Call for project grant applications for 2025–2028 opens for Finnish civil society organisations
The Ministry for Foreign Affairs has opened a call for applications for development cooperation project grants available for Finnish civil society organisations (CSOs). Applications will be accepted from 22 January to 8 March 2024. During that time, applications can be submitted for discretionary government grants in 2025–2028. Grants are awarded from the development cooperation appropriations for Finnish CSOs’ development cooperation.
Project grant for Finnish CSOs is part of the implementation of Finland’s development policy and of the Government Programme. CSOs’ development cooperation projects increase the diversity and effectiveness of Finland’s development cooperation. With project grant, Finnish organisations and their partners strengthen the capacity of civil society actors in developing countries and support the civic space, democratic development and an enabling environment for civil societies.
The call for project grant applications is open from 22 January to 8 March 2024. This is the first application round to be conducted in the central government’s new common Applyforgrants.fi (Link to another website.)service. A notice for a call for applications, the standard terms and conditions, the assessment criteria for the application round and application instructions are available at the service website. Technical instructions on how to use the service are available at the State Treasury’s website.
In future, the terms and conditions for project grant will comply with the Ministry of Finance’s new standard terms and conditions for government grants. A new feature of this call for applications is that own contribution can include public funding granted by non-ODA countries.
The applications for discretionary government grants will be assessed on the basis of the minimum requirements, qualitative criteria, and an overall consideration in accordance with the Government Programme. The applications that meet the minimum requirements will proceed to the qualitative assessment and the overall consideration. The Ministry for Foreign Affairs is not obliged to award a government grant to all applicants or to award a grant equal to the amount indicated by an applicant. A maximum appropriation of EUR 25 million for 2025–2028 is planned for the application round.
Applicants may submit questions related to the application round to the Unit for Civil Society until 9 February 2024 by sending email to hanketuki.um@gov.fi. The responses will be published on the Foreign Ministry’s project grant website by 16 February 2024.