Capacity building in the field of sport

1. Eligible countries: as described in the Call document.

EU Member States participate fully in all actions of the Erasmus+ Programme. In addition, in accordance with article 19 of the Erasmus+ Regulation, the following third countries are associated to the programme:

• members of the European Free Trade Association (EFTA) which are members of the European Economic Area (EEA): Norway, Iceland, Liechtenstein;

• acceding countries, candidate countries and potential candidates: Republic of North Macedonia, Republic of Türkiye and Republic of Serbia.

The EU Member States and the above mentioned third countries associated to the programme will be hereafter called “EU Member States and third countries associated to the Programme”.

In addition, in accordance with article 20 of the Regulation, legal entities from third countries non-associated to the Programme can be eligible in Erasmus+ actions in duly justified cases and in the Union interest (hereafter called “third countries not associated to the Programme”).

2. Eligibility and admissibility conditions: as described in the Call document.

Eligibility conditions

Who can apply?

In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities, if applicable) must:

- be legal entities (public or private bodies)

- be active in the field of sport

- be established in an EU Member State or third country associated to the Programme or in third country not associated to the Programme from Region 1 (Western Balkans) or Region 2 (Neighbourhood East)*

The coordinator of the consortium must be a non-for-profit organisation.

Such organisations can, for example, be: 

- a public body in charge of sport at local, regional or national level;

- a sport organisation at local, regional, national, European or international level;

- a National Olympic Committee or National Sport confederation;

- an organisation representing the 'sport for all' movement;

- an organisation active in the field of physical activity promotion;

- an organisation representing the active leisure sector.

* Organisations from Belarus are not eligible to participate in this action. Organisations from Armenia and Azerbaijan are eligible to participate, but not as coordinators.

Consortium composition

Capacity-building projects are transnational and involve at least 4 organisations from minimum 3 countries:

- at least 1 organisation from 2 different EU Member States and third countries associated to the Programme and

- at least 2 organisations from at least 1 eligible third country not associated to the Programme from Region 1 (Western Balkans) or Region 2 (Neighborhood East). Organisations from Region 1 and Region 2 cannot participate in the same proposal (i.e. partnerships including Regions 1 and 2 are not eligible)

The number of organisations from EU Member States and third countries associated to the Programme cannot be higher than the number of organisations from third countries not associated to the Programme. Affiliated entities and associated partners do not count for the consortium composition.

Geographical location (venue of the activities)

The activity must take place in the countries of the organisations participating in the activity except in duly justified cases related to the objectives of the action.

In addition,:

- activities can also take place at the seat of an Institution of the European Union, even if in the project there are no participating organisations from the country that hosts the Institution.

- activities involving sharing and promotion of results can also take place at relevant thematic transnational events/conferences in EU Member States or third countries associated to the Programme or third countries not associated to the Programme. 

Duration of the project

Capacity-building projects should normally last 12, 24 or 36 months. The duration must be chosen at application stage, based on the objective of the project and on the type of activities foreseen over time. Extensions are possible, if duly justified and through an amendment of the grant agreement.

Admissibility conditions

Applications must be sent no later than the deadline for submitting applications as indicated in the call.

The applications must be readable and accessible.

Applications must be complete containing all parts and mandatory annexes. Only clerical errors can be corrected after the submission deadline upon request of the managing agency for duly justified cases.

For actions managed by the Executive Agency, applications must be submitted electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/portal/screen/home. Applications (including annexes and supporting documents) must be submitted using the forms provided in the Submission System.

Proposals must be complete and contain all the requested information and all required annexes and supporting documents:

- Application Form Part A — contains administrative information about the participants (future coordinator, beneficiaries and affiliated entities) and the summarised budget for the project (to be filled in directly online)

- Application Form Part B — contains the technical description of the project (to be downloaded from the Portal Submission System, completed and then assembled and re-uploaded)

- The Detailed Budget Table (to be downloaded from the Portal Submission System, completed and then assembled and re-uploaded)

Funding rules

This action follows a lump sum funding model. The amount of the single lump sum contribution will be determined for each grant based on the estimated budget of the action proposed by the applicant. The granting authority will fix the lump sum of each grant based on the proposal, evaluation result, funding rates and the maximum grant amount set in the call.

The EU grant per project should vary between EUR 100.000 and EUR 200.000. 

How is the project lump sum determined?

Applicants must fill in a detailed budget table according to the application form, taking into account the following points:

- The budget should be detailed as necessary by beneficiary/-ies and organized in coherent work packages (for example divided into ‘project management’, ‘training’, ‘organization of events’, ‘mobility preparation and implementation’, ‘communication and dissemination’, ‘quality assurance’, etc.);

- The proposal must describe the activities covered by each work package;

- Applicants must provide in their proposal a breakdown of the estimated costs showing the share per work package (and, within each work package, the share assigned to each beneficiary and affiliated entity);

- Costs described can cover staff costs, travel and subsistence costs, equipment costs and subcontracting as well as other costs (such as dissemination of information, publishing or translation).

Proposals will be evaluated according to the standard evaluation procedures with the help of internal and/or external experts. The experts will assess the quality of the proposals, against the requirements defined in the call and the expected impact, quality and efficiency of the action.

Following the proposal evaluation, the authorising officer will establish the amount of the lump sum, taking into account the findings of the assessment carried out. The co-financing rate of 80% will be applied to the total estimated eligible costs determined after evaluation

The grant parameters (maximum grant amount, etc.) will be fixed in the Grant Agreement.

The project achievements will be evaluated on the outcomes completed. The funding scheme would allow putting focus on the outputs rather than the inputs, thereby placing emphasis on the quality and level of achievement of measurable objectives.

More details are described in the model Grant Agreement available in the Funding and Tender Opportunities Portal (FTOP). 

3. Evaluation

Evaluation criteria, scoring, threshold and process are described in the Call document.

Relevance of the project (maximum score 30 points)

- The relevance of the proposal to the objectives of the Action;

- The proposal is relevant for the respect and promotion of shared EU values, such as respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, as well as fighting any sort of discrimination.

- The extent to which:

        - the objectives are clearly defined, realistic and address issues relevant to the participating organisations and target groups;

        - the proposal is innovative and/or complementary to other initiatives already carried out by the participating organisations;

        - the capacity-building activities are clearly defined and aim at reinforcing the capacities of the participating organisations.

Quality of the project design and implementation (maximum score 20 points)

- The clarity, completeness and quality of the work programme, including appropriate phases for preparation, implementation, monitoring, evaluation and dissemination;

- The appropriateness and quality of the methodology proposed for addressing the needs identified;

- The consistency between project objectives and activities proposed;

- Quality and effectiveness of the work plan, including the extent to which the resources assigned to work packages are in line with their objectives and deliverables;

- The quality of the non-formal learning methods proposed, if any;

- The existence and relevance of quality control measures to ensure that the project implementation is of high quality, completed in time and on budget;

- The extent to which the project is cost-effective and allocates appropriate resources to each activity. 

Quality of the partnership and the cooperation arrangements (maximum score 20 points)

- The extent to which:

        - the project involves an appropriate mix of complementary participating organisations with the necessary profile, experience and expertise to successfully deliver all aspects of the project;

        - the distribution of responsibilities and tasks demonstrates the commitment and active contribution of all participating organisations.

        - The existence of effective mechanisms for coordination and communication between the participating organisations, as well as with other relevant stakeholders.

Impact (maximum score 30 points)

- The quality of measures for evaluating the outcomes of the project;

- The potential impact of the project:

       - on participants and participating organisations, during and after the project lifetime;

       - outside the organisations and individuals directly participating in the project, at local, regional, national and/or international levels.

- The quality of the dissemination plan: the appropriateness and quality of measures aimed at sharing the outcomes of the project within and outside the participating organisations;

- If relevant, the proposal describes how the materials, documents and media produced will be made freely available and promoted through open licences, and does not contain disproportionate limitations;

- The quality of the plans for ensuring the sustainability of the project: its capacity to continue having an impact and producing results after the EU grant has been used up. 

To be considered for funding, proposals must score at least 60 points. Furthermore, they must score at least half of the maximum score points in each of the categories of the award criteria mentioned above.

Ex-aequo proposals will be prioritised according to the scores they have been awarded for the award criterion ‘Relevance’. When these scores are equal, priority will be based on their scores for the criterion ‘Quality of the project design and implementation’ . When these scores are equal, priority will be based on their scores for the criterion ‘Impact’.

If this does not allow to determine the priority, a further prioritisation can be done by considering the overall project portfolio and the creation of positive synergies between projects, or other factors related to the objectives of the call. These factors will be documented in the panel report.

As a general rule, and within the limits of existing national and European legal frameworks, results should be made available as open educational resources (OER) as well as on relevant professional, sectorial or competent authorities’ platforms. The proposal will describe how data, materials, documents and audio-visual and social media activity produced will be made freely available and promoted through open licences, and does not contain disproportionate limitations.

4. Indicative timetable for evaluation and grant agreement: as described in the Call document.

• Publication of the call: 28 November 2023

• Deadline for submitting applications: 5 March 2024, 17:00 (Brussels Time)

Indicative timeline for notification of the grant award decision and signature of the grant agreement:

The notification of the award decision will take place, indicatively, 6 months after the submission deadline and the signature of the grant agreement will take place, indicatively, 9 months from the submission deadline.