Civil society’s interest in sustainable development has been growing, as has the desire to participate in and design projects that promote environmentally responsible measures and structures that are economically feasible and socially equitable.

The Sustainability On Call initiative was created to meet this need. The initiative was created to help identify, assess and select civil society projects and activities that contribute to the Gulbenkian Sustainable Development Programme goals and that focus on one of the following areas:

Advocacy

To influence the decision-making process;

Pilot projects

To test a solution and adjust it before scaling up;

Awareness-raising

To change the perception of certain target audiences on a specific issue;

Scale-up

Geographic expansion of a proven successful pilot project;

Research-action

To research different solutions and implement the best one or to research a topic to trigger change.

Projects selected in a careful, transparent and objective assessment process must tackle the following objectives measurably and objectively:

• To reduce the ecological footprint of production systems across the value chain through the innovation of production processes and business models and/or acquiring new professional skills.
• To encourage sustainable consumption patterns among Portuguese society using innovative awareness-raising tools and methods and that effect positive behavioural change.

Apllications closed 30 September 2020.