of small grants to innovative ideas in coordination with pilot dialogue and engagement mechanisms led by young people.

Pillars

• Aligned with the Youth Action Plan, the Lab is guided by three pillars of action:
  • Engage: Further improve youth participation and inclusion in the AU-EU Partnership, in decision-making and in policy-making processes at all levels.
  • Empower: Provide youth with skills and tools they need to thrive.
  • Connect: Support joint youth-led cooperation initiatives by youth in Africa, Europe and the Diaspora, in line with the priorities of the AU-EU partnership.

Funding Information

• The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 13 000 000. The Contracting Authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.
• The indicative amount allocated to:
  • Lot1 (pillar 1: youth participation & representation and pillar 2: youth empowerment and capacity building) is EUR 7 000 000.
  • Lot2 (pillar 3: youth-led initiatives) is EUR 6 000 000.
• Size of grants
• Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts of total eligible costs of the action:
  • Lot 1
    • Minimum amount: EUR 6 800 000
    • Maximum amount: EUR 7 000 000
  • Lot 2
    • Minimum amount: EUR 5800 000
    • Maximum amount: EUR 6 000 000
• Duration
  • The initial planned duration of an action may not be lower than 42 months nor exceed 48 months.

Eligibility Criteria

• In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:
  • be a legal person and
  • be non-profit making and
  • be a specific type of organisation such as: non-governmental organisation (NGO) , public sector operator, international (inter-governmental) organisation as defined by Article 156 of the EU Financial Regulation and
  • be established in  a Member State of the European Union or Member State of the African Union.
• This obligation does not apply to international organisationsand
• be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the co-applicant(s) and affiliated entity(ies), if any, not acting as an intermediary and be able to demonstrate significant experience of activities in the field of youth participation, representation and empowerment, preferably with support to grassroots youth organisations and initiatives, implemented at global, regional and country level and proven experience on Africa-Europe cooperationand only for lot 2: proven experience in direct financial support.
• In addition to the categories referred, the following lead applicantsare also eligible:
  • Youth organisations and youth associations;
  • Education and training bodies and institutions;
  • Research centres, international research fora, international training fora, business incubators and innovation technology parks.
• Co-applicant(s)
  • Co-applicants participate in designing and implementing the action, and the costs they incur are eligiblein the same way as those incurred by the lead applicant.
  • Co-applicants must satisfy the eligibility criteria as applicable to the lead applicant himself.
  • Co-applicants must sign the mandate.
  • If awarded the grant contract, the co-applicant(s) (if any) will become beneficiary(ies) in the action (together with the coordinator).
  • In addition, please note that contracts cannot be awarded to or signed with applicants included in thelists of EU restrictive measures.
• Affiliated Entities
• The lead applicant and its co-applicant(s) may act with affiliated entity(ies).
• Only the following entities may be considered as affiliated entities to the lead applicant and/or to co-applicant(s):
  • Only entities having a structural link with the applicants (i.e. the lead applicant or a co-applicant), inparticular a legal or capital link.
• This structural link encompasses mainly two notions:
  • Control, as defined in Directive 2013/34/EU on the annual financial statements, consolidatedfinancial statements and related reports of certain types of undertakings:
• Entities affiliated to an applicant may hence be:
  • Entities directly or indirectly controlled by the applicant (daughter companies or first-tiersubsidiaries). They may also be entities controlled by an entity controlled by the applicant(granddaughter companies or second-tier subsidiaries) and the same applies to further tiers ofcontrol;
  • Entities directly or indirectly controlling the applicant (parent companies). Likewise, they maybe entities controlling an entity controlling the applicant;
  • Entities under the same direct or indirect control as the applicant (sister companies).
• Membership, i.e. the applicant is legally defined as a e.g. network, federation, association in whichthe proposed affiliated entities also participate or the applicant participates in the same entity (e.g.network, federation, association,…) as the proposed affiliated entities.

For more information, visit EC.