Call for Proposals “Children First. Protection of Ukraine’s Future”

Application Submission

The project applications must be submitted in Lithuanian or English electronically on the CPMA application system: https://cpva.submittable.com/submit.

Objective of the Call for Proposals

The objective of this call for proposals is to strengthen accountability for crimes against Ukrainian children committed by institutions, natural and legal persons of russia and other states, and to strengthen opportunities for children and their guardians to return from temporarily occupied territories or deportation.

The call for proposals is financed by the Fund for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Aid.

Thematic Areas

Project proposals need to correspond to one or more of the envisaged thematic areas of the call: strengthening legal accountability for crimes; data verification, tracing and victim identification activities, and facilitation of the process of return from deportation or temporarily occupied territories.

Project applications may be submitted for a selected single thematic area (e.g. for victim identification activities exclusively without implementing activities to strengthen accountability for crimes), or for several thematic areas at once.

Eligible Activities

Activities of documentation of crimes against Ukrainian children, submission of data to international and Ukrainian institutions, as well as processing, verification, and systemisation of data. Activities strengthening the capacities and capabilities of Ukrainian law enforcement to effectively investigate and hold accountable perpetrators or participants of criminal acts. Activities of identification and tracing of affected children and strengthening the effectiveness of sanctions.

Facilitation of return and technical assistance, provision of initial psychosocial support to children and their families or guardians who have experienced forced deportation from Ukraine or found themselves in temporarily occupied territories, including, where needed, temporary accommodation, emergency medical assistance, psychological support, document facilitation, transportation, and case supervision activities.

ATTENTION: Applicants intending to implement activities facilitating return from deportation or temporarily occupied territories are eligible to choose the lump-sum financing method. The method foresees fixed-amount payments dependent on project results achieved. Fixed-amounts will be established in the project contract for individual project implementer, in accordance with the budget proposals submitted by applicants, based on price analysis and data from similar previously implemented projects. Detailed information on the conditions of the lump-sum financing method can be found in the guidelines for applicants.

Project applications may foresee implementation of selected part of the above specified activities (it is not mandatory to carry out all activities listed as eligible for funding).

Eligible Applicants

Non-governmental organisations, research or academic institutions registered in Ukraine and/or EU Member States.

Applicants with at least 1 year of experience of work with vulnerable social groups (relevant experience needs to be indicated in the Applicant’s Declaration form).

Applicants may not act as intermediaries, i.e. once a project contract has been concluded with the selected applicants, the applicants become project implementers and assume liability for the proper implementation of the activities.

Size of grants

Any grant requested under this call for proposals must be no less than the specified minimum and no higher than the maximum eligible amount:

Minimum amount – EUR 30,000

Maximum amount – EUR 100,000

No own contribution is required.

Project implementation duration

6 to 12 months. Project proposals shorter than 6 months or longer than 12 months will be rejected (they will be assessed as not meeting the conditions of the call).

Q and A

ATTENTION: a summary of all submitted project proposals will be made public (information to be made public: applicant, project title, amount of funding requested). The evaluation results will also be published (information to be made public: applicant, project title, approved amount of funding, average score awarded (points), decision on the allocation of funds (decision in principle or funds allocated). By submitting a project application, you agree to the publication of aforementioned information.

Before submitting the project proposal, we invite you to assess whether the publication of such information poses security risks to the organisation’s activities, the safety of employees or beneficiaries, and to take the aforementioned risks into account when formulating the project title.

If you have any questions regarding the scope of publication of information or general questions about the procedure for submitting documents, please contact us, clearly indicating the title of the call for proposals “Children First. Protection of Ukraine’s Future”: .

Questions will be accepted until 4 June 2026.

Information Event for Applicants

Applicants are invited to participate in an information event during which the Call, its conditions, and application requirements will be presented.

Event date: 20 May 2026

Event time: 10:00–12:00 (Lithuanian language) and 14:00–16:00 (English language)

Event location: Online event on the Microsoft Teams platform

Registration will be announced shortly. The link to the event will be sent to the email address you provided during registration.

Submission of proposals and proposal evaluation 

Project applications with annexes must be submitted by 4 June 2026 at 17:00 Lithuanian time.

The evaluation results are expected to be announced by 3 July 2026 at 17:00 Lithuanian time.

Contracts will be concluded with applicants who have successfully passed the selection.