The EU Aid Volunteers initiative brings volunteers and organisations from different countries together to work on humanitarian projects worldwide.
This call aims to fund projects involving the selection, preparation and deployment of EU Aid junior and senior volunteers.
These projects will contribute to strengthening the Union’s capacity to provide needs-based humanitarian aid aimed at strengthening the capacity and resilience of vulnerable and disaster-affected communities in third countries.

 

Objectives
The deployment, apprenticeships and online volunteering opportunities for senior and junior professionals shall contribute to:
– Capacity building of vulnerable or disaster-affected communities in third countries;
– Resilience building and disaster risk management in vulnerable, fragile or disaster-affected countries and forgotten cases;
– Disaster prevention, preparedness, disaster risk reduction and recovery from natural and man-made disasters; including the impacts of climate change;
– Enhancing the link between relief, rehabilitation and development;
– Support to emergency response operations.

 

Activities funded under this call for proposals are expected to achieve the following results:
– Selection, recruitment and deployment of 500 junior/senior professionals to communities in third countries in vulnerable and disaster-affected countries;
– For 100 junior professionals: possibility to take part in apprenticeship placements in Europe before deployment;
– To achieve synergies and complementarity with EU-funded operations in humanitarian aid, civil protection, resilience-building and linking relief, rehabilitation and development in the respective countries/region where EU Aid Volunteers are deployed;
– To communicate the Union’s humanitarian aid principles and the EU Aid Volunteers initiative in line with the Communication Plan of the EU Aid Volunteers initiative.
– To provide opportunities for online volunteering to support or complement project activities.

 

Eligible bodies
All organisations involved in the project will be referred to hereafter as the ‘consortium’.
All applicants involved in applying, and acting as either sending or hosting organisations, must be certified under the EU Aid Volunteers initiative.
The organisation applying on behalf of all applicants (coordinator) must be a certified EU sending organisation under the EU Aid Volunteers initiative.
The remaining applicants are either certified sending or certified hosting organisations under the EU Aid Volunteers initiative.
Project proposals involving sending and hosting organisations that have applied for certification before the deadline for submitting applications it is highly recommended to apply for certification by 11 June 2020, 17:00 CET.
A project consortium must involve at least two certified sending organisations from two different countries and two certified hosting organisations.
Non-certified organisations specialised in any areas relevant to the objectives or the actions of the project may be involved as partner in the consortium in order to contribute with their specific expertise

 

Organisations
– non-governmental not-for-profit organisations formed in accordance with the law of a Member State and whose headquarters are located within the Union; or
– public law bodies of a civilian character governed by the law of a Member State; or
– the International Federation of National Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.

Only legal entities established in the the Member States of the European Union (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, the United Kingdom) are eligible to apply.

 

Eligible activities
– Selection, preparation and deployment of junior and senior EU Aid Volunteers to humanitarian aid projects in the area of disaster preparedness, disaster risk reduction and LRRD in vulnerable and disaster-affected communities in third countries;
– Communication activities in compliance with the Communication Plan of the EU Aid Volunteers initiative;

Activities may include:
– Apprenticeship placements for junior volunteers in EU sending organisations;
– Online volunteering opportunities, via the EU Aid Volunteers Platform, managed by the Commission, to support the actions of the EU Aid Volunteers;
– Support for emergency response operations;
– Capacity building of vulnerable, disaster-affected communities and local organisations;
– Capacity building of hosting organisations. 

Project activities may include:
– information, communication and public awareness;
– hazard, risk analysis and early warning;
– contingency planning and preparedness for response;
– protection of livelihoods, assets and small scale mitigation works. 
 

Eligible candidate volunteers should 
– have a minimum age of 18 years;
– be citizens of the European Union; and
– third-country nationals who are long-term residents in a Member State.
– be junior professionals, in particular, recent graduates with less than five years’ professional experience and less than five years’ experience in humanitarian action; or
– be senior professionals with five years’ professional experience in positions of responsibility or expert positions.

 

Eligible activity venue 
EU Aid Volunteers shall not be deployed in the theatre of international and non-international armed conflicts.
An indicative list of third countries for deployments 2020 has been defined prior to the call according to a needs assessment methodology similar to that for humanitarian aid actions but excluding areas with ongoing armed conflict. 
This list can be found here, it can be modified due to the events that could endanger the security and safety of volunteers.

Apprenticeship placements for junior volunteers prior to deployment must take place in one of the sending organisations’ offices participating in the project, where possible in a country other than the country of origin of the EU Aid Volunteer.
 

Eligible implementation period
Projects start at the earliest when the last party signs the grant agreement and can last for a maximum duration of 24 months. Within the project duration:

• Deployment placements of EU Aid Volunteers can range between 1 month as a minimum and 18 months as a maximum;
• In the case of support to emergency operations, deployment of EU Aid Volunteers can range between 2 weeks as a minimum and 3 months as a maximum;
• Apprenticeship placements prior to the deployment of junior volunteers can take up to 6 months in one of the participating EU member states.

 

Budget
The total budget earmarked for the co-financing of projects under this call for proposals is estimated at EUR 13 500 000.
The maximum grant allocated to a project will be EUR 1 400 000.
Grant requests below EUR 60 000 will not be considered for funding.

 

Deadline: 1 July 2020, 17:00 CET.

 

Find out more here.

For further support organisations should contact the Education Audiovisual & Culture Executive Agency.