European Funding for the Third Sector

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It can be difficult for voluntary and community organisations to access direct European support for their activities: EU funding tends to be for large scale, innovative, transnational projects and since much of the work of the voluntary and community sector tends to be small scale, local initiatives, the EU is rarely the most appropriate source of funding. On top of this, the application procedures can be extremely time consuming and highly competitive with no guarantees of success.

However, there are a number of EU funds that can be accessed locally and are available to the voluntary sector. Please follow the links below for further information:

European Social Fund (ESF)
The ESF supports training and skills development projects for people who are disadvantaged in the labour market as well as for workforce development...
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Rural Development Programme for England (RDPE)
The RDPE provides grants to promote sustainable farming, forestry and food, as well as wider benefits to the economy, the environment and rural communities. Voluntary and community groups can apply for funding from some parts of the RDPE...
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EU Territorial Co-operation Programme
EU Co-operation funding is more commonly allocated to public sector projects because of the capacity needed to manage the budget and the partnership. However, there are some good examples of how the local voluntary sector is benefiting from the Co-operation programme...
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Further Funding Programmes
Voluntary sector organisations are also eligiable to apply to the following EU programmes but should bear in mind that they operate across the whole of Europe and so there is a high level of competition...
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