Creative Force
Info:Democracy, Freedom Of Expression & Human Rights
Available for 29 countries.
Open for applications until 31 January
The next call for applications, for both seed funding and collaborative projects, is open from 20 December 2021 until 31 January 2022.
Overview
What is Creative Force?
It is a funding programme for international projects. It is open to Swedish organisations and their partners in our target countries who work through media or the arts to strengthen democracy, human rights and freedom of expression. It offers two types of grant:
Seed Funding is available for carrying out a small project or a pilot. You and your international partner can apply for up to SEK 100,000 for a project which must be completed within 12 months of the project start.
Collaborative Projects are larger projects which should involve knowledge exchange, capacity building or method development. We recommend that you apply for this type of grant to scale-up a project which has previously received seed funding. You and your international partner can apply for a grant which runs for either max. 12 months or max. 24 months (from the project start). For a 12-month grant you can apply for up to SEK 500,000. For projects exceeding 12-months you can apply for up to SEK 1 million.
Who can apply?
- Any type of organisation which is registered in Sweden.
- Your organisation must have been registered for at least one year (for seed funding) or two years (for collaborative projects).
- You must write your application jointly with a partner organisation in one (or more) of the Creative Force target countries (see below).
Which countries are included?
In Africa, Asia & MENA:
- Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia
- Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam
- Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen
In Eastern Europe & Turkey:
- Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldavia, Turkey and Ukraine.
NB: we do not grant funding to projects which include financial support to public sector partners in Belarus (state, regional, municipal).
Covid-19
- Projects should normally take place entirely in the target country or partly in Sweden and partly in the target country. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has radically changed our opportunities to travel and meet physically, for the moment at least. It is important that you take this into account when designing your project.
Database
Get some inspiration. Have a look at our project database to get an idea of the kinds of project we support.
Check whether your project is suitable for Creative Force
- Your project uses media or the arts as a means to bring about change.
- Your project seeks to strengthen democracy, freedom of expression and human rights in the programme countries.
- Your project fulfills the specific Creative Force programme objectives for the country(s) you want to work with. (See FAQs 17 and 18 below.)
- Your project targets agents of change in the partner country(s) who want to learn new skills or use new technologies to help them in their efforts to bring about change.
- Your project involves an exchange of knowledge or best practice between partners.
- Your project’s achievements are sustainable. They will continue to spread and have an impact after the project has finished.
1. Call for applications opens
There are two opportunities each year to apply for funding:
Call for Funding 1 opens in December and closes in January. We accept applications for seed funding and collaborative projects.
Call for Funding 2 opens in June and closes in late August/September. Applications for seed funding only.
When the exact dates have been decided you will find them in the timeline above.
2. Write your application
This call for applications uses a new online applications portal. Click on this link (open until 31-01-2022). It will take you to a form on the new portal where you register and then directly write your application. You can save and return to your application as many times as you need.
In addition to the above, you must attach a number of mandatory documents. Please make sure you have completed them before you are ready to submit your application. Click on the following links to get to these documents:
- Activity plan (for seed funding and collaborative projects)
- Budget seed funding
- Budget collaborative projects
- Memorandum of Understanding (for seed funding and collaborative projects)
Contact us at creativeforce@si.se if you need application documents which meet accessibility criteria.
We also require you to provide us with legal proof of the following:
- The person who is formal signatory for the Swedish organisation (firmatecknare).
- The Swedish applicant organisation’s Swedish bank account (not necessary if you have a Swedish bankgiro/plusgiro).
- The Swedish applicant organisation’s registration number.
- That Swedish applicants who are sole proprietors (enskild firma) are approved for F-tax.
You can find more details about the the above in the online application form (under Checklist).
The mandatory documents are in English. The application portal is in English and Swedish. You and your project partner must write the application together, in English or Swedish. Choose the language which both partners understand best.
You can find all the questions that are in the portal here in a test application.
3. Submit your online application
When you have done all the above you can submit your application. Deadline is 31 January 2022. Make sure you give yourself plenty of time – the portal will no longer accept applications after 23.59 Swedish time (CET).
If something is not filled in correctly in your application or if you have missed a mandatory field, this will be indicated when you try to submit the application.
When you have submitted your application, a confirmation will be sent to the email address you have provided here. This is the email address we will use in correspondence about your application. If you do not receive your confirmation within ten minutes, check your spam box and make sure you can accept e-mails from this address.
We might need to contact you with questions about your application during the selection process. If you do not reply, your application may be disqualified. For these reasons we urge you to check your spam box regularly.
If you have any problems, send an email to creativeforce@si.se and we will help you as soon as possible.
4. Has your application been successful?
Call for Funding 1: we publish lists of the successful applications on this website around two months after the deadline for applications.
Call for Funding 2: we publish lists of the successful applications on this website approx. five weeks after the deadline for applications.
Note that the date for funding decisions in the timeline are indicative.
Important: the project can begin at earliest on the date the SI makes its funding decisions. Activities which take place before that date cannot be included in the funding.
For more information please open this link
Apply Here
