Funding programme

The Justice programme is the EU’s funding programme to support judicial cooperation in civil and criminal matters.

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Call overview

This call aims to support training promoting the digitalisation of national justice systems.

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Call detail

In line with the Commission Communication ‘Ensuring justice in the EU — a European judicial training strategy for 2021-2024', the primary objective of the call is to support training promoting the digitalisation of national justice systems. Training funded under this call are expected to build the “digital capacity” of justice professionals and promote the digital transition of judicial training methodologies, while also contributing to the effective and coherent application of EU law in the areas of civil law, criminal law, and fundamental rights, including non-discrimination, equality, and the rule of law.

Funding will be provided for training activities and tools for training providers, as described below, in order to support training activities for:

1. members of the judiciary and judicial staff, meaning judges, prosecutors, court and prosecution offices’ staff, other justice professionals associated with the judiciary, such as lawyers in private practice, notaries, bailiffs, insolvency practitioners and mediators, as well as court interpreters and translators, prison and probation staff; and/or
2. justice professionals in initial / induction training, and/or
3. multipliers, such as judicial trainers or EU law court coordinators, where there are guarantees that the multipliers will pass on their knowledge to justice professionals in a systematic way, and/or
4. cross-professional training, in order to stimulate discussions across justice professions about the application of EU law and contribute to a European judicial culture across professional boundaries on precisely identified topics of relevance to the concerned professions.

Read more in the call document.

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Activities funded

This call may support training activities such as:

- training activities on the use of digital justice tools, in particular with regard to the priority topics set out above;

- pilot innovative online training using latest methodologies and tools;

- organisation of interactive, practice-oriented seminars;

- multilateral exchanges between justice professionals;

- cross-border initial training activities (online, face-to-face activities or exchanges), covering as many Member States as possible, to create a common European legal culture from the moment of entering a justice profession;

- joint study visits to European courts (such as the CJEU and the ECHR) by justice professionals from as many different Member States as possible;

- creation of training material, whether for presential learning, blended learning or elearning, ready-to-use either by trainers or by practitioners for self-learning, in combination with the organisation of training activities, including the creation of ‘Capsule’ e-training (short, up to date, tightly focused) to address justice professionals’ immediate needs in the context of a concrete case;

- update and/or translation of existing training material possibly combined with adaptation to national settings, in combination with the organisation of cross-border training activities;-

creation of tools or activities for training providers (for example: train-the-trainers on active and modern adult learning techniques, train-the-trainers on online training skills and tools, tools to support the organisation of cross-border training, etc.), including to facilitate their cooperation at EU-level;

- evaluation of the organised training activities on the basis of the participants’ satisfaction, increased competence and, where possible, impact on their performance.

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Eligibility

In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:

− be legal entities (public or private bodies)

− be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:

• EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs), excluding Denmark)
• non-EU countries: countries associated to the Justice Programme or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature (list of participating countries)

- and comply with other eligibility conditions:

1. Organisations which are profit-oriented must submit applications in partnership with public entities or private non-profit-oriented organisations;
2. the applications must be transnational and involve organisations from at least two participating countries;
3. the EU grant applied for cannot be lower than € 100 000.

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Consortium composition

Proposals must be submitted by a consortium of at least two applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities), which complies with the following conditions:

1. the applications must involve minimum two entities (beneficiaries, not affiliated entities) from different eligible countries;
2. the consortium must include at least one public body, private non-profit organisation or international organisation as beneficiary or affiliated entity.

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Duration

Projects should normally range between 12 and 24 months. Applications for longer projects are accepted provided that a thorough explanation for the longer duration is provided in the proposal. The maximum duration is 36 months. Extensions are possible, if duly justified and through an amendment.

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Budget

Project budgets (requested grant amount) cannot be lower than € 100 000. There is no upper limit.