European Union has announced a call for proposals for the Young Cell Scheme Rounds XIII-XIV-XV for Master studies aimed at young Kosovar men and women in European Union (EU) universities, including an obligation to be employed by the government at the end of the studies and to work in the public administration for three consecutive years.

Objectives and Priority Issues

The global objective of this call for proposals is to improve the professional capacity of the civil service to better serve Kosovo citizens and meet the obligations arising from the SAIL.

The specific objective of this call for proposals:

• Young women, men and minorities are selected, study, and graduate from a master's programme in the EU and then complete three years of work in the Kosovo Civil Service.

The priorities of this call for proposals are:

• Priority 1- Selection and recruitment of candidates done based on a competitive and merit based procedure, after which the students complete postgraduate degrees in universities throughout the EU in relevant fields;
• Priority 2 - YCS grantees, women and men, are subsequently employed by the Kosovo institutions, respecting the legal framework and affirmative measures adopted and signed by Kosovo Government; and,
• Priority 3 - Monitoring of employment of the previous rounds of YCS and follow-up on the accomplishment of the contractual obligation of graduates in the civil service.

Funding Information

The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 6,500,000 (EUR 4,500,000 from EU Contribution and EUR. 1,500,000 from BC Contribution). The contacting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.

Size of grants 

Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following maximum amounts:

• Maximum amount: EUR 6,000,000

Eligibility Criteria

Lead applicant(s)

In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:

• be a legal person and
• be non-profit-making and
• be a specific type of organisation such as: The applicants must be public sector agencies based in EU Member States involved in cultural and educational activities and
• be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the co-applicant(s) and affiliated entity(ies), not acting as an intermediary

Co-applicant(s)

• Co-applicants participate in designing and implementing the action, and the costs they incur are eligible in the same way as those incurred by the lead applicant.
• Co-applicants must satisfy the eligibility criteria as applicable to the lead applicant himself.
• Co-applicants must sign the mandate form.

Affiliated entity(ies)

• The lead applicant and its co-applicant(s) may act with affiliated entit (ies).
• Only the following entities may be considered as affiliated entities to the lead applicant and/or to co-applicant(s):
  • Only entities having a structural link with the applicants (i.e. the lead applicant or a co-applicant), in particular a legal or capital link.
  • This structural link encompasses mainly two notions:
    • Control, as defined in Directive 2013/34/EU on the annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements and related reports of certain types of undertakings:
      • Entities affiliated to an applicant may hence be:
        • Entities directly or indirectly controlled by the applicant (daughter companies or first-tier subsidiaries). They may also be entities controlled by an entity controlled by the applicant (grandrbnghter companies or second-tier subsidiaries) and the same applies to further tiers of control;
        • Entities directly or indirectly controlling the applicant (parent companies). Likewise, they may be entities controlling an entity controlling the applicant
        • Entities under the same direct or indirect control as the applicant (sister companies).
    • Membership, i.e. the applicant is legally defined as a e.g. network federation, association in which the proposed affiliated entities also participate or the applicant participates in the same entity (e.g. network, federation, association,...) as the proposed affiliated entities.

For more information, visit EuropeAid and download the guidelines.