Overview
What is Creative Force?
It is a funding programme for international projects. It is open to Swedish organisations and their partners in our target countries who work through media or the arts to strengthen democracy, human rights and freedom of expression. It offers two types of grant:
Seed Funding is available for carrying out a small project or a pilot. You and your international partner can apply for up to SEK 100,000 for a project which must be completed within 12 months of funding being granted.
Collaborative Projects are larger projects which should involve knowledge exchange, capacity building or method development. We recommend that you apply for this type of grant to scale-up a project which has previously received seed funding. You and your international partner can apply for a grant which runs for either max 12 months or max 24 months (from the date of being granted). For a 12-month grant you can apply for up to SEK 500,000. For a 24-month grant you can apply for up to SEK 1 million.
Who can apply?
- Any type of organisation which is registered in Sweden.
- Your organisation must have been registered for at least one year (for seed funding) or two years (for collaborative projects).
- You must write your application jointly with a partner organisation in one (or more) of the Creative Force target countries (see below).
Which countries are included?
In Africa, Asia & MENA:
- Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia
- Bangladesh, Cambodia, Vietnam (NB: these three countries are new from 2021; seed funding only)
- Algeria, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, Libya, Morocco, Palestine, Syria, Tunisia, Yemen
In Eastern Europe & Turkey:
- Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Georgia, Moldavia, Turkey and Ukraine.
NB: we do not grant funding to projects which include financial support to public sector partners in Belarus (state, regional, municipal).
Russia:
Important: We have removed the northwest Russia restriction. You may now apply to work with initiatives and partners in any part of Russia.
Covid-19
- Projects should normally take place entirely in the target country or partly in Sweden and partly in the target country. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has radically changed our opportunities to travel and meet physically, for the moment at least. It is important that you take this into account when designing your project.
- During the ongoing pandemic we are exceptionally allowing applicants to allocate up to 50 percent of the total budget to project management and administration. This applies to the Call which opens on 1 December 2020.