The stories we tell about technologies shape our political and social beliefs, our perception of what is of value, what matters or not. Building narrative power is how communities can challenge and shape widespread and accepted stories and beliefs that influence social, political, and cultural transformation. In this programme, we want organisations to help communities in Europe have a say about the direction of data centres, AI and young people and jobs. 

A community is a clearly defined audience sharing a common context, language, or narrative environment. In relation to our priority narrative themes, this could for example, be residents living near data centres, office workers affected by AI adoption in the workplace, young people who want to engage in a national debate about AI and mental health…These communities have a shared interest in imagining and creating strong narratives around an alternative vision of AI, which serves people, society and planet.  

We deliberately do not use a technical definition of AI, to make sure our grants cover a broad range of impacts of AI systems, AI physical infrastructure and the economic dimension of the AI supply chain on people and society. It also allows us to be responsive as new technologies develop and definitions change over time. 

As this is a relatively short programme, we want to ensure organisations we fund already have prior experience of working on narratives. We want to know if the work you propose seems feasible given your skills, experience and capacity with the time and money available. 

Prior narrative experience could include: 

• Engaging communities to understand their experiences and existing public sentiment 

• Finding ways to expose contradictions in dominant narratives that are used to justify unequal power dynamics 

• Imagining alternative narratives 

• Testing and developing messages 

• Shifting attitudes by expanding the public’s sense of what is possible 

This narrative experience does not have to be related to AI or our priority themes. 

Public opinion research points to data centres, jobs and young people as areas where the public is ready to mobilise around AI. Through the funding and learning programme we want to test these assumptions in practice. 

You will need to choose one primary narrative theme to work on. Intersection with another theme is fine as long as it makes strategic sense to embed it into your narrative work. Find out more about why we have chosen these three themes. 

No, you can only submit one project proposal. We would recommend choosing the project idea you believe has most potential and will have most impact. 

Granted projects should develop narrative frames and test out messaging with specific audiences around a particular goal for change.  It’s up to you to decide what the steps to achieve that goal are, and what the outcomes could be. Through this we want to: 

– learn what narratives shift mindsets on AI and move people to respond differently.  

– find out which narrative building approaches can potentially be replicated across issues and geographies. 

– identify the combination of actors and skills that leads to effective outcomes. 

– discover what infrastructure is helpful, whether that exists or needs to be created.  

– see what internal and external factors enable organisations to do this work well, and what barriers exist. 

If you are already working on building narrative power on one of our three themes, this grant could be used to fund the next phase of your work. However, you would need to meet the aims and criteria of this programme, including participating in our learning community of practice. 

Alongside the grant, we will bring successful applicants together to share how they are testing narrative strategies and tactics in their own countries, finding commonalities and supporting each other. We will design this learning programme to suit the needs of the selected cohort. 

The call for proposals is ONLY open to organisations in Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland.  

For this programme, we are not accepting applications from the UK, the Western Balkans or any other non-European countries. 

If your organisation will be receiving grant funding in 2027 from the European AI & Society Fund, you will not be able to apply for a Building Narrative Power grant. 

Past grantees of the European AI & Society Fund can apply for these grants if they meet the criteria. However, one objective of the grants programme is to discover new organisations across Europe with narrative change experience. 

No. We cannot fund organisations outside of our geographic scope (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czechia, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Liechtenstein, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland), whether they are in a coalition or not. 

Yes, as long as your proposal falls under the scope of the programme and is conducted in the European countries we mention in the criteria.  

We are interested in work that is rooted in specific national, linguistic, cultural, or community contexts. Cross-border projects may be eligible where they focus on a clearly defined audience sharing a common context, language, or narrative environment. However, our learning programme will bring grantees together to learn from each other so keeping projects in on a country-level is fine. 

For applicants who operate at regional or European level, proposed activities must focus on a specific national, sub-regional, linguistic, cultural, or community context. We do not fund projects whose primary objective is to create or deliver pan-European campaigns or narratives for a general European audience. 

Applicants should be able to demonstrate why the proposed narrative work is tailored to the context and communities they intend to reach. 

Yes, however the project needs to be non-profit in nature.  

The aim of the programme is to build narrative power in communities, not develop new policy, advocacy or research. If you still believe your organisation meets the criteria, including having an idea for a project which is non-profit in nature, we would welcome an application from you.  

If a university team – for example a research lab – doesn’t have its own legal personality, the host university should apply. 

The European AI & Society Fund does not provide direct grants to other pooled funds or funding organisations that primarily focus on regranting to civil society. We advocate with our donors to directly support other pooled funds to make sure money is used efficiently and avoid incurring multiple layers of overhead costs. We work closely with other pooled funds to make sure that our strategies are complementary and that our respective grantees can benefit from available funding opportunities.    

Subgranting that is part of the implementation of specific project objectives and coalition work is possible in line with the regranting policies of our hosting partner Network of European Foundations. This means that if you wish to subgrant more than €30,000 to a partner that does not have audited accounts, a financial controller should be put in place to verify the use of the funds. 

If you want to apply in partnership with other organisations, please choose one lead applicant who represents the coalition (up to three organisations in total). If a coalition is selected for funding, the lead applicant must put Memorandums of Understanding (MoU) in place with all the participating organisations during the contracting phase.  

We recommend the most established organisation leads the application to meet due diligence requirements if you are invited to submit a detailed second-stage application.  

Please note, the maximum grant amount is still €150,000 even if you apply as a coalition. 

Organisations can only apply once, including when they apply as part of a coalition.  

No. Your organisation already needs to be registered when you apply. 

We expect to fund 15 projects at most. We will invite approximately 25 applicants into the second round to submit a full application.  

We know that there is far too little funding in this field and that there are also far too few open applications for funding so we expect to receive a large number of applications. In our last call for proposals, we received 325 applications and could only fund 15 projects. We are sorry that we will not be able to fund more of the excellent proposals that we are sure to receive. We continue to advocate among our philanthropic community for more resources to meet this need.  

The grant can be spent on salaries and consultant fees, materials, travel costs, publishing costs, overheads. We will ask you for a detailed budget if you progress to the second-stage application. 

Grants will be up to €150,000. Payments are usually 50% on grant signing, 40% midway through the grant period subject to previous funds having been spent, 10% on completion of the grant. 

We encourage applicants to make realistic judgements about the resources they will need to conduct the work and neither under nor overbudget their proposals. 

As a general rule, organisations should not request more than the amount of their previous annual budget, except in exceptional cases where the need is motivated and demonstrated by the proposal and the accompanying budget.   

If you don’t have a previous annual budget, we recommend you request a grant which is proportional with your project. 

If your application is selected for a second stage application, we will request a more detailed budget breakdown of how you propose to use the grant funds. 

We can discuss grant period start and end dates with organisations that we select. However, contracts will start from February 2027, and all granted activities must be completed by September 2028. 

This funding will help the European AI & Society Fund understand more about how to build the narrative power of the public interest community in Europe. Based on the insights from this work and our available budget at the time, we will decide whether and how to continue funding narrative approaches. Grantees should not expect nor rely on funding extensions beyond the term of these grants.  

You can apply through our online application portal. You will need to create a free account, fill out the application form on the portal, and then submit it. Here is a preview of the application form questions to prepare your draft answers. We recommend you prepare your answers offline first and then submit them on the portal. First-stage applications must be submitted by 31 August 23:59 CET. The portal will automatically close at the deadline so give yourself plenty of time. Please read the guidance for applicants document carefully before you apply. 

We recognise that applicants may choose to use AI tools when preparing their proposals. Please be aware that we read applications closely and pay attention to the quality of thinking behind them. Submissions that are AI-generated rather than AI-assisted tend to be evident. That said, you are welcome to use AI tools to help refine your ideas or shape how you present them. We simply encourage you to ensure that the thinking and perspective reflected in your application is genuinely your own. 

Due diligence is the process by which we check that your organisation is who it says it is, and has enough experience, resources and capacity to deliver the project you are asking us to fund. During the first stage of the application, you won’t be asked to provide due diligence documentation. If you’re invited to submit a full application, you will need to submit additional documents. This usually takes some time to gather.  

Below is a list of the documents we require so you know what it will involve. Please do not invest time in collating this information until you are invited to submit a full application in the second round.  

The due diligence process has two parts: a financial and an organisational part. For the financial part:  

• Proof of registration / articles of association  

• Your 2024 accounts  

• Your 2025 accounts  

• Audit report 2025 (if applicable)  

• Forecast annual budget for 2026  

• Most recent operating budget (2025)  

• Bank identification form   

• Proposed budget for the project  

For the organisational due diligence, you will need to fill in the due diligence questionnaire  

These are requirements from our host institution NEF to ensure we meet our legal responsibilities and are confident the organisation has experience and processes in place to manage the requested amount. 

How do you define ‘young people’? 
We don’t have a set age range to define young people. Our broad definition could include children who are already starting to use AI, teenagers, students…our focus is on supporting young people to be included and have a say in how AI is deployed and developed, particularly because it affects their development.

Our belief at the European AI & Society Fund is that if harnessed with care and accountable to the public, AI technologies could help meet human needs and build the fair, democratic and sustainable societies we want to live in. 

From research and insight from public interest organisations across Europe, it’s clear that AI is currently having a negative impact on jobs, young people and data centres powering AI are problematic.

The Building Narrative Power programme creates an opportunity to engage communities in discussing these issues, and imagining ways AI can be used without causing as much harm. 

Yes, as long as the scope of your project aims to build narrative power in communities. We won’t fund standalone creative or media work. But if it is part of a narrative strategy related to our three themes, then we would welcome your application.