Making online spaces safer, more trustworthy and inclusive

Description

1) Objective

They particularly want to support organisations that can address the challenges and opportunities that EU tech regulation creates in order to counter harms to democracy and to build new solutions and alternatives. The Digital Services Act (DSA), because of its goal of “ensuring a safe, predictable and trusted online environment” is considered central in addressing these issues. However, recognising that the different EU regulations (i.e. DMA, GDPR, AI Act etc.), interact with each other and in line with the commitment to core funding, applicants can include activities that are targeting other regulations and addressing the aforementioned issues. Applicants are also invited to reflect on how national level regulations might limit or facilitate the enforcement of the tech regulations they are focusing on.

Civitates welcomes a variety of approaches and activities from potential grantees:

• advocacy towards national level governments on the set-up of DSCs or other relevant national-level authorities;
• research, technical analysis and data collection for advocacy, campaigns and enforcement purposes;
• campaigning and public awareness raising activities to encourage users to enforce their rights under the DSA and other tech regulations;
• campaigning activities that target platforms and/or the European institutions for proper enforcement and better practices, considering the specific national context and issues;

2) Eligibility

Eligible are registered non-profit organisations.

3) Location

Actions must take place in Hungary, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Spain, Romania, and the Netherlands.

4) Budget

The total budget for this call is of €1,600,000. Civitates is looking to support up to ten grantees that will be given flexible, core support of max €160,000 over two years.

5) Application

The open call follows a two-steps approach where applicants are asked to submit a concept note, a budget and basic documents about the organisation. Civitates will shortlist the most promising applications and invite a limited number of organisations to submit full proposals and send additional documentation and information. The deadline for application is 14 March 2025, 11:30 PM (CET).