Grants to Support Coal Communities (Phase II)

East Europe Foundation announces the "Grants to Support Coal Communities (Phase II)" competition within the ROOTS grant program funded by the European Union. The initiative aims to support territorial communities in Dnipropetrovsk and Vinnytsia regions affected by coal mining activities. A defining condition and key eligibility criterion for all beneficiaries is having a project that contributes to just transition goals and is included in an Action Plan or Just Transition Program approved at the relevant level. Up to 8 projects are planned to be supported within the competition. In their application, participants must clearly justify the expected results and describe the activities planned to achieve them.

Participation is open exclusively to entities registered as legal entities in Ukraine:

• Local self-government bodies.
• Communal institutions, enterprises, and organizations.
• Regional development agencies.
• Civil society organizations (CSOs) with non-profit status (codes 0032, 0034, 0036).

Additional requirements: The organization must not be in the process of liquidation or bankruptcy. Registration and actual activities must be within target communities (9 communities in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast and 1 community in Vinnytsia Oblast). CSOs must have concluded memorandums of cooperation with local self-government bodies. Joint applications from multiple partners or separate applications for components of a comprehensive project are permitted.

Ineligible participants: Individuals, sole proprietors, commercial businesses, state authorities, political parties, religious organizations, and institutions registered in temporarily occupied territories or on the contact line.

The grant size for a single project ranges from UAH 3,000,000 to UAH 5,000,000 (equivalent to EUR 60,000 – 100,000). There are no mandatory co-financing (own contribution) requirements. The program terms contain a strict list of ineligible expenses that cannot be funded by the grant:

• Expenses incurred before the start or after the end of the project (including advance purchases of services and prepayments).
• Expenses that are not necessary for achieving the project's goals.
• Contributions, donations, regranting, as well as payments of debts, fines, penalties, or taxes imposed for legislative violations.
• Loan interest and compensation for exchange rate fluctuations.
• Purchase of commercial real estate, used equipment, or vehicles.
• Purchase of goods for personal use, alcohol, tobacco, food packages, medicines, and weapons.
• Depreciation costs and reserves for contingencies.
• International business trips, entertainment expenses, gifts, bonuses, and tips.
• Purchase of high-risk materials (chemicals, flammable materials).
• Procurement and distribution of humanitarian or military assistance, as well as political or religious activities.

Grants are provided for projects in the following areas:

• Renewable energy and energy efficiency: Implementation of solar and bioenergy solutions, thermal modernization of buildings, strengthening energy resilience of communities.
• Vocational education and reskilling: Skill development, career counseling, training for coal sector workers and vulnerable groups.
• Environmental protection and sustainable land use: Land recultivation, restoration of degraded areas, reducing the impact of the coal industry, preserving biodiversity.
• Local economic development and SME support: Economic diversification, support for innovative business initiatives, job creation, and alternative income sources.
• Water supply and sanitation systems: System modernization, access to safe drinking water, improving sanitation services.
• Community capacity building: Enhancing institutional capacity of local self-government bodies in planning and implementing just transition, partnership development, and investment attraction.
• Heat supply systems: Modernization of boiler houses and heat networks, implementation of metering and weather regulation, transition to cleaner energy sources.

The program has a clearly defined schedule of activities and implementation:

• October 2, 2026: Offline information session in Ladyzhyn.
• October 9, 2026: Offline information session in Dnipro.
• October 12, 2026: Online information session for potential applicants.
• October 28, 2026, 18:00 (Kyiv time): Application deadline.
• December 2026: Announcement of competition results.
• January 2027: Expected start of project activities.
• Project duration: From 6 to 12 months.

Submissions are made exclusively online via the East Europe Foundation Grant Portal. Applicants must download document templates in the "Documents" section of the portal, review and fill them out, and then transfer the information to the portal. The application must be filled out in Ukrainian. Each applicant may submit no more than one application (individually or as part of a partnership). Applicants will be notified of review results via their personal account on the portal and by email.

All submitted applications will be reviewed and evaluated by an expert board based on the following criteria:

• Inclusion of the project (or part of it) in an approved Action Plan / Just Transition Program of coal territorial communities.
• Justification of project relevance and realism of achieving expected results.
• Alignment with the competition priority areas.
• Budget justification and appropriateness of the grant support amount.
• Additional advantages: Alignment of project activities with the goals of Municipal Energy Plans, local development strategies, as well as the inclusion of the project in the medium-term plan of priority public investments.

• Completed project application (generated on the Grant Portal using organizational templates).
• Completed project budget (template available on the portal; contains a separate tab with instructions and list of ineligible expenses). (Note: CSOs are also required to have a signed memorandum with a local self-government body, though the text does not explicitly specify if it must be uploaded as a separate file at the application stage).

Detailed information regarding the format, frequency of reporting, or compliance control procedures during project implementation is not provided in the competition rules. (These conditions are typically specified directly in the grant agreement with the winners).

• The decision of the selection committee is final and not subject to review.
• East Europe Foundation reserves the right not to grant funding if the content of submitted applications does not meet the competition requirements.
• East Europe Foundation reserves the right not to comment on application review results.
• One applicant may submit no more than one application within this competition (must decide in advance whether to apply independently or as part of a joint application).