CERV-DAPHNE 2026: up to EUR 2.5m, deadline 3 November

The European Commission has opened the CERV-2026-DAPHNE call to prevent and combat gender-based violence and violence against children. In total the budget is EUR 21 million, and the deadline falls on 3 November 2026 at 17:00 Brussels time.

So Ukrainian organisations apply on the same terms as European ones. Ukraine takes part in the CERV Programme, and the official Directorate-General for Justice notice lists it directly among the non-EU participating countries alongside Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia and Serbia.

The call splits into five priorities with different amounts, different durations and different consortium requirements. So this guide covers each of them, plus four rules that eliminate proposals before evaluation even starts.

Five priorities and the money behind each

Each proposal must address exactly one priority, because you cannot submit the same project under two of them.

• Priority 1, CERV-2026-DAPHNE-REGRANTING. First, support for intermediary organisations that regrant funding to grassroots CSOs and build their capacity. Indicative funding: EUR 8 million.
• Priority 2, CERV-2026-DAPHNE-PROTECTION. Then protecting and supporting victims of gender-based violence: one-stop shops, rape crisis and sexual violence referral centres, tools for immediate protection. Indicative funding: EUR 4 million.
• Priority 3, CERV-2026-DAPHNE-PREVENTION. Next, prevention: consent in sexual relationships, cyber violence, perpetrator programmes, stereotypical portrayals of women and men in the media. Indicative funding: EUR 4 million.
• Priority 4, CERV-2026-DAPHNE-CONVENTION-DIR. Implementing the Istanbul Convention and the VAW Directive: training judges, lawyers, law enforcement, healthcare and education staff. Indicative funding: EUR 2 million.
• Priority 5, CERV-2026-DAPHNE-CHILDREN. Finally, strengthening integrated child protection systems through cross-sectoral collaboration. Indicative funding: EUR 3 million.

In practice the Directorate-General for Justice and Consumers runs the call. Also the legal base is Regulation 2021/692 establishing CERV, together with the 2026-2027 Work Programme.

Who can apply and where Ukraine sits

Eligible countries

First, an applicant must be a legal entity, public or private, established in an EU Member State including overseas countries and territories, or in a country associated to the CERV Programme. Ukraine belongs to that list.

Natural persons do not qualify, except sole traders without a separate legal personality. Meanwhile international organisations qualify, and the country rules do not apply to them. Project activities have to take place in eligible countries.

Also, before submission every beneficiary registers in the Participant Register and goes through validation by the Central Validation Service.

Consortium composition differs by priority

In practice this is the most important table in the call, because confusion here costs the proposal.

• Priorities 1 and 4: a single applicant as sole beneficiary, or a consortium.
• Priorities 2, 3 and 5: a consortium of at least two beneficiaries only. Affiliated entities and associated partners fall outside that count.

One specific trap. The call states directly that a consortium made up only of a coordinator plus affiliated entities, or only of a coordinator plus associated partners, is ineligible. A partner-beneficiary is what the rule requires.

Who leads the application

So for priorities 1, 2, 3 and 5 the lead applicant must be non-profit. Profit-oriented organisations may join only as partners to public entities, private non-profit organisations or international organisations.

Meanwhile for priority 4 the lead or sole applicant must be a public authority at national, regional or local level. That covers government bodies, agencies and other entities that the state funds or controls, including police, councils and regulatory agencies.

For priority 5 the involvement of a public authority is mandatory, either as lead applicant or co-applicant. For priorities 2 and 3 it is recommended and scored under the impact criterion, while priority 1 needs none.

Amounts and durations by priority

The gap between priority 1 and the rest runs to an order of magnitude, and the duration differs too. So here it is in one table.

Four rules that eliminate proposals before evaluation

One application as coordinator across the whole call

In total a lead applicant may submit only one proposal under this call, across all priorities combined. If the same organisation submits several, all of them get rejected without further evaluation.

However, participation as a partner carries no such limit. So an organisation can coordinate one proposal and partner in as many others as it likes.

The page limit is hard

Specifically, Part B is limited to 70 pages for priority 1 and 45 pages for the others. So evaluators will not consider any additional pages at all.

Research-focused projects get no funding

The call states plainly that projects focusing mainly on research will not be financed. Research activities may feature, although they must connect closely to the project objectives and stay out of the main focus. Evaluators score this under the impact criterion.

Preference goes to practical projects that develop and implement specific measures aiming at sustainability and systemic change.

Child protection policy

Participants working directly with children submit a child protection policy covering the four areas of the Keeping Children Safe standards. In practice private organisations provide a copy of the policy itself, published online, with staff recruitment rules and vetting. Public bodies submit a declaration of honour.

In practice a missing or weak policy lowers the score under the quality criterion and can block signature of the grant agreement.

Priority 1 in detail: how regranting works

So the largest sums in the call sit here, although the requirements differ too.

Experience. Specifically, an applicant needs at least 3 years of recent proven experience in CSO capacity building in the fields of gender-based violence or violence against children, plus proven recent experience in awarding and managing grants in those fields. In a consortium different members may cover the two requirements.

Budget structure. In total regranting should typically represent 60 to 70 per cent of the grant. Also the maximum financial support per third party is EUR 60,000, and the same cap applies per regranted project. The rules forbid requiring co-financing from third parties.

Procedure. Also, calls for grassroots organisations must stay open at least two months, be published in languages relevant to the local context, and include an appeal mechanism for unsuccessful applicants. Overall the intermediary carries responsibility for transparency, conflict of interest prevention and checks against double funding.

Two work packages count as mandatory: financial support to third parties, and a capacity-building programme. A project missing either one falls outside the conditions.

The calendar after submission. Evaluation runs from November 2026 to May 2027, results arrive in May 2027, and grant agreement signature follows in June and July 2027. So roughly eight months pass between the deadline and the start of a project.

Submission runs in a single stage, entirely through the Electronic Submission System on the Funding and Tenders Portal. Paper submissions do not work. Finally, the relevance criterion carries 40 points, followed by quality and impact.