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MUSIC EDUCATION AND LEARNING: Boosting European Music Diversity and Talent
Deadline: Apr 30, 2020  
CALL EXPIRED

 Audiovisual Services
 Education and Training
 Creative Industries
 Festivals
 Music
 New Media
 Performing Arts
 Creative Europe
 Music Production

This call for proposals serves the implementation of the distinct activity “Music

Education and Learning” within the context of the Preparatory action “Music Moves Europe: Boosting European music diversity and talent” in accordance with the Commission decision C(2019)1819 of 12 March 2019 adopting the 2019 annual work programme for the implementation of Pilot Projects and Preparatory Actions in the area of education, youth, sport and culture1.

The European Union's role in the culture area is specified in Article 167 of the Treaty of the Functioning of the EU. Activities in this field at EU level are defined by the multiannual Work Plan for Culture (2019-2022)2 of the Council and are framed in particular by the European Commission’s New European Agenda for Culture of May 20183, which aims toreinforce the role and position of culturein an increasingly globalised world.

In this context, the role of the European Commission (hereinafter: the Commission) is to help address common challenges, such as the impact of the digital shift, changing models of cultural governance, and the need to support the innovation potential of the cultural and creative sectors.

The Creative Europe Programme has served since 2014 as a consolidated framework programme in support of Europe's cultural and audio-visual sectors. It has supported the implementation of actions in line with the EU’s cultural policy. In the context of the preparations of the post-2020 Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF), the negotiations on the next Creative Europe programme are ongoing4 with the aim to build on the existing Programme's achievements to date, and to scale up efforts to safeguard cultural diversity and strengthen competitiveness of the cultural and creative sectors.

1.2. The music sector in Europe

Music constitutes an important pillar of European culture. Aside from its economic significance – it employs more people than film and generates more than 25bn EUR revenue annually – the music sector is also an essential component of Europe’s cultural diversity, social inclusiveness and soft power diplomacy and it brings positive changes to many levels of society.

Based on small and medium businesses with a strong potential for growth and job creation, the European music sector has been strongly influenced by the digital shift: new distribution channels, powerful digital players, innovative start-ups, business models and consumption patterns have emerged over the last decades.

The music industry is therefore changing and finds itself at the forefront of an unchartered territory, most certainly paving the way for the other content industries. The unstable music ecosystem calls for an increasing need to mobilise the sector as well as policy makers to face such new challenges and explore the related new opportunities. As actions and policy initiatives at national level often prove neither sufficient nor suitable to encompass the global nature of the industry and of the consumption schemes, there is a need and a demand for an EU intervention to support Europe's key assets in the music field: creativity, diversity and competiveness in a context of globalisation.

In 2019, the Preparatory action “Music Moves Europe: Boosting European music diversity and talent” should build on and complement the two calls for tender and the two calls for proposals that the Commission launched in May 2018, during the first year of its implementation. It should address the music sector's specific needs in the short and medium-term. With an increased budget of 3 million EUR, the 2019 Preparatory action offers an opportunity to develop initiatives on a larger scale than it was possible in 2018 and to explore ways of cooperation in different relevant areas for the music sector.

1.3. The Music Moves Europe Preparatory action

The Commission's legislative proposal for the next Creative Europe Programme includes the “sectorial support for music” as a new element for the benefit of the music sector, in addition to existing funding opportunities (i.e. cooperation projects, networks, platforms)5.

In general terms, such support would be directed towards European diversity and talent, the competitiveness of the European music sector as well as an increased access of citizens to music in all its diversity.

The Preparatory action “Music Moves Europe: Boosting European music diversity and talent” aims at paving the way towards such sectorial support. To this end, the implementation of the 2019 Preparatory action will follow a two-fold approach:

- to build on and develop further actions in the fields of "training" and "export";

- to implement and evaluate actions in new areas, i.e.: "small venues", "co-creation", "health effects", "music education".

The 2019 Preparatory action is designed to meet six specific objectives. The present call for proposals aims at promoting one of the objectives, namely to promote innovative approaches in the field of music education and learning through cooperation between the music and education sector.

Music Education and Learning

Studies have shown that music education is beneficial in many ways, inter alia, for the development of social competences, fostering social inclusion, enhancing creativity and promoting critical thinking. In addition, it can well lay the groundwork for professional orientation towards a career in the music sector. Music education can have a formal but also non-formal and informal dimension.

Even if this call focuses on informal/non-formal music education, it has to be seen as part of a broader concept of art education. In its resolution on the New European Agenda for Culture, the European Parliament6 highlighted in the same spirit the role of music and arts education in schools and stressed its added value.

Education and training systems, together with non-formal and informal learning7, have a fundamental role to play in developing creative and innovative capacities from an early age as key factors in enhancing future economic competitiveness and employability and equally important in promoting personal fulfilment and development, social inclusion and active citizenship.8

The Council Recommendation on key competences for lifelong learning should be taken into account alongside the recently updated European reference framework on key competences for lifelong learning (2018)9 which defines “Cultural awareness and expression” as one of the eight key competences necessary for employability, personal fulfilment and health, active and responsible citizenship and social inclusion.

Formal learning: learning typically provided by an education or training institution, structured (in terms of learning objectives, learning time or learning support) and leading to certification. Formal learning is intentional from the learner’s perspective.

The European Union can support the Member States in developing “cultural awareness and expression” by encouraging cooperation and the exchange of information, experience and best practice examples in that field.

 

2. OBJECTIVES – EXPECTED RESULTS

2.1 GENERAL AND SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES

General objectives

Music education as a specific pedagogical approach within the broader concept of arts education has three dimensions: production (techniques and expression), reception (experiencing art) and reflection (thinking about one’s own perspective and wider meaning). Music education can be beneficial in many ways; however, the scope of this call will be limited to projects that contribute to fostering social inclusion, i.e. to allow children to have access to musical education and learning that would otherwise not have this opportunity. Social inclusion in this context will mean providing the necessary support to all learners according to their particular needs, including those from disadvantaged socioeconomic backgrounds, those from a migrant background or those with special needs. Nevertheless, the purpose of this call is not to use music as a means to achieve social inclusion, but rather to attract less advantaged children to the world of music. While fully respecting the responsibility of the Member States for the content of teaching and the organisation of education systems, the overall aim of this call is the elaboration and implementation of at least 8 innovative approaches to foster informal/non-formal music education and learning, involving either education institutions or representatives/representative organisations from the education sector cooperating with representatives/representative organisations of the music sector. The objective is to test small-scale projects with a European dimension.

The findings should feed into an integrated strategy for music support in the next generation of EU funding programmes after 2020, which could promote European diversity and talent, the competitiveness of the sector as well as increased access of citizens to music in all its diversity. Ideas will also be generated that can help to formulate possible future policy action to promote music education as part of the European sectorial approach on music, based on the Music Moves Europe initiative.

Specific objectives

The proposals should demonstrate their contribution to the general objective by covering the two following specific objectives:

1. Promote the cooperation between non-formal/informal education and the music sector with the aim to foster social inclusion, i.e. access to music for less advantaged children or community involvement;

2. Develop a small-scale project with a clear European added value, that is suitable for the exchange of good practices and could lead to a knowledge transfer for similar projects in other countries

2.2 EXPECTED RESULTS

The call intends to support proposals that deliver the following non-exhaustive examples of results and are clearly linked to the objectives (referred to in section 2.1):

  • Implementation of at least 8 innovative approaches to informal/non-formal music education and learning to foster social inclusion;
  • Demonstration of best-practice examples on how the cooperation between the education and the music sector on informal/non-formal music education can foster social inclusion, i.e. to allow children to have access to musical education and learning that would otherwise not have this opportunity;
  • Fostering sustainable forms of co-operation (e.g. creation of networks) with a European dimension;
  • Testing ideas for targeted support to music education within the next generation of EU funding programmes after 2020;
  • Contribution to developing ideas for music education as part of a European sectorial approach on music.

 

3. TIMETABLE

(a) Publication of the call

06/02/2020

(b) Deadline for submitting applications

06/04/2020, 12:00 (Brussels local time)

(c) Evaluation period

May-June 2020

(d) Information to applicants

July 2020

(e) Signature of grant agreement(s)

September 2020

 

4. BUDGET AVAILABLE

The total budget earmarked for the co-financing of projects under this call for proposals is estimated at EUR 300,000.00.

The maximum grant per project will be EUR 30,000.00. The Commission expects to fund at least 8 proposals.

The maximum co-financing rate will be 80% (see under section 11.1.1).The Commission reserves the right not to distribute all the funds available.

 

5. ADMISSIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

In order to be admissible, applications must be:

  •   sent no later than the deadline for submitting applications referred to in section 3;

  •   submitted in writing (see section 14), using the application form in paper version (original and paper copy), together with an electronic copy on a USB stick; and

  •   drafted in one of the EU official languages, preferably in English or French.

 

Failure to comply with those requirements will lead to rejection of the application. 6. ELIGIBILITY CRITERIA

6.1. Eligible applicants

In order to be eligible, projects must be presented by applicants meeting the following criteria:

  •   be a profit or non-profit public or private organisation with legal personality;

  •   have their registered legal office in one of the EU Member States or non-EU countries participating in the Creative Europe programme Culture10.

  •   be an established entity, organisation, provider or a partnership11 demonstrating relevant expertise regarding the education and the music sectors and with knowledge and capacity to organise innovative projects with a European dimension.

In addition, proposals must be submitted by any of the following applicants:

  •   national, regional or local public authorities;

  •   primary and secondary schools,

  •   music schools, conservatories, music venues and festival organisers;

  •   representative organisation of the education sector

  •   representative organisation of the music sector

Natural persons are not eligible.

Affiliated entities
Entities affiliated12 to the applicants are not eligible to receive funding under this Call

for proposals.

For British applicants:

Please be aware that eligibility criteria must be complied with for the entire duration of the grant. If the United Kingdom withdraws from the EU during the grant period without an agreement with the EU ensuring in particular that British applicants continue to be eligible, you will cease to receive EU funding (while continuing, where possible, to participate) or be required to leave the project on the basis of Article II.7 of the grant agreement.

A proposal may be submitted by one entity or a consortium, composed of at least two legal entities.

 

 

In accordance with Article 187 FR, entities that satisfy the eligibility criteria and that do not fall within one of the situations referred to in Articles 136(1) and 141(1) FR and that have a link with the applicant, in particular a legal or capital link, which is neither limited to the action nor established for the sole purpose of its implementation, will be considered as entities affiliated to the applicant.

 

In case a proposal is submitted by a consortium, the proposal must identify all the members of the consortium and among them the coordinator.

Supporting documents

In order to assess the applicants' eligibility, the following supporting documents are requested:

Examples of supporting documents:

  •   private entity: extract from the official journal, copy of articles of association, extract of trade or association register, certificate of liability to VAT (if, as in certain countries, the trade register number and VAT number are identical, only one of these documents is required);

  •   public entity: copy of the resolution, decision or other official document establishing the public-law entity.

6.2. Eligible activities

The following types of activities, inter alia, are eligible under this call for proposals provided that they are addressed to school-aged children (between 6 and 14 years), i.e. children still attending compulsory schools, represent a cooperation between the education and the music sector and focus on the objectives described under section 2:

  •   Organisation of common learning tools such as workshops, summer schools or camps;

  •   Use of audio-visual or digital tools ;

  •   Preparation and participation at a musical activity in the framework of, inter alia, a community project, a show, a parade or a festival.

The following activities are not eligible under this call for proposal:

  •  Formal education activities, studies and mapping projects. Implementation period
  •   activities may not start before the applicant receives the notification of the award decision,

  •   activities may start before the signature of the agreement provided that the applicant clearly states in the proposal that applicant bears the financial risks for covering the cost of the operations carried out before the signature of the agreement;

  •   activities must start at the latest on 1 November 2020;

  •   the maximum duration of projects is 15 months;

    Applications for projects scheduled to run for a longer period than that specified in this call for proposals will not be accepted.

 

7. EXCLUSION CRITERIA

7.1. Exclusion

The authorising officer shall exclude an applicant from participating in call for proposals procedures where:

  1. (a)  the applicant is bankrupt, subject to insolvency or winding-up procedures, its assets are being administered by a liquidator or by a court, it is in an arrangement with creditors, its business activities are suspended, or it is in any analogous situation arising from a similar procedure provided for under EU or national laws or regulations;

  2. (b)  it has been established by a final judgment or a final administrative decision that the applicant is in breach of its obligations relating to the payment of taxes or social security contributions in accordance with the applicable law;

  3. (c)  it has been established by a final judgment or a final administrative decision that the applicant is guilty of grave professional misconduct by having violated applicable laws or regulations or ethical standards of the profession to which the applicant belongs, or by having engaged in any wrongful intent or gross negligence, including, in particular, any of the following:

    1. (i)  fraudulently or negligently misrepresenting information required for the verification of the absence of grounds for exclusion or the fulfilment of eligibility or selection criteria or in the performance of a contract, a grant agreement or a grant decision;

    2. (ii)  entering into agreement with other applicants with the aim of distorting competition;

    3. (iii)  violating intellectual property rights;

    4. (iv)  attempting to influence the decision-making process of the Commission during the award procedure;

    5. (v)  attempting to obtain confidential information that may confer upon it undue advantages in the award procedure;

  4. (d)  it has been established by a final judgment that the applicant is guilty of any of the following:

    1. (i)  fraud, within the meaning of Article 3 of Directive (EU) 2017/1371 of the European Parliament and of the Council and Article 1 of the Convention on the protection of the European Communities' financial interests, drawn up by the Council Act of 26 July 1995;

    2. (ii)  corruption, as defined in Article 4(2) of Directive (EU) 2017/1371 or Article 3 of the Convention on the fight against corruption involving officials of the European Communities or officials of Member States of the European Union, drawn up by the Council Act of 26 May 1997, or conduct referred to in Article 2(1) of Council Framework Decision 2003/568/JHA, or corruption as defined in the applicable law;

    3. (iii)  conduct related to a criminal organisation, as referred to in Article 2 of Council Framework Decision 2008/841/JHA;

    4. (iv)  money laundering or terrorist financing within the meaning of Article 1(3), (4) and (5) of Directive (EU) 2015/849 of the European Parliament and of the Council;

    5. (v)  terrorist offences or offences linked to terrorist activities, as defined in Articles 1 and 3 of Council Framework Decision 2002/475/JHA, respectively, or inciting, aiding, abetting or attempting to commit such offences, as referred to in Article 4 of that Decision;

    6. (vi) child labour or other offences concerning trafficking in human beings as referred to in Article 2 of Directive 2011/36/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council;

  5. (e)  the applicant has shown significant deficiencies in complying with main obligations in the performance of a contract, a grant agreement or a grant decision financed by the Union's budget, which has led to its early termination or to the application of liquidated damages or other contractual penalties, or which has been discovered following checks, audits or investigations by an authorising officer, OLAF or the Court of Auditors;

  6. (f)  it has been established by a final judgment or final administrative decision that the applicant has committed an irregularity within the meaning of Article 1(2) of Council Regulation (EC, Euratom) No 2988/95;

  7. (g)  It has been established by a final judgement or final administrative decision that the applicant has created an entity in a different jurisdiction with the intent to circumvent fiscal, social or any other legal obligations of mandatory application in the jurisdiction of its registered office, central administration or principal place of business;

  8. (h)  it has been established by a final judgement or final administrative decision that an entity has been created with the intent referred to in point (g);

  9. (i)  for the situations referred to in points (c) to (h) above, the applicant is subject to:

    1. (i)  facts established in the context of audits or investigations carried out by European Public Prosecutor's Office after its establishment, the Court of Auditors, the European Anti-Fraud Office or the internal auditor, or any other check, audit or control performed under the responsibility of an authorising officer of an EU institution, of a European office or of an EU agency or body;

    2. (ii)  non-final judgments or non-final administrative decisions which may include disciplinary measures taken by the competent supervisory body responsible for the verification of the application of standards of professional ethics;

    3. (iii)  facts referred to in decisions of persons or entities being entrusted with EU budget implementation tasks;

    4. (iv)  information transmitted by Member States implementing Union funds;

    5. (v)  decisions of the Commission relating to the infringement of Union competition law or of a national competent authority relating to the infringement of Union or national competition law; or

    6. (vi)  decisions of exclusion by an authorising officer of an EU institution, of a European office or of an EU agency or body.

7.2. Remedial measures

If an applicant declares one of the situations of exclusion listed above (see section 7.4), it must indicate the measures it has taken to remedy the exclusion situation, thus demonstrating its reliability. This may include e.g. technical, organisational and personnel measures to correct the conduct and prevent further occurrence, compensation of damage or payment of fines or of any taxes or social security contributions. The relevant documentary evidence which illustrates the remedial measures taken must be provided in annex to the declaration. This does not apply for situations referred in point (d) of section 7.1.

 

7.3. Rejection from the call for proposals

The authorising officer shall not award a grant to an applicant who:

  1. (a)  is in an exclusion situation established in accordance with section 7.1; or

  2. (b)  has misrepresented the information required as a condition for participating in the procedure or has failed to supply that information; or

  3. (c)  was previously involved in the preparation of documents used in the award procedure where this entails a breach of the principle of equal treatment, including distortion of competition, that cannot be remedied otherwise.

Administrative sanctions (exclusion) may be imposed on applicants if any of the declarations or information provided as a condition for participating in this procedure prove to be false.

7.4. Supporting documents

Applicants must provide a declaration on their honour certifying that they are not in one of the situations referred to in Articles 136(1) and 141 FR, by filling in the relevant form attached to the application form accompanying the call for proposals and available in Annex II.

This obligation may be fulfilled in one of the following ways: For mono-beneficiary grants:

(i) the applicant signs a declaration in its name

For multi-beneficiary grants:

  1. (i)  the coordinator of a consortium signs a declaration on behalf of all applicants; OR

  2. (ii)  each applicant in the consortium signs a separate declaration in their own name.

 

8. SELECTION CRITERIA

8.1. Financial capacity

Applicants must have stable and sufficient sources of funding to maintain their activity throughout the duration of the grant and to participate in its funding. The applicants' financial capacity will be assessed on the basis of the following methodology, which is further detailed in Annex VIIa of the call for proposals.

As the maximum value of each grant is set at 30,000.00 euros, the applicants’ financial capacity will be assessed on the basis of :

 a declaration on their honour (Annex II of this call for proposals).
On the basis of the documents submitted, if the Commission considers that financial

capacity is weak, s/he may:

  •   request further information;

  •   decide not to give pre-financing;

  •   decide to give pre-financing paid in instalments;

  •   decide to give pre-financing covered by a bank guarantee (see section 11.6 below);

  •   where applicable, require the joint and several financial liability of all the co- beneficiaries.

    If the RAO considered that the financial capacity is insufficient s/he will reject the application.

8.2. Operational capacity

Applicants, including all members of the team implementing the project, e.g. the education and music professionals, must have the professional competencies necessary to complete the proposed action and to deliver results within the requested timescale. At least one member of the team implementing the project needs to have an academic degree at master level and at least five years of professional experience demonstrating the necessary competences to work in the field of music education.

In particular, applicants must demonstrate:

  •   proven track record of relevant specialist knowledge/skills in the field of music combined with sound pedagogical methodologies;

  •   good understanding of the key challenges for music education in the perspective of social inclusion;

  •   knowledge and capacity to organise innovative projects with a European dimension.

In this respect, applicants have to submit a declaration on their honour, and the following supporting documents:

  • curriculum vitae or description of the profile of the people primarily responsible for managing and implementing the project (accompanied where appropriate, like in the field of research and education, by a list of relevant publications);
  • the organisation's activity reports in the last two years;
  • an exhaustive lists of previous projects and activities performed and connected to the policy field of a given call or to the actions to be carried out in the last two years.

 

9. AWARD CRITERIA

Eligible applications/projects will be assessed on the basis of the following criteria: Relevance, Quality of the activities and Management of the project.

The applications will first be assessed against the ‘relevance’ award criterion. Applications that do not reach the minimum quality threshold of 60% of the maximum possible score for relevance will not be assessed further.

9.1 Relevance (0-40 points)

The relevance of the project and its expected contribution to the objectives set out under section 2 of the call for proposals, including:

  •   Expected impact and added value at European level;

  •   Cooperation between the education and the music sector on non-formal/informal music education with the aim to foster social inclusion;

  •  Transferability of the expected results building on “lessons learnt”.

9.2 Quality of the activities (0-40 points)

The quality of the overall design of the activities and how the project will be implemented in practice, including:

  •   Cost effectiveness of the proposed action, and in particular the quality of the means of implementation and the resources deployed in relation to the objectives envisaged;

  •   Sustainability (the extent to which the actions and/or the cooperation/network will continue after the end of the project);

  •   Promotion and visibility of the expected results.

    9.3 Management of the project (0-20 points)

    The extent to which the applicant demonstrates its ability to organise, coordinate and implement the various aspects of the proposed activities, including:

  •   Rationale of the proposed methodology and organisation of the project (including the recruitment of the teaching staff and the selection of the participants/pupils, the timetable, monitoring and quality assurance);

  •   Cooperation between the education and the music sector, i.e. defining clearly the role of each member of the team within the project;

  •   Evaluation method of the expected results, including impact assessment.

 

10. LEGAL COMMITMENTS

In the event of a grant awarded by the Commission, a grant agreement, drawn up in euro and detailing the conditions and level of funding, will be sent to the applicant, as well as the information on the procedure to formalise the agreement of the parties.

Two copies of the original agreement must be signed first by the beneficiary or coordinator on behalf of the consortium and returned to the Commission immediately. The Commission will sign it last.

The applicants understand that submission of a grant application implies acceptance of the general conditions attached to this call for proposals. These general conditions bind the beneficiary to whom the grant is awarded and shall constitute an annex to the grant agreement.

 

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