CIVIS Call for Student-Led Projects

New opportunities for students of CIVIS universities to develop new collaboration and create new activities! With this call for student-led projects CIVIS empowers students to take an active role in developing student-led experiences within the Alliance, which will foster and facilitate student community building.

Information Session on this Call

An information session will be organised in September to inform all potential applicants on the call and its objectives and answer questions. Even if the date is not settled yet, you can already register here to be informed of the next steps.

Background and Objectives

CIVIS – Europe’s Civic University Alliance is actively seeking student initiatives proposing student-led projects that align with our commitment to interdisciplinary, transdisciplinary, and civically engaged collaborations across our network. 

Student-led initiatives are pivotal additions to the CIVIS educational portfolio, which significantly strengthens our ability to offer a comprehensive range of co-created activities that will foster a strong, transnational community of students within CIVIS Alliance.

This call aims to select proposals that showcase our distinctive attributes — co-creation, challenge-based learning, innovation, civic engagement, and societal connectivity, with a strong focus on the European values.

Who Can Apply?

We warmly invite all CIVIS students to join us in this collaborative endeavour. Your participation will bolster our ongoing commitment to develop and offer enhanced student-led experiences for students within CIVIS, including extra-curricular activities to experience and reflect European commonalities and diversities, as well as supporting co-created on-site and online activities and events on local, European and extra-European issues and challenges.

Applicants must be 

• individual students or groups of students from a CIVIS university (Bachelor’s, Master’s or PhD students/candidates) at the time of application;
• student associations operating inside a CIVIS university or the CIVIS Alliance.

Note: PhD students/candidates may only apply with projects unrelated to any teaching obligations they may have or to a research activity they are paid or receive any other funding for.

Individuals, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and youth organizations outside CIVIS universities may participate as partners, but are not eligible as organizers of projects or to receive funding.

Note: Strategic partner universities in Africa may be included in this call. However, some funding and regulatory constraints apply. Contact your local Institutional Coordinator to explore options (IC; see section “Who to Contact?” below).

What Types of Activities Are Funded?

Student-led projects are defined as extra-curricular activities and initiatives which are initiated, conducted, managed, and implemented by students registered at any CIVIS universities and strategic partners. These projects aim to range on topics related to civic engagement, student academic events as well as student cultural events by promoting the European identity and values. The mission of the student-led initiatives is to create a way through which students, academics and local actors can cooperate with a transdisciplinary approach aimed at developing innovative and inclusive initiatives to drive societal change.

Activities[GH1] can include (but are not limited to) community service projects, civic hackathons, public forums/debates, civic education clubs, conferences, student-led community research projects or cultural/social events.

What Are the Requirements?

Besides being initiated by students, CIVIS Student-Led Projects must:

• be student-oriented
• build upon and promote European values
• be related to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) [https://sdgs.un.org/goals]
• have a transnational dimension

CIVIS Student-Led Projects must also fulfil at least two of the following criteria:

• be organized and carried out by students from at least three CIVIS universities
• be organized by the local CIVIS Ambassadors
• engage students of at least five CIVIS universities
• directly address the current group of CIVIS exchange students at one CIVIS location
• engage with local communities and promote civic engagement
• be related to an activity of the CIVIS Hubs [https://civis.eu/en/teach-and-research/our-hubs]
• be related to a CIVIS Open Lab project [https://civis.eu/en/engage/open-labs]
• promote/celebrate the CIVIS Alliance and support the general goals of the CIVIS Alliance
• be co-created with an academic or a local partner, and relate to local, European or extra-European issues

CIVIS Student-Led Projects must be designed to be achievable with the budget restrictions set out below and should expect to run for no longer than one year. In particular, student-led projects supported by this call should be designed to start at the beginning of 2025 (calendar year) and should be completed by September 30th, 2025. If your project can be repeated in a series annually (or another interval), be sure to watch out for a fast-track approval in subsequent iterations of this call!

Projects may be stand-alone projects, or they may be a part of a larger project with a longer-term aim/objective. In the case of the latter, either a full project following seed funding or a full continuation project may be applied for in a later call for proposals, e.g. there could be annual repetitions of projects like festivals, hackathons, etc.

What Is the Funding Scheme and what Are Eligible Costs?

You may apply for two types of funding for your proposal:

• a fixed amount of 1.000 Euros: this a seed fund for student-led projects to facilitate the creation a full project;
• a maximum amount of 10.000 Euros: this is for projects with a larger scope and for which a budget detailing the cost of the planned student-led project must be included.

If your proposed budget project exceeds this amount, consider splitting your project into smaller, achievable phases. Another option is to obtain co-funding from another source, as long as you ensure the project is not ‘double funded’ by European funds. Your university’s Institutional Coordinator can help preparing your budget (see section “Who to Contact?” below).

Eligible costs include (must be directly linked to objectives of the student-led project):

• mobility costs (for meetings or other project-related travel);
• expenses for publicity, communication and dissemination (e.g. posters, flyers, other publications);
• expenses for activities, e.g. catering that is appropriate to the event, according to each university’s policies;
• other expenses in line with CIVIS and/or local disbursement regulations – contact your local IC if you have any questions or doubts.

Ineligible costs / activities include:

• direct transfer of funds to third parties (outside the university)
• subcontracting of services to third parties (outside the university)
• purchase of equipment
• … other restrictions may apply, please ask your local IC!

Important: Talk to your local Institutional Coordinator what is possible or not possible in your country/university!

Funds will be received through the home university and you will need to comply with the local national legislation and your university’s processes. For groups of students from more than one university, the draft budget shall include a distribution of the applied-for funding among the universities involved.

Attention: If your project is part of a larger project that also receives funding from another source (co-funding), it may run into the issue of “double funding”. Your local Institutional Coordinator (IC; see section “Who to Contact?” below) will help you to determine if this is the case. Projects should have a very clear agenda and defined outcomes to minimize this danger.

Who Offers Guidance & Support?

For each project, some mentoring and support will be provided, based on the specific needs of the project. Also, CIVIS will be involved through its student structure, the CIVIS Global Student Council, who will both endorse and support the selected projects.

As a rule, CIVIS participants in Student-Led Projects can rely on:

• local Institutional Coordinators (ICs) who will support the administration of student-led projects, in particular the planning and administration of the budget
• CIVIS communication channels to share their project communication 
• standard mobility procedures which are supported as usual at each university
• Global Student Council, which will endorse all projects o the 
• CIVIS Open Labs coordinators, if applicable, as well as other relevant CIVIS members and groups
• structural support provided by the standard CIVIS structure for any CIVIS activity, e.g. for mobility and communication needs (via the ICs)

How to Apply?

STEP 1: Consult the CIVIS Institutional Coordinator (IC) at your university about your initiative before submitting it (see “Who to Contact?” section below); notify them of your intention to submit a proposal. Further information will be linked on this website as it becomes available – watch this space for updates!

STEP 2: Submit your proposal using this online form. For the proposed budget, download this form, fill it in and upload it when asked to do so during the submission process.

The submission deadline is October 31st, 2024.

What Happens Next?

EVALUATION: Your proposal will be reviewed by a dedicated panel composed of students, academic and professional staff selected across CIVIS teams. The evaluation will focus on the project’s contribution to the overall CIVIS Alliance project, as well as on its feasibility in terms of budget, content and objectives.

RESULTS: The assessment panel will submit its recommendations first to CIVIS Global Student Council for endorsement, then to the CIVIS Steering Committee for final validation and budget approval.

FOLLOW UP: If your proposal is validated, you will be required to report on your activity and its implementation. In particular, a financial and a mobility report will be required.

What Is the Timeline?

• 1 September 2024: Call opens. Proposals should be submitted through the CIVIS platform by using this form with all required documentation (in particular, the proposed budget plan) and endorsements from any participating institutions.
• 31 October 2024: Submission deadline.
• November 2024: Evaluation period.
• December 2024: Results and detailed planning phase. We will work with you to make sure your project plan is feasible and we will agree on the final budget, outcome, milestones and timeline of your project.
• January 2025 to September 2026: Implementation of selected projects.

Advance Notice: Depending on budget availability after the first call, two further calls are anticipated on the following dates:

• 2^nd CIVIS Student-Led Project Call: call open November 1^st, 2024 until January 31^st, 2025, for projects to be completed by March 31^st, 2026;
• 3^rd CIVIS Student-Led Project Call: call open February 15^th, 2025 until April 30^th, 2025, for projects to be completed by September 30^th, 2026.

Who to Contact?

General contacts about the call:

• General Inquiries: student-call@lists.civis.eu
• Global Student Council: student@lists.civis.eu 

CIVIS Institutional Coordinators (ICs)

Here is a list of the Institutional Coordinators (ICs) at the CIVIS universities (as of July 7th, 2024):

[GH1]If / When available, add link to a relevant CIVIS page (under construction by CommUnit, as far as we understand).