AU-EU YOUTH ACTION LAB 2025 CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Tolulope Gbenro
SOCIAL IMPACT CONSULTANT|AU-EU Youth Action Lab Youth Advisory Board|YSDN |UNICEF GEN U 9ja YPAT| Founder Hone NYSC
AU-EU Youth Action Lab is a transformative initiative under the broader AU-EU Youth Lab programme, designed to address the lack of opportunities for youth in Africa and Europe to collaborate, innovate, and drive solutions to shared challenges. Implemented by a dynamic consortium including Oxfam, Restless Development, and the European Youth Forum, the Youth Action Lab empowers young change-makers across continents.
The Youth Action Lab envisions a world where young people are engaged, empowered, and connected—shaping policy, leading initiatives, and driving solutions with long-term impact. The programme builds on the voices and priorities of young people to create sustainable opportunities for action and advocacy across 12 African focus countries and Europe.
Please note for all grant types (representation, innovation, entrepreneurship, cooperation) – you can:
1. only apply to one grant opportunity at a time for each Call for Proposals.
2. only be awarded one grant contract as an organization under this program and if you are successful- you will not be considered for any reapplication under the same or different grant in a next Call for Proposal.
3. if you were not successful and were not awarded a grant in a Call for Proposal round, you can apply again in a next round.
4 GRANT TYPES
REPRESENTATION GRANT
Representation Grants are best fit for small youth led organizations or youth led groups focusing or targeting the underrepresented and marginalized young people. This grant recognizes intersectional barriers to engagement, empowerment and connection and therefore will prioritize groups that will ensure representation from marginalized groups of young people through support to enable them to deliver the change they want in their communities.
For this CfP 20 grants will be made available. For this first cohort of CfP, we will be awarding 20 grants as follows: 10 medium size of €10,000 each and 10 large grants of €20,000 each.
REPRESENTATION GRANT APPLICATION CRITERIA
The Representation Grants have the following eligibility criteria:
1. Your organization or group must be led by either underrepresented youth, and or targeting the marginalized. Young people (15-35 years old) are the decision makers and beneficiaries, the founder or at least co-founders must be under 35 years of age, at least 70% of staff should be young people below 35 years.
2. You must be a registered youth-led groups, NGOs, associations and trade unions, collectives, or networks or alliances of these actors.
3. Have an estimated 60% of all target groups as young women/ minority individuals or groups led by young women and 10% should be or be led by young people with disabilities.
4. Your organization or group must be based in one of the 12 African countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia (Somali-land region), Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
5. Your proposed activity takes place in one or more of the above 12 countries.
LINK AND LEARN FOR REPRESENTATION GRANT
representative per organization (flight, accommodation and per diems for a 5-day event (3 days of workshop including the 2 days of travel).
representative(s) per organization (flight, accommodation and per diems for a 5-day event (3 days of workshop including 2 days of travel).
INNOVATION GRANT
Innovation grants are best fit for youth led organizations with innovative ideas to tackle intersectional and global challenges.
A total 32 grants will be made available with 9 grants to be made in the current grant opportunity. Each grant can have a duration of 12 or 15 months per grant and budget available is for a minimum amount of 30.000 EURO and a maximum amount of 50.000 EURO per grant.
In the Innovation Grant opportunity, we define innovation as designing, testing, scaling or improving a new or existing activity for young people in their own context with long-term impact. In other words, an impact that will benefit your community and your peers also after your grant project ends:
1. You design a new activity and want to test it in your own context.
2. You want to test to replicate an activity that is implemented in a different context but not yet in your own context.
3. You have already developed and tested a new innovation and want to scale it up beyond your context.
4. You have already developed and tested a new innovation and have specific ideas how to further improve it in your own context
INNOVATION GRANT APPLICATION CRITERIA
The Innovation Grants have the following ‘hard’ criteria when it comes to eligibility:
1. Your organization is youth-led: young people (age 18 to 35) are the decision-makers.
2. You are a youth organization that is formal: you are legally registered in your country, have an organization bank account and a clear governance structure.
3. You are located and registered in one of the 12 African Youth Action Lab focus countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia (Somali-land region), Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
4. Your proposed activity takes place in one or more of the above 12 countries.
The Innovation Grants also have a number of ‘soft’ criteria that can help determine not only if your organization is eligible but also if the Innovation Grants are a fit for your project idea!
1. You are an organization that is active at the sub-national, national or regional level.
2. Your organization is passionate to link with young people across Africa and Europe to exchange and learn on your activities and results, for example through participating in the Youth Action Lab’s Digital Platform and Annual Learning Events.
3. You have identified one or more global challenges that you seek to address in your own
country/context.
LINK AND LEARN FOR INNOVATION GRANT
ENTREPRENEURSHIP GRANT
Entrepreneurship Grants are best suited to youth actors that work on strengthening the economic opportunities for young people and are passionate about young people taking control of their own future.
A total 20 grants will be made available with 6 grants to be made in the current grant opportunity. Each grant can have a duration of 12 months and budget available is for a minimum amount of 30.000 EURO and a maximum amount of 50.000 EURO per grant
As such, the Entrepreneurship Grants focus on youth-led actions that address a three-fold selection of key challenges young people face around the world in their economic participation and taking control of their own future:
1. Access to skills development opportunities that are according to the needs of young people and local economic realities and support the start-up of new youth-led enterprises.
2. The responsible growth of youth-led (social) enterprises that consider social and environmental boundaries.
3. An enabling environment for young entrepreneurs to start and grow their business.
During the first Call for Proposal the focus will be on the first topic: SKILLS DEVELOPMENT! We ask interested youth organizations or (social) enterprises to submit their ideas to advance meaningful skills development opportunities for young people!
The Entrepreneurship Grants (cohort 1) are specifically for youth organizations and (social) enterprises that want to enhance or scale-up their skills development activities: -
1. Create a direct result: the skills development opportunities for young people in a given context are strengthened and a distinct gap is addressed.
2. Address skills development challenges faced by young people beyond their own context.
3. Share their experiences and results with (youth) actors beyond their own context and nurture
networks and connections with youth (entrepreneurs).
As general guidance, we can identify three broad types of activities:
1. Develop, test and implement new skills development curriculum for young people
people’s economic participation.
2. Scale-up and existing skills development delivery to reach a wider diversity of young people.
people in remote areas.
3. Nurturing the exchange and coordination between (youth-led) skills development providers,
local businesses and/or government actors.
skills development providers.
The activities you propose can be a mixture of the broad types of activities above and do not need to ‘fit in one box’. What is important is that you clarify how your proposed activity addresses a distinct gap of skills development opportunities in your context and the various groups of young people in their diversity you seek to engage with.
Moreover, while we seek proposals with skills development at the heart, we very much encourage proposed activities to go beyond training and curriculum development alone. We will prioritize proposals that support young people in their journey towards economic empowerment, beyond training and skills development alone. For example, continued guidance in finding employment or internships, developing a business plan for a start-up and much more!
Each Entrepreneurship Grant will provide the opportunity to develop the capacity of your organization based on your own needs! In your application you will be asked to identify your own needs and your proposal on how to address them (for example through a training or learning exchange).
ENTREPRENEURSHIP GRANT APPLICATION CRITERIA
The Entrepreneurship Grants have the following ‘hard’ criteria when it comes to eligibility:
1. Your organization or (social) enterprise is youth-led (age 18 to 35) where young people are the decision-makers.
2. In case of an enterprise, you are either registered as ‘social enterprise’ or ‘enterprise’. In case of the latter, you can showcase a clear social ambition and impact of the work of your organization.
3. You are a youth organization or (social) enterprise that is formal: you are legally registered in your country, have an organization/enterprise bank account and a governance structure.
4. You are located and registered in one of the 12 African Youth Action Lab focus countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia (Somali-land region), Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
5. Your proposed activity takes place in one or more of the above 12 countries.
6. The Entrepreneurship Grants provide grants opportunities between 30.000 and 50.000 EURO. To ensure a meaningful addition to the existing funding landscape and a realistic uptake of the budget of a youth organization or (social) enterprise, your annual budget or size of grants managed in the past should be a minimum of 10 000EURO.
The Entrepreneurship Grants also have a number of ‘soft’ criteria that can help determine not only if your organization is eligible but also if the Entrepreneurship Grants are a fit for your project idea!
1. Your organization is passionate to link with young people across Africa and Europe to exchange and learn on your activities and results, for example through participating in the Youth Action Lab’s Digital Platform and Annual Learning Events.
2. You have experience with skills development of young people and have a project idea and have experienced less opportunities to find funding/loans for (in which case, you need to detail why and which funding barriers you have experienced in your proposal).
LINK AND LEARN FOR ENTREPRENEURSHIP GRANT
Budget for one link and learn activity for two representative(s) per organization -flight, accommodation and per diems for a 5-day event (3 days of workshop including 2 days of travel).
COOPERATION GRANT
Young people around the world often face similar challenges. Some, like climate change and inequality, require global solutions; others, such as lack of education or economic opportunities, demand more localized solutions. Cooperation grants aim to help African and European youth organizations share resources, knowledge and strategies, and to leverage the added value of collaboration, creating a stronger response across continents.
The Cooperation Grants financially support young people, particularly marginalized youth, to
empower them to be involved in policy-making and enable cross-continental collaboration.
The Cooperation Grants aim to:
their rights and their priorities, by giving them the financial resources required to dedicate
efforts to policy-work on local, national and international stages.
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institutions and influence policy as active citizens.
intercultural dialogue and collaborative initiatives. Cooperation Grants are the best fit for youth-led organizations who want to engage in cross-continental policy and advocacy work.
A total of 18 grants will be made available, with 8 grants to be awarded in the current grant opportunity. Each grant will have a maximum duration of 12 months for the entire 50.000 EURO budget per grant.
TYPES OF ACTIVITIES THAT FIT UNDER THE COOPERATION GRANT
By advocacy, we mean speaking up for a cause to create change. Your initiative can take many forms and be translated into plenty of activities, such as:
? Organizing policy events with stakeholders.
? Conduct research and sharing findings.
? Facilitating the participation of marginalized youth in policy discussions.
? Hosting events to mobilize support for youth-led projects.
? Launching online campaigns to raise awareness about youth issues.
? Using social media tools to share ideas and work together.
? Connecting youth with EU and AU representatives.
? Create connections with other youth-led initiatives and projects.
? Press releases to engage with media to spread key messages and project updates.
This is not an exhaustive list, and you are free to deviate from these examples. When you choose differently, please explain clearly why and how this relates to the focus of the grant.
COOPERATION GRANT APPLICATION CRITERIA
The Cooperation Grants have the following ‘hard’ criteria when it comes to eligibility:
established in one of the 12 eligible African countries and an organization established in the
European Union. One of the organizations will be the lead applicant, while the other(s) will
be collaborator(s). Independent applications are not allowed.
people are the decision-makers.
organization bank account and a clear governance structure.
Lab focus countries: Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Nigeria, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Somalia
(Somali-land region), Tanzania, Tunisia, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
partner organization.
The Cooperation Grants also have a number of ‘soft’ criteria that can help determine not only if your organization is eligible but also if the Cooperation Grants are a fit for your project idea!
1. You are eager to learn from the cross-continental partnership. This includes a willingness to
explore new methodologies and share insights that arise from the collaborative process.
2. You are aware of potential power dynamics and are willing to address and manage these
dynamics constructively. This includes ensuring equitable participation and decision-
making within the partnership, as well as recognizing and mitigating any imbalances that may
affect the collaboration’s effectiveness and fairness.
3. You are passionate to link with young people across Africa and Europe to exchange and learn on your activities and results, for example through participating in the Youth Action Lab’s
APPLICATION DYNAMICS: CREATING YOUR CONSORTIUM
Organizations in the EU and in one of the 12 AU countries will need to apply for the grant together. One organization will be called ‘lead applicant’, while the other(s) will be the ‘collaborator(s)’. Here's what you need to know:
Lead applicant:
? Submits the project proposal.
? Acts as the main contact point throughout the project.
? Compiles and submits progress reports.
Collaborator(s):
? Work(s) closely with the lead applicant on all aspects of the project.
? Contribute(s) to the proposal and project execution and reporting.
LINK AND LEARN FOR COOPERATION GRANT
All grantees are to budget for one link and learn activity for two representative(s) per
organization -flight, accommodation and per diems for a 5-day event(3 days of workshop
including 2 days of travel).
The European Youth Forum will manage the Cooperation Grants. As a Cooperation Grantee, you will have a program coordinator who will be your main point of contact throughout your project.
communicate regularly with the program coordinator.
called Power2Voices. This platform will allow you to interact with other grantees, share
ideas, and get support.
Not sure how to find a partner organization???
You’re interested in applying for the Cooperation Grants but you don’t know any organizations on the other continent? No worries!?Fill in?this form and you’ll see a confirmation message with a link and access to a database of potential partner organizations interested in this programme.
What is the AU-EU Youth Action Lab & what are Cooperation Grants?
Learn more about this grant type and how to create your consortium by registering to one of the following webinars:
?AU-EU Youth Action Lab: Tips & next steps to apply for a Cooperation Grant
Get guidance on how to write a project proposal and learn the next steps before submitting your application by registering to one of the following webinars:
ANSWERING FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Question: How can I submit my application?
On the ON Grip platform only. REPRESENTATION APPLICATION INNOVATION APPLICATION ENTREPRENEURSHIP APPLICATION COOPERATION APPLICATION
Question: I have doubt on the application process, how can I be supported?
We will organize an online session before close of applications. We will provide clarity, take questions and provide support and tips on how to write an application. Be on the lookout for the specific dates of each of your grant type on the website and community.
Question: Can I apply for two or more grants at the same time?
No, please apply to only one grant scheme with one project.
Question: I missed the deadline can I still submit my application?
No, we will not accept applications once the deadline is passed, but there will be other grant opportunities in the next 3 years. Keep an eye on the AU-EU Youth Lab website to stay updated!
Question: Can I submit my application in multiple languages?
No, you can only submit your application in one language. You can choose one of the following languages for the Innovation, Entrepreneurship and Representation Grants: English, French and Portuguese. Cooperation Grants are to be submitted in English only.
Question: If my application is not successful, can I apply again?
Yes, if your application was not successful, you can apply again on the next call for proposal. Please look out for our next opportunities on the Youth Lab website and social channels.
Question: Do I need any matching fund?
No, there is no matching fund nor co-funding obligations.
Question: When will applicants be notified of the results?
This depends on the grant type you are applying to. In general, the selection process should take 6 weeks after the Call for Proposals closes. Make sure to check the relevant grant type on the website to stay updated.
Question: What are the evaluation criteria of my application?
PAYMENT OF THE GRANT
Question: Is it necessary to have a separate bank account for the project?
No, it is not needed to have a specific bank account.? All payments should be made and to your organization bank account.
Question: Will the grant be transferred in EUR or in my national currency?
The grant will be transferred in EUR.
Question: How will the payment be organized?
The grant will be provided in separate payments (usually in two installments). The first installment (60% of your total approved grant) will be transferred after signing the grant agreement including all annexes. The second installment (40% of your grant) is due after the approval of one mid-term progress report, including meeting all required milestones. Be aware that the definition of the installment payments will be set at the time of contract agreement once your project has been approved.
REPORTING
Question: If my proposal is selected, what would be the reporting requirement?
The frequency of reporting and required documentation will be detailed in the reporting guidelines, which are provided to all grantees, and we will guide you through all the necessary steps during the kickoff meeting. Additionally, we are committed to supporting you throughout the project trajectory, ensuring you have the resources and guidance you need to meet all reporting and documentation requirements.
Question: Which costs are eligible?
Please refer to each funding manuals for specificity.
Question: Are there any costs which are not eligible?
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