The European Union has opened the CERV-2026-DAPHNE Call for Proposals, a major funding opportunity under the Citizens, Equality, Rights and Values (CERV) Programme designed to support organisations working to prevent and combat gender-based violence and violence against children.
With an estimated €21 million total budget, the call will support projects addressing victim protection and support, prevention of gender-based violence, child protection systems, implementation of European legal frameworks, and financial and capacity-building support for grassroots civil society organisations.
What Is the CERV-2026-DAPHNE Call?
The CERV-2026-DAPHNE call is part of the European Union’s broader effort to protect fundamental rights, promote equality and strengthen societies’ ability to prevent and respond to violence.
The Daphne strand of CERV specifically focuses on combating violence, including gender-based violence and violence against children. The 2026 call seeks projects that address different forms of violence through prevention, victim and survivor support, stronger child-protection systems, policy implementation and support to civil society.
The European Commission highlights that gender-based violence remains closely connected to gender inequality and can have significant social, human and economic consequences. The 2026 call also places particular emphasis on emerging forms of violence, including online and technology-facilitated violence.
The call is aligned with several EU policy frameworks, including the EU Gender Equality Strategy 2026–2030, the EU Strategy on the Rights of the Child, the Istanbul Convention and the EU Directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence.
Five Funding Priorities Under CERV-2026-DAPHNE
Applicants should carefully select the priority that most closely matches their organisation’s expertise and proposed project because one proposal can address only one of the five topics.
1. Supporting Intermediary Organisations and Grassroots Civil Society Organisations
Topic: CERV-2026-DAPHNE-REGRANTING
The first priority focuses on organisations that can act as intermediaries and provide financial support and capacity building to smaller grassroots civil society organisations working on gender-based violence and/or violence against children.
The objective is not simply to fund one organisation’s activities. Instead, successful intermediary organisations will be expected to create mechanisms through which funding and capacity-building support can reach smaller and grassroots organisations.
Particular attention is given to organisations operating in:
- Remote areas
- Rural communities
- Underserved communities
- Areas where grassroots organisations have limited access to funding
- Settings where smaller civil society organisations have limited institutional capacity
Activities can address areas such as:
- Domestic violence
- Sexual violence
- Gender-based cyberviolence
- Violence against children
- Victim protection
- Victim-centred services
- Access to justice
- Medical and psychological support
- Capacity building
- Organisational development
- Community-level prevention
For this priority, applicants must demonstrate recent experience in CSO capacity building and experience in awarding and managing grants in the relevant fields. The call requires at least three years of recent proven experience in implementing CSO capacity-building activities related to gender-based violence and/or violence against children.
Funding under Priority 1
- Minimum requested grant: €1 million
- Maximum requested grant: €2.5 million
- Project duration: 36 months
- Regranting: Mandatory
- Application: Single applicant or consortium
- Geographical scope: National or transnational
Click HERE to read more and apply.
2. Protecting and Supporting Victims and Survivors of Gender-Based Violence
Topic: CERV-2026-DAPHNE-PROTECTION
The second priority focuses on improving protection and support for victims and survivors of gender-based violence.
Projects can seek to strengthen services that help victims and survivors access appropriate support, protection and justice.
Potential areas of work include:
- Victim support services
- Survivor-centred approaches
- Domestic violence services
- Sexual violence support
- Access to justice
- Psychological and psychosocial support
- Medical support
- Protection mechanisms
- Trauma-informed services
- Support for children affected by domestic violence
- Services for people facing multiple or intersecting forms of discrimination
The call encourages applicants to develop integrated approaches rather than isolated interventions.
Funding under Priority 2
- Grant range: €200,000–€600,000
- Duration: 12–24 months
- Application: Consortium of at least two applicants
- Scope: National or transnational
- Public authority involvement: Recommended
Click HERE to read more and apply.
3. Preventing Gender-Based Violence
Topic: CERV-2026-DAPHNE-PREVENTION
The third priority focuses on preventing gender-based violence before it occurs and addressing the social, cultural and structural factors that contribute to violence.
Projects under this priority can focus on prevention strategies, awareness, education, behavioural change, community engagement, research, communication and other approaches that contribute to reducing gender-based violence.
Potential areas may include:
- Prevention campaigns
- Awareness-raising
- Community education
- Gender equality initiatives
- Prevention of domestic violence
- Prevention of sexual violence
- Prevention of online gender-based violence
- Addressing harmful social norms
- Training professionals
- Improving prevention systems
- Community-based interventions
- Research and evidence generation
- Digital safety and prevention
The call places significant importance on integrating gender and non-discrimination considerations into project design.
Funding under Priority 3
- Grant range: €200,000–€600,000
- Duration: 12–24 months
- Application: Consortium of at least two applicants
- Scope: National or transnational
- Public authority involvement: Recommended
Click HERE to read more and apply.
4. Supporting the EU Directive on Violence Against Women
Topic: CERV-2026-DAPHNE-CONVENTION-DIR
The fourth priority is specifically focused on supporting implementation of the Council of Europe Convention on preventing and combating violence against women and domestic violence, commonly known as the Istanbul Convention, as well as the EU Directive on combating violence against women and domestic violence.
This priority is particularly relevant for organisations working on:
- Policy reform
- Legislative implementation
- Public administration
- Legal systems
- Gender-based violence policy
- Domestic violence prevention
- Victim protection
- Training of relevant professionals
- Awareness raising
- Monitoring and evaluation
- Research
- Implementation of legislation
- Institutional capacity building
Important eligibility distinction
For Priority 4, the lead applicant must be a public authority at national, regional or local level.
Co-applicants can include:
- Public entities
- Private non-profit organisations
- Private for-profit organisations
- International organisations
Funding under Priority 4
- Grant range: €200,000–€600,000
- Duration: 12–24 months
- Application: Single applicant or consortium
- Lead applicant: Public authority
- Scope: National or transnational
Click HERE to read more and apply.
5. Strengthening Integrated Child Protection Systems
Topic: CERV-2026-DAPHNE-CHILDREN
The fifth priority focuses on strengthening integrated systems for protecting children from violence.
The European Commission promotes a coordinated, child-centred approach in which different sectors and institutions work together rather than operating separately.
Projects may address:
- Child protection systems
- Prevention of violence against children
- Child-centred services
- Cross-sectoral collaboration
- Child safeguarding
- Child participation
- Prevention of child sexual abuse
- Prevention of bullying and cyberbullying
- Protection against domestic violence
- Mental health and psychosocial support
- Referral systems
- Early identification and reporting
- Monitoring and evaluation
- Coordination between government agencies and civil society
- Protection of children in vulnerable situations
The call recognises that violence against children can occur both offline and online and can include physical or mental violence, abuse, neglect, exploitation and sexual abuse.
Funding under Priority 5
- Grant range: €200,000–€600,000
- Duration: 12–24 months
- Application: Consortium of at least two applicants
- Scope: National or transnational
- Public authority involvement: Mandatory
Organisations whose projects involve children must also have an appropriate child protection policy covering the required safeguarding areas.
Click HERE to read more and apply.
Who Can Apply?
This is an important point: CERV-2026-DAPHNE is not an individual grant opportunity.
It is designed primarily for organisations and institutions, rather than individuals applying in their personal capacity.
Eligible applicants generally need to be legal entities, including public or private bodies, established in an eligible country. International organisations can also participate, and the call contains specific rules for entities without separate legal personality and other types of participants.
For priorities 2, 3 and 5, applications must generally be submitted by a consortium of at least two eligible applicants.
For Priority 1 and Priority 4, applications can be submitted either by a single applicant or by a consortium, subject to the specific requirements of the priority.
National or International Projects
Projects under all five priorities can be either:
- National, or
- Transnational
However, the consortium requirements differ by priority.
For organisations considering a transnational application, the partnership should provide clear added value rather than simply satisfying a formal requirement.
The European Commission specifically expects partnerships to demonstrate complementary expertise and an appropriate distribution of responsibilities and resources.
Key Areas That Could Make a Strong Proposal
A competitive application should go beyond describing the problem.
A strong proposal should clearly demonstrate:
- A clearly defined problem
- Evidence-based needs assessment
- A clearly identified target population
- A strong connection to one of the five priorities
- A realistic intervention model
- Strong organisational capacity
- Appropriate partners
- Clear roles and responsibilities
- Measurable outputs and outcomes
- A credible monitoring and evaluation system
- A realistic budget
- A strong sustainability plan
- A dissemination and communication strategy
- Alignment with EU values and policy priorities
The proposal should also demonstrate how its results can continue to generate impact beyond the period of EU funding. This is particularly important because Impact accounts for 20 of the 100 available evaluation points.
Important Compliance Requirements
Applicants should also pay close attention to compliance.
Organisations must have sufficient financial and operational capacity to implement the project.
The European Commission may assess:
- Financial statements
- Revenue
- Deficits
- Dependence on EU funding
- Previous project experience
- Staff qualifications
- Technical resources
- Organisational capacity
Organisations can also be excluded for serious issues such as certain financial, legal, tax, social-security, professional misconduct, fraud, corruption or other exclusion circumstances.
Application Process
Applications must be submitted electronically through the EU Funding & Tenders Portal.
Paper applications are not accepted.
Applicants should:
- Identify the most appropriate CERV-2026-DAPHNE priority.
- Carefully review the eligibility requirements.
- Confirm that the organisation and proposed partners are eligible.
- Register the relevant entities in the Participant Register.
- Develop the project concept.
- Identify appropriate partners where a consortium is required.
- Prepare the needs assessment.
- Develop the methodology and work plan.
- Establish measurable objectives and indicators.
- Prepare the detailed budget.
- Prepare CVs and supporting organisational documents.
- Complete the application forms through the Submission System.
- Upload the required supporting documents.
- Review the proposal against the evaluation criteria.
- Submit before the deadline.
The Commission states that beneficiaries and affiliated entities must be registered in the Participant Register before submitting the proposal and will undergo legal-entity validation.
Who Should Consider Applying?
This opportunity may be particularly relevant for eligible organisations such as:
- Non-profit civil society organisations
- NGOs
- Women’s rights organisations
- Organisations working on gender equality
- Organisations working on gender-based violence
- Organisations supporting survivors
- Child protection organisations
- Organisations working on violence prevention
- Public authorities
- Local and regional authorities
- Research and policy organisations
- International organisations
- Organisations with expertise in child protection
- Organisations working on digital violence and online safety
- Organisations providing psychosocial or victim support
- Organisations with experience in advocacy and policy implementation
However, eligibility depends on the specific priority, the applicant’s legal status, country of establishment, consortium requirements and other conditions.
Important Advice Before Applying
Applicants should not begin by writing the proposal.
The stronger approach is to first determine which of the five priorities is the best fit.
For example:
- An organisation funding and strengthening grassroots CSOs may consider Priority 1.
- A survivor-support organisation may consider Priority 2.
- A prevention and awareness organisation may consider Priority 3.
- A public authority working on implementation of relevant legislation may consider Priority 4.
- A child protection organisation working on integrated systems may consider Priority 5.
The proposal should then be built around the selected priority rather than trying to make one project fit multiple priorities.
The Commission explicitly states that each proposal must address only one of the five topics.
Conclusion
The CERV-2026-DAPHNE Call for Proposals represents a substantial European Union funding opportunity for organisations working to prevent and combat gender-based violence and violence against children.
With an estimated €21 million available, the call provides funding across five major areas: grassroots civil society support through regranting, victim and survivor protection, prevention of gender-based violence, implementation of European frameworks on violence against women, and integrated child protection systems.
The opportunity is particularly relevant to organisations with demonstrated experience, strong partnerships, clear project designs and the operational and financial capacity to implement substantial interventions.
Applicants should carefully select the appropriate priority, verify their country’s eligibility, build a strong and appropriately sized partnership where required, develop an evidence-based needs assessment, prepare a realistic lump-sum budget and demonstrate measurable long-term impact.
The current deadline listed on the Funding & Tenders Portal is 5 November 2026 at 17:00 Brussels time. Because the call document still contains the earlier 3 November date, applicants should rely on the live Portal for the latest submission status and verify the deadline immediately before submitting.
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