Sign in Check my fit
EN
Home / Horizon Europe / HORIZON-CL2-2026-01-DEMOCRACY-02

Understanding the forms of local democracy in low-income and low-middle income countries

Open now · HORIZON Research and Innovation Actions · HORIZON-CL2-2026-01-DEMOCRACY-02

Next cut-off
23 Sept '26
in 17 days
Per grant
€4.0M
the call's own average
Grants expected
3
projects that will be funded
Funding rate
100%
the full cost of the action

In context of Horizon Europe

This grant€4.0M
The track runs to the largest grant in Horizon Europe (€171M). The median across the 482 calls we publish is €5.3M, this one is below it.

What this call funds

Expected Outcome:

Projects should contribute to all of the following expected outcomes:

  • EU institutions and national decision-makers are equipped with science-based tools, toolkits, training models, monitoring frameworks, and recommendations to proactively promote inequality reduction, human rights and democracy, in order to lead to more resilient and inclusive democratic societies in low-income and low-middle income countries[1]
  • EU institutions and national decision-makers are better able to proactively promote democratic values, principles and practices in low- and low-middle income countries grounded in a better understanding of the actors at local level including their capacity and needs when engaging in democratic practices.
  • EU institutions, national decision-makers, and civil society organisations can access and use (evidence-based) good practices for working in fragile contexts[2]
  • EU institutions and national decision-makers understand the role of decentralization processes in low-income and low-middle income countries, and its impact on the quality of public services and on acceptance of democratic processes among citizens.

In addition, projects should contribute to at least one of the following expected outcomes:

  • Policymakers, public authorities, and service delivery providers have a better understanding of the link between efficient delivery of public services and pro-democratic sentiment in low-income and low-middle income countries.
  • Civil society organisations, and other relevant actors, working in the fields of development cooperation and promotion of human rights have better tools to promote democratic practices at local level in low-income and low-middle income countries.

Scope:

Trimmed here, the full scope, expected outcomes and award criteria are on the official topic page ↗.

What applying costs you

ItemEstimateNote
Drafting effort6–8 weekssingle submission
Partner search4–8 weeksruns in parallel, and it is the part that slips
Time to first payment6–9 monthscut-off → evaluation → grant agreement

These are Bemzu's estimates from the call's structure (the number of stages and whether a consortium is required) not figures published by the Commission. Only the co-financing share is read from the call itself.

Where these conditions come from

Two kinds of row. Most are the sentence we read the condition from, quoted out of the call itself. Some say plainly that they are not a quotation but the programme's own rule for this type of action, the EU portal publishes a table of contents where the conditions should be, so for a Research and Innovation Action the rate comes from the rulebook rather than from the fiche.

ConditionQuoted from the call, or the rule behind it
Consortium sizeNot quoted from this call — Research and Innovation Actions under the Horizon Europe rules are at least three independent legal entities from three different Member States or Associated Countries, at least one established in a Member State.
Funding rateNot quoted from this call — Research and Innovation Actions under the Horizon Europe rules are funded at 100% of eligible costs for every participant.

Also open in HE

Become the beneficiary.

Eight questions, no account, nothing sent anywhere. You will know which of the 1526 open calls you can actually enter before you finish your coffee.

Check my fit