Up Grants 2026 - Culture for Democracy

ENCC is launching a new edition of Up Grants, a microgrants scheme that boosts innovative projects, offering them visibility, recognition, and opportunities for development. Up Grants is not just a collection of best practices, but a platform to promote and support them, helping them grow and resonate beyond their local communities.

With Up Grants 2026: Culture for Democracy, we want to celebrate socio-culture as a powerful channel for civic participation. Submissions will be collected based on three strands:

1. Digital ethics and democracy: understanding and navigating the digital transformation together
2. Dialogue in times of polarisation: bridging divides and nurturing dialogue in increasingly polarised societies
3. Participation and cultural resistance: socio-cultural centres as laboratories of civic participation and spaces of cultural resistance in times of social, political, and environmental crisis.

Does your initiative fit one of these strands? Then submit it by March 15th, 2026 at 23:59 CET. But before you do so, read the call in full here.

Have you read the call? Then you are ready to apply here.

The Up Grants microfunding scheme is open to all socio-cultural centres throughout Europe. The programme, that takes the form of a contest, aims to help innovative, small-scale civil society initiatives by offering them visibility and funding, all while inspiring others.

All eligible sbmitted projects will be showcased in a dedicated page on our website. This database will not only offer them visibility at national and international levels, but also serve as a valuable resource for sharing and learning from diverse experiences in the field.

Once all eligible initiatives have been submitted, the voting phase begins. The final winners (one for each strand) are then selected as a result of a mix of expert and public vote, and rewarded a grant. Winners will also be invited to our annual conference to showcase their practices.

credits background graphics: encc.eu