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  1. An institution, body, office or agency established by or based on the Treaty on European Union and the Treaties establishing the European Communities.

    All education and training facilities for people of different age groups.

    An intergovernmental organization having legal personality under public international law or a specialized agency established by such an international organization. An international organization, the majority of whose members are Member States or Associated Countries and whose main objective is to promote scientific and technological cooperation in Europe, is an International Organization of European Interest.

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  1. Administration & Governance, Institutional Capacity & Cooperation 

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Call key data

Structured dialogue with people with lived experience of poverty

Funding Program

European Social Fund+

Call number

ESF-2027-PEP-ENGAGEMENT

deadlines

Opening
01.09.2026

Deadline
29.10.2026 17:00

Funding rate

95%

Call budget

€ 900,000.00

Estimated EU contribution per project

€ 900,000.00

Link to the call

ec.europa.eu

Link to the submission

ec.europa.eu

Call content

short description

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.

Call objectives

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.

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Expected effects and impacts

To address the challenges and systemic barriers outlined in the Background, projects are expected to contribute to the following results and impact:

  • More inclusive and effective EU policies, in particular by contributing to:
    • Better-targeted interventions: Policies shaped by those directly affected are more likely to address real needs, gaps, and barriers, rather than assumptions.
    • Innovative solutions: People with lived experience may propose practical, low-cost, or community-based approaches that policymakers might overlook.
  • Strengthened public trust and legitimacy, in particular by ensuring:
    • Greater transparency and accountability: Involving affected communities in decision-making can increase trust in the EU and reduce perceptions of top-down, detached policymaking.
    • Reduced stigma: Formal recognition of lived experience in policymaking can help challenge negative stereotypes about people in poverty.
  • Empowerment and capacity building of people with lived experience of poverty, in particular by ensuring:
    • Skill development: participants gain confidence, advocacy skills, and policy literacy, which can improve their employability and civic engagement.
    • Amplified voices of marginalised groups and groups in vulnerable situations, who will gain platforms to influence decisions affecting their lives.
  • A cultural shift in governance, in particular by contributing to:
    • Normalisation of participatory policymaking: the project could set a precedent for EU Member States authorities to adopt similar approaches.
    • Challenging institutional biases.
    • Stronger cross-sector collaboration in EU policymaking.
  • Countering misinformation and hostile narratives on poverty, in particular by dissemination of firsthand accounts which can correct misleading narratives with evidence-based storytelling.

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Expected results

To meet the above-mentioned objectives, the activities funded and carried out by a limited number of beneficiaries, must cover all of the following:

  • Dissemination of the Commission’s calls for expressions of interest for participation of people with lived experience of poverty in the structured dialogue and development of accessible communication materials; in particular, but not only, by:
    • Adaptation of the documents to ensure accessibility, and translation of the essential parts of their content into relevant local languages or dialects (at least into 24 official EU languages);
    • Targeted outreach via community networks, social media platforms and any other channels used by groups in vulnerable situations, including beyond the membership base of the consortium.
  • Facilitating the participation of people with lived experience of poverty in the structured dialogue meetings by:
    • Providing direct assistance/individual guidance to potential candidates to participate in the structured dialogue, for example by organising workshops/individual guidance sessions on how to prepare a high-quality application or setting up a helpline;
    • Preparing people with lived experience of poverty before they engage with policymakers, using a structured methodology that fosters direct dialogue between individuals with lived experience of poverty and policymakers (organisation of ‘introduction meetings’), covering the full cost of organising these introduction meetings (costs of catering, interpretation, facilitators, reasonable accommodation in function of the participants’ needs and other miscellaneous costs, as needed);
    • Online training to facilitate online participation in the structured dialogue meetings (in case any of the meetings is organised by the Commission remotely);
    • Providing any necessary assistance to the participants to the structured dialogue meetings (e.g. covering costs of bringing along a personal assistant) as well as administrative support (preparing the meeting reports).
  • Organising (and covering the costs of) travel, accommodation and subsistence costs (per diem) for all participants of the introduction and structured dialogue meetings.

The travel, accommodation and subsistence should be organised and covered for all the participants of the structured dialogue. The introduction meeting should take place one day before a structured dialogue meeting, so that there is one single travel organised for the participants to attend both an introduction and a structured dialogue meeting one day after the other.

  • Setting up national and regional participation hubs to support the meaningful involvement of people with lived experience of poverty in the Commission’s structured dialogue. The hubs will support outreach, preparation, facilitation, and transmission of participants’ perspectives, thereby strengthening decentralised and inclusive participation. The national and regional participation hubs aim to create communities at national and regional level for people with lived experience of poverty, enabling them to engage more effectively in the structured dialogue at EU level as well as in potential dialogue initiatives at national levels. This should be done particularly, but not only, by:
    • Organising online thematic meetings (at least two per year) to increase the general knowledge of people with lived experience of poverty on the topics on the agenda of the structural dialogue meetings;
    • Organising online (at least two per year) workshops on horizontal topics aiming to increase the civic engagement skills of people with lived experience of poverty, such as basic knowledge of the EU, public speaking, advocacy training, communication, confidence building etc;
    • Dissemination of the structured dialogue meeting minutes in the Member States, at national, regional and local levels.
  • Summarising and translating the documentation ahead of the structured dialogue meetings.
  • Preparing a toolkit/guidance material on the participation of people with lived experience of poverty in policymaking at different levels (EU, national, regional, local), including on how to ensure their meaningful participation.
  • Setting up a channel (mailbox, and/or interactive platform, or any tool that is the most suitable) for:
    • Day to day communication with the participants (and their alternates) to the structured dialogue on topics related to their participation in the introduction meetings and structured dialogue meetings (e.g. travel arrangements);
    • Sharing the translated documentation linked to the meetings.
  • Implementing a communication campaign to combat stigma and hostile narratives on poverty.

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Eligibility Criteria

Regions / countries for funding

Candidate Countries, EEA - European Economic Area, EU Member States
Kosovo (Kosova/Kosovë / Косово)

eligible entities

Education and training institution, International organization, Non-Profit Organisation (NPO) / Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO), Public Body (national, regional and local; incl. EGTCs)

Mandatory partnership

No

Project Partnership

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

  • be legal entities (public or private bodies)
  • be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
  • be non-profit organisations (private or public).

Proposals must be submitted by a consortium of at least 2 applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities):

Each of the applying consortium members must comply with the following requirement:

  • It must be an EU-level network of non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or an international non-governmental organisation (INGO) with headquarters in an EU Member State.

At least 2 applying consortium members must comply with the following requirement:

  • It must demonstrate experience in facilitating direct participation of people with lived experience of/experiencing poverty in EU policymaking by organising dialogues between them and EU policymakers at EU level, and
  • It must have national member organisations or branches in at least seven (7) EU Member States.

The consortium must ensure geographical coverage in all 27 Member States by demonstrating that the consortium members collectively have national members or branches in all 27 EU Member States. This does not mean that all the consortium members must each have national members or branches in all 27 EU Member States. For example, the requirement is met if one organisation covers 20 Member States, and the second covers 7 others, provided that together they cover all 27 Member States.

Specific cases and definitions

Exceptional funding — Entities from countries mentioned in the work programme (if any) are only exceptionally eligible, if the granting authority considers their participation essential for the implementation of the action.

Natural persons — Natural persons are NOT eligible (with the exception of self-employed persons, i.e. sole traders, where the company does not have legal personality separate from that of the natural person).

International organisations — International intergovernmental organisations (IGOs) are NOT eligible. International non-governmental organisations (INGOs) are eligible.

Entities without legal personality — Entities which do not have legal personality under their national law may exceptionally participate, provided that their representatives have the capacity to undertake legal obligations on their behalf, and offer guarantees for the protection of the EU financial interests equivalent to that offered by legal persons.

EU bodies — EU bodies (with the exception of the European Commission Joint Research Centre) can NOT be part of the consortium.

Associations and interest groupings — Entities composed of members may participate as ‘sole beneficiaries’ or ‘beneficiaries without legal personality’.

Social partner organisations — These include notably the European social partner organisations that are consulted in accordance with Article 154 TFEU (for the list, see List of consulted organisations) as well as other European-level social partner organisations that are not included in this list, but who are for example involved in the preparation and launch of European social dialogue at sector level. Social partner organisations without legal personality are eligible provided that the conditions for entities without legal personality (see above) are met.

Countries currently negotiating association agreements — Beneficiaries from countries with ongoing negotiations for participation in the programme (see list of participating countries above) may participate in the call and can sign grants if the negotiations are concluded before grant signature and if the association covers the call (i.e. is retroactive and covers both the part of the programme and the year when the call was launched).

EU restrictive measures — Special rules apply for entities subject to EU restrictive measures under Article 29 of the Treaty on the European Union (TEU) and Article 215 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the EU (TFEU). Such entities are not eligible to participate in any capacity, including as beneficiaries, affiliated entities, associated partners, subcontractors or recipients of financial support to third parties (if any).

EU conditionality measures — Special rules apply for entities subject to measures adopted on the basis of EU Regulation 2020/209215. Such entities are not eligible to participate in any funded role (beneficiaries, affiliated entities, subcontractors, recipients of financial support to third parties, etc). Currently such measures are in place for Hungarian public interest trusts established under the Hungarian Act IX of 2021 or any entity they maintain (see Council Implementing Decision (EU) 2022/2506, as of 16 December 2022)

Additional information

Topics

Demographic Change, European Citizenship, Migration, 
Equal Rights, Human Rights, People with Disabilities, Social Inclusion

Relevance for EU Macro-Region

EUSAIR - EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region, EUSALP - EU Strategy for the Alpine Space, EUSBSR - EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, EUSDR - EU Strategy for the Danube Region

UN Sustainable Development Goals (UN-SDGs)

project duration

between 30 and 36 months

Additional Information

Proposals must be submitted electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System (accessible via the Topic page in the Calls for proposals section). Paper submissions are NOT possible.

Proposals (including annexes and supporting documents) must be submitted using the forms provided inside the Submission System (NOT the documents available on the Topic page — they are only for information).

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 (template to be downloaded from the Portal Submission System, completed, assembled and re-uploaded)
  • mandatory annexes and supporting documents (templates to be downloaded from the Portal Submission System, completed, assembled and re-uploaded):
    • CVs (standard) of core project team
    • activity reports of last year
    • list of previous projects (key projects relating to the subject of the call in the last 3 years) (template available in Part B)
    • an annex with the description of each of the consortium members’ experience in facilitating the direct participation of people with lived experience of/experiencing poverty in EU policymaking by organising dialogues between them and EU policymakers at EU level (see section Consortium composition)
    • an annex demonstrating the combined coverage of all 27 EU Member States by the consortium (see section Consortium composition)
    • description of the methodology of preparing the people with lived experience of poverty to engage with EU policymakers, with the core idea and key methodological pillars outlined.

Proposals are limited to maximum 50 pages (Part B).

Call documents

Call Document ESF-2027-PEP-ENGAGEMENTCall Document ESF-2027-PEP-ENGAGEMENT(506kB)

Contact

ESF+ Programm Österreich
Website

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