On 27 March 2024, the European Commission has published a new call for proposals "Social innovation call for proposals: actions to develop impact performance intelligence services for the social impact investing market actors" under the ESF+.
A stronger, more transparent, and better functioning market for social impact investment is instrumental to deliver on the European Pillar of Social Rights by promoting investments in many of the areas covered by its principles, and especially the following: 3. Equal opportunities, 4. Active support to employment, 5. Secure and adaptable employment, 11. Childcare and support to children, 12. Social protection, 17. Inclusion of people with disabilities, 18. Long-term care, 19. Housing and assistance for the homeless, and 20. Access to essential services.
The expected outcome of this call is to promote informed and better investment decisions, greater market transparency, and performance benchmarking, with the objective to promote investments in social purpose entities (social enterprises, social start-up, impact firms, etc.) through enhanced data capabilities services, and impact management tools and practices.
Hence, this call will match the need expressed by many actors in the market, which are showing an increasing data hunger, not enough addressed by current public and private initiatives.
Scope of the call
The objective of the call is to promote the provision of enhanced data capabilities services, as well as impact management tools and practices to social purpose entities (such as –but not exclusively- social enterprises, social economy entities, social start-up, impact firms) to increase their social impact investment capacity.
Available budget: EUR 4 500 000 (indicative number of projects: 6-8)
Project budgets (maximum grant amount): Project budgets (maximum grant amount) are expected to range between EUR 500 000 and EUR 750 000 per project. This does not however preclude the submission/selection of proposals requesting other amounts. The grant awarded may be lower than the amount requested.
Project duration: Projects should normally range between 24 and 36 months
Opening date: 27 March 2024
Deadline for applications: 04 July 2024 17:00:00 Brussels time
Indicative timeline:
Evaluation: July-September 2024
Information on evaluation results: October 2024
Grant Agreement signature: December 2024