CERV STRIVE 2024 – Call for Proposals

Liberties’ CERV STRIVE 2026 Call for Proposals is now open.
Submit your application by 8 May 2026 and become a part of our mission to strengthen civil society organisations in the EU.

Background

Liberties is a network of national-level organisations in 22 EU Member States with a mission to support and encourage the EU and the Member States to respect, protect and promote the values in Article 2 of the Treaty on the EU by supporting civil society organisations active at local, regional or national levels. Our activities foster solidarity through capacity building on communications and litigation, collaborating on research, advocacy, awareness-raising, and dissemination activities on EU-wide issues, individually and in synergy with other transnational organisations. Liberties’ work to strengthen the impact of its members at the national level contributes to the implementation of rights in other EU policy areas. Building on Liberties’ achievements so far, the activities of STRIVE will (1) Foster the network’s ability to provide an expert contribution to the promotion and protection of Union values, (2) Build Members’ capacity to maximise impacts of their work, (3) Support values-based framing for members and partners, enabling independent and effective use of communication.

Goals

Liberties' specific objectives for the year 2026 are in support of three essential components of our mission: network development, capacity building, and expert contribution to the rights and values in the EU - in line with our strategic objectives as defined previously in the framework proposal:

• Specific Objective 1 (SO1): to provide expert support for promoting and safeguarding fundamental rights and European Union values.
• Specific Objective 2 (SO2): Empowering the network to maximise its capacity on the ground, with CSOs active at the national level in promoting and cultivating Union values.
• Specific Objective 3 (SO3): Values-Based Framing (VBF) community building and strategic communication.

Regranting Areas and Objectives

The regranting in the scope of CERV-STRIVE 2026 has the following specific objectives:

• Support national initiatives to strengthen capacity building for using the Charter of Fundamental Rights and EU Law at the national level.
• Promote national initiatives that advance research and enhance the Charter's role in fundamental rights litigation and its integration into newly adopted EU laws.
• Foster national initiatives that utilise the Charter through strategic campaigns focused on fundamental rights litigation, guided by recommendations and findings from annual Rule of Law reports (EC and Liberties reports).

Expected results

• Empowerment of members contributing to capacity building in member-specific human rights issues, raising awareness, and democratic dialogue building in the human rights advocacy community and beyond.
• Strengthened partnerships among national organisations focused on utilising the Charter of Fundamental Rights.
• Improved national research and positioning of the Charter in fundamental rights litigation.
• Enhanced advocacy efforts and campaigns utilising the Charter to promote the Rule of Law report findings

Timeframe for project implementation

The duration of supported initiatives will be a maximum of 6 months.

The selection process for applications received in response to this Call for Applications is planned to be finalised by the 8th of May 2026, and the start of the approved projects is planned for June 2025. Liberties reserve the right to change the timeline of the application process, as the evaluation period may vary depending on the number of applicants received and following the EC guidance of the process.

Financial frame

The total amount made available under the Call for Project Proposals is EUR 130,000.

Size of grants:

Any grant requested under this Call must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts:

• minimum amount: EUR 10,000
• maximum amount: EUR 20,000

Eligibility of applicants

Organisations must be members of Liberties, a European network that is a beneficiary of a Framework Partnership Agreement under the call CERV-2025-OG-FPA.

They must be legal entities, non-profit organisations.

Organisations must be established in a Member State of the European Union, including its overseas countries and territories (OCTs).

They are required to uphold EU values as defined in Article 2 of the Treaty on European Union and the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights.

Member organisations cannot act as affiliated entities, associated partners, subcontractors, or part of other EU-wide networks or umbrella organisations.

Grants will be awarded to Liberties members with a clear mission and demonstrated experience in the thematic priorities of this Call.

Priority will be given to proposals that directly or indirectly incorporate lessons learned from the Charter training sessions conducted by Liberties in 2022, 2023,2024, and 2025.

APPLICATION PROCESS

To support high-quality applications and to optimise the selection process, the application process for the regranting will have one stage:

1) FULL APPLICATION - Deadline: 8 May 2026. Approval stage: Submitted full applications will be reviewed and evaluated by three independent experts/evaluators. After the evaluation of all full applications, the Selection Committee will decide on the grant recipients.

2) A full application consists of a fully completed Application Form and Budget Template.

3) Applications need to be submitted to liberties@liberties.eu with the title "STRIVE 2026 application"; all relevant questions need to be submitted to the same email address before 8 May 2026.

Number of applications and grants per applicant

A member organisation may not submit more than one application under this Call for Applications.

All relevant information on rules, conditions, eligibility, and evaluation criteria is available in the Guidelines for Applicants.