01 Proposal · Page Limits and Layout Proposals are limited to a maximum of 70 pages for Part B (Technical Description). The application must be readable, accessible and printable. Formatting requirements include: minimum font size Arial 9 points, page size A4, and margins (top, bottom, left and right) of at least 15 mm (not including headers and footers). Supporting documents can be provided as annexes and do not count towards the page limit. Excess pages will be automatically made invisible and will not be considered by evaluators.
02 Eligible · Countries for Participation Applicants must be established in one of the eligible countries. Eligible countries include: EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories - OCTs), listed EEA countries, and countries associated to the EU4Health Programme. The specific list of participating countries is available in the call documentation. Beneficiaries and affiliated entities must register in the Participant Register before submitting the proposal and will be validated by the Central Validation Service.
03 NGO · Eligibility Criteria Applicants must be legal entities (private bodies) and non-governmental organisations (NGOs) that comply with specific criteria: (1) Non-for-profit: organised and operated for collective, public or social benefit with revenues exceeding expenses committed to the organisation's purpose; (2) Independence from industry and commerce: not more than 30% of core funding from private sector donors, or if 30-50%, demonstrating private sector donors do not exercise influence; (3) Legal independence: proof of absence of direct or indirect holding of decision-making powers by another entity; (4) Absence of conflict of interest in board/governing body; (5) Active in public health area pursuing at least one specific objective of Regulation (EU) 2021/522; (6) Active at Union level in at least half of Member States with balanced geographical coverage; (7) Playing an effective role at Union level; (8) Justifying why EU financial support is necessary. Only applications by single applicants (single beneficiaries) are allowed.
04 Financial · and Operational Capacity Requirements Applicants must have stable and sufficient resources to successfully implement projects and contribute their share. Financial capacity will be assessed based on documents uploaded during grant preparation (profit and loss account, balance sheet, business plan, audit reports). Analysis uses neutral financial indicators (liquidity, financial autonomy, solvency, profitability) and considers dependency on EU funding, deficit and revenue history. Public bodies, Member State organisations and international organisations are exempted from financial capacity checks. If individual requested grant amount is not more than EUR 60,000, financial capacity check may not be required. Operational capacity requires know-how, qualifications and resources to implement projects, assessed through staff profiles, consortium descriptions, activity reports and list of previous key projects (last 4 years). Exclusion grounds include: bankruptcy, winding up, breach of tax/social security obligations, grave professional misconduct, fraud, corruption, terrorism-related crimes, child labour, human trafficking, significant deficiencies in EU contract compliance, irregularities, circumvention of legal obligations, and resistance to investigations or audits.
05 Submission · and Evaluation Procedures Proposals must be submitted electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System before the call deadline (19 January 2027, 17:00 CET). Paper submissions are not accepted. The submission process is one-stage with one-step evaluation. After submission, proposals are checked for admissibility and eligibility. Admissible and eligible proposals are evaluated by an independent evaluation committee (potentially assisted by external experts) against operational capacity and award criteria, then ranked by scores. Evaluation follows: individual evaluation (at least 3 evaluators), consensus group discussion, and panel review. Proposals passing individual thresholds AND overall threshold are considered for funding within available budget limits. Evaluation results are communicated in March 2027, with grant agreement signature targeted for end of April 2027. Successful proposals are invited for grant preparation; others are rejected or placed on reserve list.
06 Award · Criteria and Scoring Thresholds Proposals are evaluated against four award criteria with a maximum of 100 points total. Criterion 1 - Relevance (30 points): clarity and consistency of project objectives and planning; alignment with call themes and priorities; contribution to EU strategic and legislative context; justification of financial support necessity; European/trans-national dimension; impact for multiple countries; potential for mutual trust and cross-border cooperation. Criterion 2a - Quality: Project design and implementation (30 points): quality, logical links between problems/needs/solutions, methodology, management, procedures, timetable, risk management, monitoring/evaluation, feasibility within timeframe, cost effectiveness. Criterion 2b - Quality: Project team and cooperation arrangements (30 points): quality of activity teams, appropriate procedures and problem-solving mechanisms. Criterion 3 - Impact (10 points): ambition and expected long-term impact on target groups/public, appropriate dissemination strategy, sustainability after EU funding ends. Individual thresholds: Relevance 21/30, Quality-Design 21/30, Quality-Team 21/30, Impact 7/10. Overall threshold: 70 points. Proposals must pass ALL individual thresholds AND overall threshold to be considered for funding.
07 Evaluation · and Grant Agreement Timeline The call opens on 4 November 2026 with a submission deadline of 19 January 2027 at 17:00 CET (Brussels time). Evaluation is scheduled for January-March 2027. Information on evaluation results will be communicated in March 2027. Grant agreement signature is targeted for end of April 2027. After successful evaluation, proposals are invited for grant preparation, which normally takes approximately 3 months. During grant preparation, the consortium must: prepare grant data and annexes (within 3 weeks of GAP invitation), finalise grant data (up to 2 weeks after Project Officer reply), sign declaration of honour (within 6 weeks of GAP invitation), and complete grant signature (within 3 months of GAP invitation). The project starting date is normally after grant signature, though retroactive starting dates can be granted exceptionally for duly justified reasons, never earlier than proposal submission date or before the beginning of the beneficiary's financial year.
08 Grant · Agreement Legal and Financial Terms The grant is a budget-based mixed actual cost grant (actual costs and unit costs) that reimburses only eligible costs actually incurred, not budgeted costs. The grant will be an operating grant providing general financial support to the organisation's functioning. The funding rate is 60%, with possibility to apply for higher rate of 80% if operational activities are of exceptional utility (at least 30% of budget allocated to activities in Member States with GNI per inhabitant less than 90% of EU average). Grants may NOT produce profit (surplus of revenues plus EU grant over costs). For-profit organisations must declare revenues and any profit will be deducted from final grant amount. Budget categories include: A. Personnel costs (A.1 Employees, A.2 Natural persons under direct contract, A.3 Seconded persons); B. Subcontracting costs; C. Purchase costs (C.1 Travel and subsistence with unit cost option, C.2 Equipment with depreciation, C.3 Other goods/works/services). Financial support to third parties is not allowed. Equipment costs are calculated as depreciation only. Travel and subsistence can use unit costs. The Grant Agreement sets framework for grant including deliverables, reporting and payments. Project duration up to 12 months but cannot exceed applicant's financial year. Milestones and deliverables managed through Portal Grant Management System and reflected in Annex 1. Model Grant Agreement available on Portal Reference Documents.
09 Standard · Application Form Structure The Application Form consists of two parts. Part A contains structured administrative information about participants (coordinator, beneficiaries, affiliated entities) and summarised budget, filled in directly online in the Portal Submission System. Part B contains the technical description of the project and must be downloaded as a template from the Portal, completed, and uploaded as PDF. Part B includes sections on: Project Summary, Relevance (profile, mission statement/vision/objectives, contribution to EU policy), Quality (project team/staff/experts, management/quality assurance/monitoring/evaluation, financial management/cost effectiveness, risk management), Impact (impact description, communication/dissemination/visibility), Workplan/Work Packages/Activities/Resources/Timing, and Other (ethics, security). Part B also includes mandatory annexes: detailed budget table, CVs of core project team, list of previous projects (key projects last 4 years), and other mandatory annexes as specified in call. Formatting: minimum Arial 9 points, A4 page size, 15mm margins. Page limit: 70 pages maximum for Part B (supporting documents as annexes do not count). All participants can contribute but coordinator must finalise and submit.
10 Detailed · Budget Table Specifications The detailed budget table is a mandatory annex to Part B and must be submitted in the format specified in the Submission System (typically .xlsx or .xlsm format). The table must show estimated eligible costs broken down by budget category and participant. Budget categories for this call are: A. Personnel costs (A.1 Employees, A.2 Natural persons under direct contract, A.3 Seconded persons); B. Subcontracting costs; C. Purchase costs (C.1 Travel and subsistence, C.2 Equipment, C.3 Other goods/works/services). The table must include: total eligible costs per category, funding rate percentage, maximum EU contribution, requested EU contribution, and maximum grant amount. For travel and subsistence, unit costs can be used. For equipment, only depreciation costs are eligible. The amounts in the detailed budget table must correspond exactly to the amounts in the summarised budget table in Part A (if discrepancies exist, amounts in online summarised budget table prevail). Sheets per participant must be filled in for each Beneficiary/Affiliated Entity; sheets for entire project must be filled in by Coordinator after receiving information from other participants. For PDF submission, participant sheets should be saved as individual PDFs then combined into single PDF for upload.
11 Model · Grant Agreement Key Terms The Model Grant Agreement (MGA) for Operating Grants is a legally binding document signed by the EU and the Coordinator. Key components include: Preamble (parties to agreement), Terms and Conditions (including Data Sheet), Annex 1 (Description of Action), Annex 2 (Estimated Budget), Annex 2a (Unit costs details if applicable), Annex 3 (Accession forms), Annex 3a (Joint and several liability declaration if applicable), Annex 4 (Financial statements model), Annex 5 (Specific rules). The Agreement covers: subject and definitions (Chapter 1), action description and duration (Chapter 2), grant form/amount/funding rate/budget categories/flexibility (Chapter 3), implementation rules including beneficiaries/affiliated entities/other participants/special status participants (Chapter 4), eligible/ineligible costs, proper implementation, conflict of interest, ethics, IPR, communication/dissemination, reporting/payments/recoveries (Chapters 4-5), and final provisions including amendments, applicable law, dispute settlement (Chapter 6). Data Sheet specifies: maximum grant amount, funding rate, budget categories, reporting schedule, payment modalities, prefinancing, certificates, liability regime. Agreement entered into force with last signature (normally EU). Project starting date normally after grant signature. Beneficiaries must comply with all obligations and terms set out in Agreement.
12 Online · Manual Submission and Evaluation Procedures The EU Funding & Tenders Portal Online Manual (Version 1.3, 01.05.2026) provides detailed guidance on submission and evaluation procedures. Submission is a 2-step process: (1) Create EU Login account and register organisation in Participant Register to obtain 9-digit PIC; (2) Submit proposal via Electronic Submission System in 3 parts: Part A (administrative information, filled online), Part B (technical description, uploaded as PDF), and Annexes (uploaded as PDF). Proposals must be submitted before call deadline; excess pages automatically made invisible. After submission, application package is sealed and e-receipt generated. Admissibility and eligibility checks verify: submission before deadline, completeness, correct forms, all annexes provided, readability/printability, page limits, content alignment with topic, participant eligibility. Evaluation process: Individual evaluation (at least 3 evaluators score each criterion with comments), Consensus group (evaluators agree on common position), Panel review (ensure consistency, rank proposals, determine priority for equal scores). Proposals passing individual and overall thresholds ranked by score. Successful proposals invited for grant preparation; others rejected or placed on reserve list. Evaluation results communicated with Evaluation Summary Report. Complaints procedures available for admissibility/eligibility/evaluation issues within 30 days of notification.