The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, in partnership with the Bissaya Barreto Foundation, was selected by the Financial Mechanism for the European Economic Area to manage an €11 million programme for civil society projects within the framework of the Active Citizens Fund/EEA Grants, financed by the state resources of Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein. The announcement was made in late November 2017 and the preparatory work for launching the programme and its first tenders in 2018 is already underway.

Portuguese non-governmental organisations (NGOs) are invited to participate in the online consultation process (27 December 2017-12 January 2018) undertaken by the Calouste Gulbenkian-Bissaya Barreto Foundations so as to better tailor the programme to its needs and ambitions.

Annual tenders

With total funding of €11 million, the new programme is due for implementation over the next seven years, through to 2024, and seeks to support projects that strengthen civil society and active citizenship and that empower the most vulnerable social groups. The projects for development are to fall within the following four priority fields of intervention: Democracy, civic participation and transparency; Human Rights, equality in treatment and non-discrimination; Social Justice and the inclusion of vulnerable groups; NGO action effectiveness and sustainability.

The funding is granted through tenders launched annually between 2018 and 2022, also including cooperation projects with entities from the three financing countries (Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein) and the 14 other state beneficiaries of EEA Grants (Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, and Spain).

Following the Active Citizenship Programme (2013-2016), this is the second time the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation has been selected by tender to manage EEA Grants funding destined for Portuguese civil society. The application submitted by the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in an unprecedented partnership with the Bissaya Barreto Foundation was selected following the tender launched by the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area in July 2017.