STEP Travel Grants support creative and critical individual cultural workers who are travelling across Europe and neighbouring countries, to help foster a society with greater solidarity, equality and a stronger sense of social justice. The aim is to support culturally active and engaged individuals for international return travels within Europe or to/from its neighbouring countries to a partner organisation for a professional cultural collaboration that serves a wider community.
The STEP travel grants funding programme has been initiated and managed by the European Cultural Foundation (ECF), with the support of Compagnia di San Paolo (CdSP).
Eligibility criteria
Applications are considered only by cultural practitioners who:
– are based/active in one of the following countries: Albania, Andorra, Algeria, Armenia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Belgium, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Egypt, Estonia, Finland, France, Georgia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jordan, Kosovo, Latvia, Lebanon, Libya, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Macedonia (FYROM), Malta, Moldova, Monaco, Montenegro, Morocco, The Netherlands, Norway, Palestinian Territories, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, San Marino, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Kingdom;
– are at least 18 years old at the time of travel;
– have had few professional travel opportunities;
– are travelling to the destination country professionally for the first time;
– are collaborating with the partner organisation for the first time;
– are not currently in any other contractual agreement with ECF.
Applicant should have
(at least) one committed partner organisation in the destination country that:
– is from the independent cultural, or social sector (but working with culture);
– is committed to engaging in reciprocal knowledge exchange and equal partnership with the applicant;
– will acknowledge the STEP support in any communication material deriving from the travel.
The same partner organisation can only host up to four STEP grantees per calendar year. Each applicant should check with their partner whether they have hosted STEP grantees already.
Applicants can represent an organisation, if it is a not-for-profit professional organisation. Commercial enterprises, student, volunteer or amateur associations are not eligible for STEP support.
The same applies for partner organisations in order for them to be eligible STEP partners.
The same individual can only be awarded once for a STEP travel grant.
A maximum of two individuals can be awarded for the same initiative, with individually written and submitted personal applications for each traveller and clearly justified and complementary roles for each person in the travel itinerary. Each application will be considered individually.
What countries can you travel to and from?
Round trips within Europe and to/from its neighbouring countries. All travel directions are eligible, except for travels between Algeria, Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, the Palestinian Territories, Syria and Tunisia.
Funding
| Kilometres per one way | Travel by train/coach (EUR) | Travel by airplane (EUR) |
| 100-700 | 250 | No funding |
| 701-1,500 | 500 | 300 |
| > 1,500 | 700 | 500 |
The amount of the grant sum is based on the calculation of the journey for one direction. The awarded grant, however, is meant to cover the full round trip (both ways).
For environmental reasons, applicants are encouraged to travel over land, e. g. by train, which is widely accepted as the least polluting means of mass transportation and domestic public transport.
The minimum distance travelled must be 100 km by the straightest route (as calculated already automatically in the application form). Travels between 100 and 700 km must happen by train/coach, unless not possible due to political/infrastructural reasons.
All details are available here.
Deadline
for submitting the application is a minimum of 50 days prior to the departure date.
Read more here.
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