Structured dialogue with people with lived experience of poverty
European Social Fund+ · Grant topic
Summary
Not an R&D call a Polish company can use, by Scindu's rule.
Funds NGO consortia enabling sustained dialogue between policymakers and people experiencing poverty or social exclusion.
- Who can apply
- Companies cannot apply: NGO.
- Amount
- €900K per projectTotal budget €900,000
- Deadline
- 29 Oct 2026 01:00 CETin 5 days
- Status
- Openopened 1 Sept 2026
Machine-classified from the call text; check eligibility at the source.
Description
Expected Outcome:
The primary aim of this action is to create the conditions for a sustained dialogue between policymakers and individuals with lived experience of poverty, ensuring that those directly affected by poverty and/or social exclusion have a real and influential voice in the decisions that shape their lives.
A core objective is to empower participants by providing them with the tools, confidence, and platforms needed to engage effectively in discussions on challenges related to combating poverty and social inclusion. This will come together with building trust and breaking down barriers between institutions and marginalised communities. The action will create a more inclusive and respectful exchange, where power imbalances are acknowledged and mitigated giving participants a clearer understanding of how policies are formed.
Finally, the action will champion intersectionality: efforts will be made to amplify the voices of the most marginalised groups, ensuring that policies account for the diverse and overlapping challenges they face. By doing so, the initiative aims to create more equitable and inclusive solutions; ones that reflect the complexities of poverty and social exclusion.
Scope:
This call for proposals aims at selecting and financially supporting a consortium consisting of organisations with proven and relevant competence and experience, including at European and/or international level, in facilitating the engagement of people with lived experience of poverty in policy discussions on challenges related to combating poverty and social inclusion.
The consortium should consist of applicants capable of developing active participatory approach for people who have lived experience of poverty and actively contributing to their involvement in the Commission’s structured dialogue.
Who can apply, in detail
- Applicant types
- NGO
- Purpose
- Health and social
- R&D relevance
- 0 of 3
- Poland eligible
- Yes
- Country limit
- Beneficiary consortium members must be EU-level NGO networks or international NGOs headquartered in EU Member States.
- Region
- Any
- Consortium
- Required
- Readiness level (TRL)
- —
- Topics
- Poverty reduction
- Social inclusion
- Participatory policymaking
- Civil society dialogue
Machine-classified from the call text; check eligibility at the source. 23 Oct 2026
Conditions
Typed facts extracted from the source documents by Scindu's grant-data review. Each value keeps its own conditions. Unknown means unstated, not zero or unlimited.
- Applicant restriction
- At least two beneficiary applicants are required. Every consortium member must be an EU-level NGO network or an INGO headquartered in an EU Member State. At least two members must each demonstrate relevant EU-policy dialogue experience and have national members/branches in at least seven EU Member States; collectively, consortium members must cover all 27 Member States.
See also the same page: two members must meet experience and 7-Member-State branch/member criteria; collective coverage must span all 27 Member States. Affiliates do not count toward minimum applicants.
- Applicant type
- Applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must be legal entities, public or private, established in EU Member States or eligible listed EEA/ESF+-associated countries, and be non-profit organisations (public or private). Natural persons are ineligible except self-employed sole traders whose business has no separate legal personality; IGOs are ineligible and INGOs may be eligible.
Country association/eligibility lists and legal validation details were not independently opened; rely on the call fiche and verify current country status at application.
- Application restriction
- Submit electronically through the Funding & Tenders Portal using Submission System forms; Part A, Part B, standard CVs for core project team, last-year activity reports, a list of relevant projects from the last three years, a consortium experience annex, a combined all-27-Member-State coverage annex, and the participation-preparation methodology are required. Detailed budget calculator is not applicable. Part B is limited to 50 pages; extra pages are not considered.
The mandatory documents appear on PDF p.13; electronic submission and 50-page Part B limit are also in this captured page.
- Consortium required
- Yes
- Eligible project scope
- The funded activities carried out by beneficiaries must cover the call’s stated bundle: disseminate the Commission’s calls for expressions of interest and accessible materials (including essential content in at least 24 official EU languages); provide candidate assistance and preparation/introduction meetings; facilitate online participation if Commission meetings are remote; assist participants and cover/organise their travel, accommodation and subsistence; establish national/regional participation hubs with at least two thematic meetings and two horizontal-skills workshops per year; summarise/translate meeting documents; prepare a multi-level participation toolkit; establish participant communications/document-sharing channel; and run a campaign against poverty stigma and hostile narratives.
The list is continued on PDF pp.9–10; activity frequency/conditional cases and exact tasks are preserved in the cited text. Activities are not a general authorization for arbitrary personnel costs.
- Other condition
- Indicative call opening: 1 September 2026; deadline: 29 October 2026 at 17:00 Brussels time (CET).
Opening and evaluation/award dates are explicitly indicative. The stated deadline is in Brussels time.
- Other condition
- Evaluation is scored out of 100: Relevance 25/35, Project design and implementation 20/30, Project team/cooperation 10/15, Impact 15/20; overall threshold is 70. Both each individual threshold and the total threshold must be passed to be considered within available budget.
The criterion maximums and combined total are in PDF pp.19–20; passing thresholds does not guarantee award and is subject to available budget.
- Other condition
- Financial support to third parties is not allowed.
- Other condition
- The call expects to fund one project.
Expectation only; available-budget and evaluation qualifications apply.
- Expected project duration, maximum
- 36
Normal range is 30–36 months; justified extensions may be made through amendment.
- Expected project duration, minimum
- 30
Normal range is 30–36 months; justified extensions may be made through amendment.
Amounts and costs
- Indicative budget
- €900,000
Topic budget as stated in the portal's budget table. Lump-sum and per-project limits are in the call conditions.
- Call allocation
- €900,000
Estimated total call allocation, subject to final adoption of 2027 Work Programme; call may award less or redistribute. Expected one project.
- Eligible cost
- Budget-based mixed actual-cost grant, with actual-cost, unit-cost and flat-rate elements. Eligible categories listed for this call include personnel (employees, direct-contract natural persons, seconded persons, SME owners/natural person beneficiaries, volunteers), subcontracting, purchases (travel/subsistence, equipment, other goods/works/services), and indirect costs.
This is a call-level cost-category list, not evidence of specific mandatory or eligible job titles/recruitment. The grant reimburses only eligible costs actually incurred under the Grant Agreement.
- Eligible cost limit
- 7
Percentage base excludes volunteer costs and any specifically exempted direct-cost categories.
- Funding intensity
- 95
Funding rate to be fixed in the Grant Agreement; call describes 95%.
- Expected project funding, up to
- €900,000
Expected request amount, not a binding award ceiling: the fiche expressly permits other requested amounts, and the award may be lower.
Source documents
Call facts
- Opens
- 1 Sept 2026
- Deadline model
- Single-stage
- Programme
- European Social Fund+ · 2021 - 2027
- Call
- ESF-2027-PEP-ENGAGEMENT · Structured dialogue with people with lived experience of poverty
- Types of action
- ESF Project Grants
- Source
- ec.europa.eu
- Checked
- 23 Oct 2026
- Portal updated
- 18 Sept 2026
- Review status
- Partial review
- Reviewed
- 22 Oct 2026
This is a summary of the source page, not the official text. Eligibility, conditions and the submission system are at the source.