The Helpdesk provides advice and support on how to better access ESF+ & ERDF funds. Submit your question via the Helpdesk.
Access the EU funds Helpdesk here
What is the Helpdesk?
The HELPDESK is a 2-years project (May 2022 – April 2024) funded by the European Commission which aims to launch the building blocks for a Social Services Helpdesk, an online platform which can be used by social services to find information and training materials and ask their questions regarding EU funds. You can find the website of the project, available in 22 languages, here.
The ultimate goal of this project is to increase the use of ESF+ (European Social Fund Plus) and ERDF (the European Regional Development Fund) funding by social services and to make it easier for social service providers to access these funds. The project has as target groups: social services, managing authorities, intermediate bodies and the European Commission. Find out more about the background of the project here and find out more about the 16 project partners here.
The project leaflet can be found here.
The project aims to:
- Support social services in accessing and using EU funds (ESF+ and ERDF in particular)
- Help managing authorities use EU funds to finance quality interventions in the field of social services.
Webinar: Social Services' Opportunities, Needs and Challenges in Accessing EU Funds, 25 April 2023 (2 hours). You can also watch a short summary here (4 minutes).
The Helpdesk project website contains different sections that might be interesting to social economy stakeholders.
The Helpdesk
The website contains an actual Helpdesk function where social services, including social economy actors, can submit their questions related to EU funds.
Find the Helpdesk here .
EU funds information
There is the possibility to find out about open calls which are updated every 2-3 weeks and of which some are relevant for the social economy, information about EU funds in your country, notably the content of the Partnership agreement and the relevant focus areas for social services and a general information section about the ins and outs of EU funds.
Resource center
Within the framework of the Helpdesk project, the project consortium developed and distributed 2 surveys – one for social service providers (SPs) and one for managing authorities (MAs) – to get better insight into the barriers and challenges which prevent EU funds from being used by social services. You can find the results of the survey in the following reports here.
The project has also produced the following resources:
A booklet of promising practices - available in 10 languages
Facilitation Toolkit - available in 10 languages
Policy Guidance and Policy Recommendations - available in 10 languages, in a long version and in short versions for Managing Authorities and the EC and for social service providers
MOOC
Do you want to learn more about the access and management and general EU funds information? The Helpdesk has created a MOOC that is freely accessible and focuses on how to find and respond to call for proposals, how to manage EU funds, and contains information regarding the reporting process.
Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) Social Services – How to successfully fund your EU project (from the call for proposals to the final report, and beyond) - available in 6 languages
Events
Keep an eye on this page for events like workshops on how to facilitate access to EU funds bringing together social services from a large range of sectors and managing authorities.