News & Views

Principles of the fund

The Shared Island Civic Society Fund seeks to ensure that funding is not a barrier to cross border engagement. It encourages and supports civic society and community organisations to develop new cross-border links, to further strengthen existing partnerships, or to create or broaden cross-border connectivity on issues of concern for the island of Ireland.

Who should apply to the fund

Consistent with the objectives of the Shared Island Civic Society Fund:

• Applications are sought which will foster sustained engagement between civic society organisations at a regional, national or sectoral level as distinct from stand-alone events or engagements.
• Applications are invited from civic societies, business and trade union representative groups and other regional or national representative bodies, including of underrepresented voices of women, young people, older people, ethnic minorities, and LGBTQI+
• Applications are particularly welcomed in the areas of:
  • Environment
  • Women
  • Youth
  • Migrants
  • Community/Voluntary sector
  • Trade Unions, Business, and Social Enterprise

This is not an exhaustive list and the Shared Island Civic Society Fund will review all applications in line with our assessment criteria

What is being looked for in projects

To qualify for funding, projects must have a strong North South dimension.

Applicants will be asked to demonstrate how their proposed project will do one or more of the following:

• Deepen North South links through the development of sustainable cross-border civic relationships;
• Develop and/or deepen cross-border relations between civic society organisations, North and South;
• Promote constructive and inclusive dialogue around the opportunities and challenges facing the island through cross-border and cross-community engagement;
• Contribute significantly to the development of an all-island civic society ecosystem, particularly in relation to areas of cooperation and fundamental rights provided for under the Good Friday Agreement;
• Adopts an innovative or novel approach to building North South relations.

Eligibility criteria for assessment

The following eligibility criteria apply:

• Applications must demonstrate a clear partnership between at least one organisation based in the South and at least one organisation based in the North, or must be from an all island body;
• Funding will not be awarded to cover standalone activities that are not part of a wider project/programme
• Only direct project/programme work will be eligible for funding and grants will not be awarded to cover core operational or capital costs;
• An organisation may only make one application for funding as a lead organisation per round;
• Organisations already in receipt of funding from the Department of Foreign Affairs and other Government Departments/public bodies are eligible to apply for this fund, although activities supported must be distinct from those being supported by other Government funding schemes;
• Organisations who have received funding from previous rounds of the Shared Island Civic Society Fund and have not submitted all relevant reports from those previous rounds are not eligible to apply to subsequent rounds.

To be eligible an application organisation must also demonstrate

• What the project/programme outcomes are and how they align with the fund’s objectives;
• The impact of the project/programme North and South based on clear expected outputs and outcomes;
• The capacity of the application organisation to deliver the outcomes set out in the project;
• The organisation’s financial management capacity;
• The organisation’s governance arrangements;
• The organisation’s monitoring and evaluation systems;
• The organisation’s financial stability and sustainability.

In addition to the above eligibility requirements, applications will be strengthened by the inclusion of funding contributions to the proposed project from the participating partner organisations.

You apply for the Shared Island Civic Society Fund via the Grant Application Portal for the Department of Foreign Affairs of Ireland Home · DFAT Grant Application Portal.

You are required to register your organisation on the Grant Application Portal in advance of making your application to the Shared Island Civic Society Fund. Include a reasonable level of detail about your organisation and select “Euro” as the currency of your grant applications.

In completing the application form, applicants must clearly demonstrate that their projects will deliver on the Fund’s overall objective to deepen cross-border and all-island collaboration, North and South.

Applications must provide details of both cross-border partners and set out how collaboration between these partners will strengthen North South civic, economic or cultural links. The objectives, deliverables, costs, and timescales for this collaboration must also be clearly set out in the application. Applications will be prioritised based on how strongly they meet these criteria and align with the objectives of the Fund.

Any questions about the Fund should be directed to sharedislandcsfund@dfa.ie.

Any technical questions about using the online Grant Application Portal can be sent to PortalAdmin@dfa.ie.

The deadline for the current call is: 23:59 on 27 June 2025.

You can find full guidelines and application details here: https://www.gov.ie/en/department-of-foreign-affairs/services/shared-island-civic-society-fund/