Call for proposals to support civic initiatives - CIVIS label

Each year, the CIVIS European Civic University offers the opportunity to its community - students, academics, researchers and administrative staff - to submit an ongoing or new initiative that fits the civic values and goals of the CIVIS Alliance by developing civic engagement activities within the consortium.

The purpose of the call is to support valuable civic initiatives to strengthen social cohesion and solidarity among the CIVIS community at local and global level. The selected proposals will be rewarded with the CIVIS label and will be eligible to apply for the CIVIS Award.

The project proposal may have an added value by addressing the ambitions of the CIVIS challenges linked with the Sustainable Development Goals set by the United Nations, involving NGOs and external partners from the African and Mediterranean regions or by connecting your project to local and regional development goals.

Possible topics of your project may include:

  • climate change
  • inclusive and quality education
  • gender equality
  • peace, justice and strong institutions
  • sustainable cities, communities and clean energy
  • human rights
  • inequality reductions
  • green energy
  • health and well-being
Projects must be submitted using the online form (see section: application form). The applications will be evaluated on a quarterly basis (every four months) with the first evaluation of proposals planned for 30 September 2021.

CIVIS is launching a call for proposals aimed at selecting valuable initiatives to be rewarded with the CIVIS Label. 

The project aims at having a significant impact on our societies’ development, locally and globally. 

"CIVIS stands for a transnational collaboration of civic universities. Based on the solid and innovative education and scientific activity in each institution, CIVIS unites efforts and experiences to develop an alliance with strong links to the local, social and geographical environments and an orientation toward global challenges. Based on a culture of collaboration and innovative pedagogies, the CIVIS alliance will encourage critical thinking, adaptability and resilience and it will make educational, scientific, and civic resources as open and accessible as possible based on the principles of Open Science and Open Educational Resources in order to share and build knowledge among students, teachers, researchers, and civil society".

Our main objectives are to:

  • share a long-term strategy on education, research, and innovation
  • create a European inter-university campus
  • go beyond existing higher education cooperation models
  • improve social inclusiveness and geographical balance
  • prepare new generations for future changes
  • promote links to territories as tools for openness to the entire society.

Our member universities are:

  • Aix Marseille Université, France
  • National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
  • University of Bucharest, Romania
  • Université Libre de Bruxelles, Belgium
  • Universidad Autonoma de Madrid, Spain
  • Sapienza Università di Roma, Italy
  • Stockholm University, Sweden
  • Eberhard Karls Universität Tübingen, Germany.

Associated member: University of Glasgow

The CIVIS Label will constitute a way in which the CIVIS principles and values can be strengthened and promoted, following and fostering the need to build a sense of CIVIS identity but also the concept of civic engagement.

The need for CIVIS Label is inspired by and consistent with the CIVIS mission statement “to create a truly unique European interuniversity campus where students, academics, researchers and staff will move and collaborate as freely as within their institution of origin. We will develop a deep level of European integration, involving joint learning pathways, development of complementary research facilities and diverse degree pathways”.

The CIVIS Label is therefore intended to contribute to and convey the vision of a “European University as a space for innovative and responsible teaching, research, cultural exchanges and citizen action across Europe and its institutions’’.

Through the CIVIS Label we aim at:

  • Providing a reference for excellent higher education and research initiatives linked to civic engagement;
  • Strengthening students' and stakeholders’ involvement in the development of CIVIS, aside from governance bodies;
  • Rewarding and thus encouraging different types and forms of collaboration; 
  • Contributing to the development of the CIVIS project, via fostering the sharing of its principles thanks to rewarded initiatives;
  • Stimulating the emergence of standard-setting, high-quality civic initiatives within and beyond the CIVIS Alliance.

Reward for labelled initiatives will be:

  • access to a wider European network of innovators, researchers, students and stakeholders willing to engage with the current societal challenges;
  • international visibility and communication products: published on CIVIS website and disseminated through CIVIS communication channels to the universities of the Alliance;
  • recognized quality of the initiative: positive consideration once applying to future call for projects;
  • support to go further in “CIVISing” the initiative. The label is considered as a first-step and there will be support from partner universities will accompany them in the process.

All projects/initiatives rewarded with the CIVIS Label will be eligible for a CIVIS Award, that will be granted to the most valuable proposals during the Global CIVIS Days (planned for November 2021). The winners of the CIVIS award will be named CIVIS Ambassadors and will receive a short-term mobility grant to visit one of the CIVIS member-university to further develop their initiative with European colleagues, partners and peers.

1. Guidelines

Proposals can be submitted by representatives from the 8 CIVIS member universities (including students, lecturers, researchers, administrative staff). The CIVIS label is intended for rewarding single initiatives. Institutions (as a whole) cannot be eligible for the CIVIS Label as it is not possible to verify the compliance of all initiatives carried out by an entire organization.

2. Application process

Applications can be filled in at any time using the online application form (see section below), including any additional documentation that might support your application.

Applicants will receive an acknowledgement of the receipt of their application. The evaluation of proposals will be made by the members of the CIVIS Label Evaluation Panel, composed of members of all partner Universities. The application will be evaluated on a regular basis, indicatively each three to four months. The first evaluation of proposals will take place by 31st May.

3. Evaluation

The evaluation of each proposal will be conducted on the basis of the following set of indicators, each one corresponding to a (maximum) score in points, for a total of 50 points:

Criteria
Maximum points
Number of CIVIS partners involved  9 points

Number of stakeholders/participants involved

 6 points

Involvement of African and Mediterranean partners (max 6 points)

 6 points

Innovation

 6 points
Relevance in terms of research 6 points

Relevance of the proposal, in terms of civic engagement:

  • Social and Environmental responsibility (max 6 points);
  • Relationship with civic society, private and public sector (max 4 points);
  • Contribution to regional development (max 2 points);
 12 points

Affinity with CIVIS Challenges: 

  • Health;
  • Digital and Technological Transformations;
  • Cities, Territories, Mobilities;
  • Society, Culture, Heritage;
  • Climate, Environment, Energy.
 5 points

The applications will be evaluated on a quarterly basis with the first evaluation of proposals planned for 30 September 2021.

Please use the online form available on the CIVIS application platform: civis.smapply.io/prog/call_for_proposals_civis_label/

For your information, the application form is composed of the two following sections:

Application information:

  • Name of the project coordinator
  • University/Institution affiliated 
  • Current position
  • E-mail address

Project information:

  • Project summary
  • Project team
  • Number of participants involved
  • Involvement of African and Mediterannean partners
  • Innovation
  • Relevance in terms of research
  • Relevance in terms of civic engagement
  • CIVIS challenges

Step 1: CIVIS online application platform

Step 2: Account creation

  • Click on “register” at the top right-hand corner and create an account. 
*Please note that the e-mail address associated with your account will be used for any future communication about this call.

N.B. If you have already used a SMApply application system, your email address may be recognized and you will then just need to enter your password (instead of creating an account). You can use the reset password function if necessary.

  • Upon creating your account, you will receive an email confirmation to finalise the registration process. Click on the green button to validate your account. 

Step 3: Project submission

Once you have registered and logged in, you will now be able to apply and submit your project proposal.
  • Click “apply” and complete the application form with the required information. You can upload additional documents if you wish to do so.

*Please note, once you have submitted your application you can no longer edit it. You can however view it by clicking on “preview”.

  • You will receive an automatically generated email receipt from the application system when the application is submitted correctly. Please check your inbox and SPAM folder to ensure you have successfully submitted your project.
  • You may follow the progress of your application by logging onto the platform.

If you encounter any technical problems, please contact our Operations team at civis@univ-amu.fr

Step 4: Let us know your feedback!

We are working on improving the operational processes of current and new calls for proposals through a variety of new technological tools to ensure a smooth, reliable and enjoyable user-experience process. 
Don’t hesitate to give your feedback to our CIVIS IT Officer, Mr David Touzot: david.touzot@univ-amu.fr