How do European grants work?

Every seven years, the European Commission sets out priorities and objectives to reach before the period finishes. The new programming period starts in 2014 and will end in 2020.

Firstly, the European Commission decides the “Community Strategic Guidelines and Policies”. These priorities and objectives will have to be followed during the seven next years by the Member States and by every organisation applying for a European grant. For the 2014-2020 period, these objectives are described under the EUROPE 2020 strategy, which aims to promote a smart, sustainable and inclusive growth and will run until 2020.

In order to implement these guidelines, the EU co-finances projects through co-financing European programmes covering many themes (i.e. youth, culture, research and innovation, transnational cooperation, etc.). Each European programme includes three levels:

- 1st level: framework programmes according to the theme

- 2nd level: specific programme within the framework programme

- 3rd level: axis and priorities within the specific programme

There are about 40 European co-financing programmes which represent about 40 possibilities for your organisation to get a grant.

Each co-financing programme has its own calls for proposals for every specific programme. The applicants can submit their project prior to a specific deadline as advertised on the programme's website.