The European Cultural Foundation announced the second window for applications to its Culture of Solidarity Fund, launched earlier this year in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Fund supports imaginative cultural initiatives - big or small - that, in the midst of the global health and economic crisis, reinforce European solidarity and the idea of Europe as a shared public space. The fund seeks to nourish a culture of European solidarity during the pandemic and beyond.

The Fund is open to individuals, collectives and organisations from all sectors and civil society at large with initiatives and ideas that:

• Expand the notion of Europe as an open and shared public space for everybody in times of inward-looking and national decision-making;
• Express and act in hands-on solidarity with people and communities across closed borders;
• Share experiences, knowledge, skills, stories, ideas and resources of solidarity across Europe, especially outside mainstream public attention;
• Sustain people-to-people interaction beyond European borders and in times of travel restrictions and social distancing;
• Maintain cultural life and social experiences with a European outreach in times of home lockdown and prepare the ground for a cultural revival of Europe after the crisis;  
• Develop new approaches in operations of cultural work and new alliances across sectors to deal with the current challenges imposed by the crisis.              

The Fund has grants available in three amounts:

• €5 000 – 15 000 (5 - 10 awarded projects per submission round)
• €15 000 – 30 000 (2 - 3 awarded projects per submission round)
• €30 000 – 50 000 (1 - 2 awarded projects per submission round)

The Fund will pay special attention to proposals coming from:

• regions where so far there is little to no emergency funding made available for the cultural and creative sector institutions;

• people and communities that face discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, (cultural) background, people with disabilities and members of the LGBTQ+ community.

Grants can be used for financing a wide range of activities ranging from seed money for entirely new initiatives and (co-)funding for scaling up already existing ideas to European level. They can cover material costs, office costs, online co-working and communication tools, production costs, but also expert fees and staff costs. 

The Fund will open several application windows throughout the year and will distribute funding equally over all windows. The second round for applications opens on 22 June 2020 and closes on 14 July 2020, 13:00 CET. 

For application, rules and more information, please visit the website of the Culture of Solidarity Fund.