ScaleDem Scaling Grounds: Twinning Programme

Description

The ScaleDem Twinning Programme is a structured peer-to-peer learning scheme that connects organisations which have already managed to scale a democratic innovation (mentors) with organisations that are currently facing similar scaling gaps (mentees). Its aim is to support the replication and adaptation of concrete “scaling actions” in new contexts, and to generate practice-based insights for the ScaleDem Theory of Scaling. Mentors and mentees work together in Twinning Communities of Practice, where: Mentors share one or more proven actions that helped them scale their own democratic innovation (for example, embedding a citizen participation process in a new institutional setting, expanding it to new territories or groups, or improving its quality and legitimacy). Mentees apply and adapt these scaling actions to their own democratic processes, in their specific institutional, cultural and geographical contexts. Each Twinning community will run for up to 12 months, between October 2026 and September 2027. During this period, community members are expected to: co-design action plans for each mentee, based on the mentor’s scaling experience; implement concrete scaling actions in practice, addressing at least one of ScaleDem’s four scaling dimensions (High, Out, Deep, In); meet regularly (online and in person) to review progress, troubleshoot challenges and adjust plans; document their work in a joint community report, including process documentation, evaluations of scaling efforts and reflections on context and transferability. Twinning communities receive financial support in the form of a lump-sum grant of up to EUR 65,500 per community, to be shared among mentors and mentees in line with their agreed work plan. Up to 8 communities will be funded. The call is open to public authorities, civil society and non-profit organisations, research institutions, universities, think tanks, SMEs and similar innovation-driven stakeholders, established in countries eligible under the call HORIZON-CL2-2024-DEMOCRACY-01-12. Applications may be submitted by single organisations or consortia, applying either as mentors or as mentees.

Beneficiary & submission

Applications to the ScaleDem Twinning Programme are submitted via the dedicated online forms available on the ScaleDem website (https://scaledem.eu/call/twinning-programme/). Only applications submitted through these forms by the deadline will be considered. Applicants are invited to first use the Decision Helper / Declaration of Interest to clarify eligibility. Once the full application is submitted and the deadline has passed, the ScaleDem team performs an eligibility check (eligible country, type of organisation, completeness of the form and required declarations). Only eligible and complete applications proceed to evaluation. Eligible Twinning applications (both mentors and mentees) are evaluated by an independent jury composed of members of the project’s Scientific Advisory Board, End-User Advisory Board and consortium partners. Proposals are first scored on the basis of the written applications. On this basis, the jury proposes Twinning Communities of Practice, matching mentors and mentees who face related scaling challenges. Shortlisted applicants may then be invited to a brief online interview, in which they can clarify their proposal, expectations and fit within a community. These interviews help the jury finalise the composition of the communities and confirm the match between mentors and mentees. The jury uses the written applications and interviews to agree a final ranked list of Twinning communities to be funded. Selected applicants are invited to sign a Sub-Grant Agreement. Twinning applications are evaluated using five criteria: Relevance – clarity of objectives and target groups, and alignment with ScaleDem’s aims and scaling framework; Impact – potential to address a real democratic challenge and generate meaningful results for mentees and their communities; Team quality – capacity of mentors and mentees to contribute to and benefit from the Twinning Community of Practice; Justified resource allocation – coherence between the requested budget, the activities planned within the community and the expected results; Sustainability – prospects for lasting use or further development of the scaling actions beyond the funding period. The indicative timeline for the Twinning call is: Call opening: 1 December 2025 Application deadline: 31 March 2026 (23:59, local time of the applicant) Notification of results: around July 2026 Sub-grant agreements signed: by September 2026 Start of Twinning activities: autumn 2026

Further information

This open call is implemented under the Horizon Europe CSA ScaleDem – Scaling Democratic Innovations (GA No. 101178637) and follows the Financial Support to Third Parties (FSTP) provisions. All detailed documents, including the Guide for Applicants, Q&A Document, Note on Legal and IP Framework, and the online application forms for mentors and mentees are (or will be) available at: https://scaledem.eu/call/twinning-programme/ A short Decision Helper / Declaration of Interest is available on the ScaleDem website. Completing it is strongly recommended (but not mandatory) to help applicants check eligibility. Note that two informative sessions will be organised in January to present both calls and answer questions: 20th January 2026, 6 – 8.00 PM CET, LINK 29th January 2026, 10 – 12.00 AM CET, LINK For questions on the call content or process, applicants can contact: opencalls@scaledem.eu.