The European Year of Creativity and Innovation 2009

The European Year of Creativity and Innovation 2009
The year 2009 will be the European Year of Creativity and Innovation – particularly through Education and Culture.

The European Year will include information and promotion campaigns, events to disseminate key messages, identification of good practices, etc. Citizens' recommendations could stimulate further research into how creativity and innovative attitudes can be developed and could be taken in conjunction with the results of the projects, campaigns and policy debates taking place during the European Year.

Issues to be discussed are, for instance, the contribution of non-formal and informal youth activities as well as formal education to the promotion of creativity and innovation; the importance of broadening access to culture, openness to cultural diversity and fostering creativity as a competence which is transferable to a variety of occupational contexts; and the stimulation of innovation, flexibility and adaptability to a rapidly changing world.

The total budget earmarked for the co-financing of projects within this call for proposals is
estimated at € 920.000.
The grant awarded may not exceed 60 % of the total amount of the project's eligible costs as
specified in the detailed budget estimate.
The minimum grant will be € 75.000.
The maximum grant will be € 150.000.

Applications must be sent to the Agency no later than 01.07.2008.
This call covers projects starting between 01.12.2008 and 28.02.2009.
The maximum duration of a project is 10 months.

Project applications should explain the applicant's own understanding of a citizens' panel and
the following characteristics should be present in all proposals:
• Selection of participants
The project application should explain the method for selecting the citizens who will
participate in the panel (random selection, on the basis of pre-established criteria). Special
attention should be paid to involving ordinary citizens of different demographic, social and
professional backgrounds and to involving citizens' who would not have spontaneously
participated in projects of a European nature.

• Providing information
The project application should explain how the participants will receive information on the
selected theme(s). The project promoter should ensure that the information provided to
participants is balanced and that the different sensitivities regarding the issue are present A
bottom-up approach should be encouraged regarding the selection of the sources of
information.
• Opinion building
The project application should explain the methods for guiding the process of building
individual and collective opinions. Skilled moderation should be provided in order to
facilitate the debate, pay attention to minority opinions and encourage everybody's
participation.
• European level
The project can envisage an implementation at local or regional level and a transition to the
European level or an implementation directly at European level.
Project applications including a transition to the European level should explain the different
steps of the project and the evolution from the local or regional level to the European level.
They should plan to communicate the results of the panels to decision makers at all levels
and pay special attention to encouraging real interaction with them. Projects directly
implemented at European level should ensure that the link with the local context of the
participants (including how European policies influence citizens' daily life at local level) is
established.
• Cooperation between the partners
The partner organisations should participate in the planning, implementation and follow up
of the project. The project application should therefore explain how the partners will be
involved in the different steps of the project, how the coherence of the different steps will be
ensured and how the partners will contribute to the setting up of a European citizens’ panel.
• Evaluation
The applicants should explain how their project/panels will be evaluated. Evaluation results
(including lessons to draw for future citizens’ panel, drawing specifically on the evidencebase
provided by the s’) should be an integral part of the Final Report.
• Visibility and dissemination of results
Project applications should include a communication plan and explain what kind of visibility
they envisage for the panel, and how results will be disseminated.

FOLLOW-UP BY THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
The citizens' recommendations resulting from these processes represent valuable inputs for
the European Commission, because they are different and additional to the kinds of inputs
that the Commission receives through the conventional consultation channels.
The Directorate General for Education and Culture is willing to play its part by being a
receptive interlocutor and a real partner for the organisations involved in the organisation of
citizens' panels. Therefore this Directorate General undertakes to provide information and
expertise on the themes chosen by the selected projects, to facilitate access to other European
experts and to give appropriate follow up to the citizens' recommendations resulting from the
discussions held in the panels.