Support for social dialogue
EU funding to promote and strengthen European social dialogue at sectoral and cross-industry levels.
This call supports projects that promote social dialogue across industries and sectors in the EU and candidate countries. It aims to build capacity of social partner organizations and enhance awareness of European social dialogue. The goal is to strengthen social dialogue at the EU level.
Likely relevant for
- Social partner organizations
- Trade unions
- Employer associations
- NGOs focused on labor and social issues
- Policy research institutes on social dialogue
Project signals
What it funds
- Promotion of social dialogue at cross-industry and sectoral levels
- Development of European social dialogue
- Capacity building of social partner organizations in EU Member States and candidate countries
Expected outcomes
- Increased awareness of European social dialogue
- Enhanced social dialogue at sectoral and cross-industry levels
- Improved capacity of social partners including in candidate countries
- Strengthened EU level social dialogue
Who can apply / participate
- Social partner organizations
- Non-governmental organizations
- Research institutions
- Other entities as specified in call document
- Check call document for consortium composition rules
- Eligible applicants from EU Member States and certain EEA countries
- Participation possible from candidate countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Türkiye, Ukraine) except as coordinator or single applicant
- Applicants must comply with EU funding eligibility criteria as detailed in call document
- Exact eligibility criteria and consortium requirements must be verified in call document
Must check before shortlisting
- Eligibility of applicant types and countries
- Specific consortium requirements
- Funding rates and budget limits
Money
Total budget of approximately EUR 13.25 million for 2026 under SOCPL Project Grants.
- Total budget for 2026 — 13250000EURAllocated for SOCPL-2026-SOC-DIALOG project grants
Application notes
- Single-stage submission via the Funding & Tenders Portal only. No paper submissions allowed.
- Application Form Part A and Part B
- Annexes and supporting documents as PDFs
- Mandate to act for all applicants must be confirmed
- Declaration of honour required before grant signature
- Proposal page limit: 70 pages
- Applications must be complete and submitted before deadline
- Register and submit application electronically via Funding & Tenders Portal
- Prepare required forms and annexes as per call document
- Confirm mandate and eligibility at submission
- Submit before 23 July 2026, 17:00 CET
- Check call document for detailed eligibility and consortium rules
- Ensure compliance with financial and operational capacity requirements
- Evaluation criteria and process detailed in call document
- Deadlines and timelines must be strictly followed
Derived from official EU Funding portal source · updated 22 Jun 2026, 17:22 UTC. Use this as a shortlisting aid; the official call text remains authoritative.
Official source text
Fine print from the EU source record. Expand when you need the original wording.
Topic description
Expected Outcome: Key expected results include: (a) increased awareness of European social dialogue; (b) enhanced European social dialogue at the sectoral and cross-industry levels; (c) improved capacity of social partners, including in candidate countries. These results should lead to a strengthened EU level social dialogue. Scope: This call aims at contributing to the promotion of social dialogue at cross-industry and sectoral level, developing European social dialogue, and building and strengthening the capacity of social partner organisations (both in Member States and candidate countries).
Conditions and documents
Conditions
1. Admissibility Conditions: Proposal page limit and layout
As described in the call document.
Applications must be submitted before the call deadline and electronically via the Funding & Tenders Portal Electronic Submission System. Paper submissions are NOT possible.
Applications (including annexes and supporting documents) must be submitted using the forms provided inside the Submission System.
Applications must be complete and contain:
- Application Form (Part A)
- Application Form (Part B)
- Annexes and supporting documents (to be uploaded as PDF files).
At proposal submission, the lead applicant will have to confirm that it has the mandate to act for all applicants; that the information in the application is correct and complete and that the participants comply with the conditions for receiving EU funding (especially eligibility, financial and operational capacity, exclusion, etc.) Before signing the grant, each beneficiary and affiliated entity will have to confirm this again by signing a declaration of honour (DoH).
Applications must be readable, accessible and printable, not exceeding [70] pages.
2. Eligible Countries
As described in the call document.
- EU Member States and in some cases from the European Economic Area (EEA) countries, in accordance with the EEA Agreement.
- non-EU countries (not for coordinator and single applicant):
- Candidate countries: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Türkiye and Ukraine
3. Other Eligible Conditions
As described in the call document.
4. Financial and operational capacity and exclusion
As described in the call document.
5a. Evaluation and award: Submission and evaluation processes
As described in the call document.
5b. Evaluation and award: Award criteria, scoring and thresholds
The award criteria for this call are described in the call document- page 17.
5c. Evaluation and award: Indicative timeline for evaluation and grant agreement
Call opening: 21 January 2026
Deadline for submission: 23 July 2026 – 17:00:00 CET (Brussels)
Evaluation: July – December 2026
Information on evaluation results: January 2027
GA signature: March 2027
6. Legal and financial set-up of the grants
As described in the call document.
Call document and annexes:
Call document: https://ec.europa.eu/info/funding-tenders/opportunities/docs/2021-2027/socpl/wp-call/2026/call-fiche_socpl-2026-soc-dialog_en.pdf
Annex to the call document: Letter of commitment
Application form templates
Standard application form (ESF and SOCPL) — the application form specific to this call is available in the Submission System
Additional documents:
Support information
For individual questions on the Portal Submission System and / or any uploading queries, please contact the IT Helpdesk. Non-IT related questions directly related to the text and content of the Call for proposals should be sent to the following email address: − call-specific questions : EMPL-VP-SOCIAL-DIALOGUE@ec.europa.eu Details of support sources Funding & Tenders Portal FAQ – Submission of proposals . IT Helpdesk – Contact the IT helpdesk for questions such as forgotten passwords, access rights and roles, technical aspects of submission of proposals, etc. Online Manual – Step-by-step online guide through the Portal processes from proposal preparation and evaluation to reporting on your ongoing project. Valid for all 2021-2027 programmes. IT How to - IT How To - Funding Tenders Opportunities - Detailed instructions on how to apply for EU funding, from how to register your organisation, how to manage the roles and access rights to your organisations, proposals and to how to submit your proposal. It gives also detailed instructions on and on how to manage your grant if you are selected.
Raw budget overview
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