The CIVICA Call for Thematic Activities supports faculty, postdocs, and PhD students in creating workshops, conferences and research events that strengthen collaboration across the alliance. The 4th call for Thematic Activities will be launched in October 2026.
About the call
CIVICA will fund small-scale workshops, conferences and collaborative research events that strengthen ties across the alliance. Activities should connect to CIVICA’s core themes, involve several partner universities, and highlight the added value of European collaboration.
Who can apply?
Applications are open to permanent faculty and long-term academic staff from CIVICA universities. Postdoctoral researchers and PhD students are encouraged to participate as part of the project teams. Only CIVICA faculty, postdocs and PhDs can receive funding.
Application process
Applicants should prepare a joint proposal with colleagues from at least four CIVICA universities. Official dates to be announced
- January 2027 – Application deadline
- February 2027 – Results announced
- March 2027 – June 2028 – Period for completing activitie
Full details and eligibility rules can be found in the full call document in the sidebar of this page.
Contacts
- Bocconi University: Claudia Piccioni civica@unibocconi.it
- CEU: Daniel Izsak izsakd@ceu.edu
- EUI: Zeineb Mazouz zeineb.mazouz@eui.eu
- Hertie School: Sarah Lawton-Görlach lawton@hertie-school.org
- IE University:Quentin Sohet, quentin.sohet@ie.edu
- LSE: Aygen Kurt-Dickson a.s.kurt-dickson@lse.ac.uk
- Sciences Po: Elsa Bedos / Marinela Popa-Babay elsa.bedos@sciencespo.fr / marinela.popababay@sciencespo.fr
- SGH: Lukasz Skrok lskrok@sgh.waw.pl
- SNSPA: Gabriel Viiu gabriel.alexandru.viiu@snspa.ro
- SSE: Jelena Angelis jelena.angelis@hhs.se
FAQs
These are typically small-scale, CIVICA-branded workshops, or conferences that broadly relate to one of CIVICA’s core, interdisciplinary themes (Democracy in the 21st Century, Europe Revisited, Societies in Transition-Crises of Earth, AI & Data-Driven Technologies for the Social Sciences, and Security & Resilience. Applying with management, economic, and finance topics are also welcome.)
For instance, a 2-day CIVICA workshop on the ‘transition to green economy’, led by permanent faculty, accepting applications from CIVICA faculty, postdocs, and PhDs. The event includes at least 4 CIVICA partners and is completed by 1 June 2028. The application can also be for co-financing an event but the benefit for CIVICA will have to be convincingly laid out. The application can be used to cover hosting-related (a dinner, catering) and travel & accommodation costs for participants already known at the time of submission. Travel & accommodation costs should be budgeted under the participants’ home university. Should the event include an open call for abstracts, budget with the potential number of accepted applications per university, and/or accepted CIVICA faculty and postdoc participants can also apply to one of the bi-monthly Calls for Faculty Short Visits.
Thematic activity leaders should be permanent faculty from CIVICA universities, or academic/teaching/research employees with long-term contracts. The duration of the contract must go well beyond the end of the funding period. Postdoctoral researchers and/or doctoral students at CIVICA universities must be involved in the thematic activities. Only CIVICA faculty/postdocs/PhDs can be financed.
Submitted applications will be evaluated by the CIVICA Scientific Committee. The SC consists of vice-presidents for research and/or senior faculty of the 10 CIVICA universities. Selected applications will be financed by the sending/home university in accordance with the home university’s financial rules and allocated CIVICA budget.
Formal grant decisions are made by each CIVICA partner following the decision of the SC. Rejected applications may only receive informal feedback.
The selection committee evaluates proposals on various dimensions: scientific quality, contribution to CIVICA’s effort for integrated research, feasibility, budget, and the diversity of partners.
All expenses directly related to activities are eligible, provided they are realistic and in line with the expected results and are fundable under Erasmus+ rules. Recurring institutional costs, including personnel costs (overhead, faculty salaries) are not eligible. For details on what specific expenses are eligible, please contact grant units at your respective universities before submitting the application. Adequate supporting documents to prove costs may be requested. Local rules may apply.
This call is financed from CIVICA Erasmus+, except for LSE which is self-funded. Each CIVICA partner university may have a slightly different budget for this call. Budget plans should detail costs per institutions participating/represented in an activity. Any travel & accommodation costs should be budgeted under the participants home institution as each partner finances their own faculty/postdoc/doctoral student. To find out more on available funding, please contact your local grant coordinating unit before applying. The list of contact persons at each CIVICA partner is attached.
For thematic activities, workshops/conferences take place. Daily attendance sheets containing the names, affiliation, faculty/postdoc/PhD/MA status of participants must be submitted to the host CIVICA contact person, listed below after the event. A short report, based on a brief questionnaire, must be filled in ex post by the project lead. The event, if public or university-wide, must be advertised on the CIVICA website. The host university’s CIVICA coordinator must be contacted, and the CIVICA’s communications team alerted ahead of the event. Public events are also streamed on Zoom.
Thematic activities can take place between 1 March 2027 and 1 June 2028.