Building Narrative Power

Building Narrative Power is sponsored by European AI & Society Fund (King Baudouin Foundation, Robert Bosch Stiftung, and other partners). This funding and learning program is designed to develop and test narrative strategies in Europe around three key areas where AI's impacts are most keenly felt: data centers, jobs, and young people's lives.

Building Narrative Power funding and learning programme - European AI & Society Fund Building Narrative Power: funding and learning to craft new stories about AI The stories we tell about technologies shape our perceptions of what’s valuable, what’s possible and what’s not. For too long the Big Tech industry has dominated our understanding of AI.

With a new funding and learning programme, the European AI & Society Fund wants to help people and communities grow their power to shape new narratives about the technology we want. The European AI & Society Fund is a pooled fund that mobilises a powerful public interest community in Europe to fight for Artificial Intelligence that serves people, society and planet.

18 funding partners have combined resources to award grants, build the field, fundraise and forge collective strategies. We don’t receive EU funding, funding from governments or from Big Tech.

Through our new €2 million Building Narrative Power programme, we are offering grants of up to €150,000 for organisations across Europe to build the narrative power of communities, and develop and test narrative strategies around three areas where AI’s impacts are most keenly felt: data centres, jobs and young people’s lives.

Selected organisations will join a learning programme, sharing experiences from different countries and issues, finding commonalities and supporting each other. The deadline for first-stage applications is 31 August 2026. Find out more about the programme, and whether you can apply below.

Why do we need to build narrative power? AI is being adopted across all areas of our lives at unprecedented speed. It’s reshaping our economies, politics and societies.

But people have too little say over what that change looks like. Major tech companies have persuaded business leaders and governments that only they can build our future. That we are in a race for economic competitiveness that only they can help us win.

And that rules which safeguard the public mean we’ll lose. These current dominant narratives have not emerged by themselves. They are the product of the tech industry’s well-resourced and long-term strategy to establish framings that work to its benefit.

This drowns out the people who want AI to support, not erode, our human dignity, our democracies and the health of our planet. That’s why we want to invest in building alternative public interest narratives so that people and society can have a greater say over how and where AI technologies get adopted in Europe.

Narrative strategy themes This programme will fund narrative strategy work that focuses on: > Data centres powering AI We have chosen these themes because research indicates these are the issues that the public care about the most. This creates an opportunity for organisations to engage communities about how AI affects them now – and what they wish for from the technologies. Find out more about why we have chosen these three themes.

This 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. Find out more about the programme and if you fit the criteria, we would welcome your application . For clarifications, please find our FAQs at the bottom of this page.

To apply, you will need to create an account on our application platform Optimy and submit your application there before 31 August. The link to it is in the guidance documents below: > Guidance for applicants: explains what kind of organisations and projects we are looking to fund > Application form preview: see all the questions upfront so you can prepare your application draft before submitting your first-stage application.

>> Download the documents for applicants.

Application stages Call for proposals launched 16 July First information session 22 July Second information session 29 July Third information session 24 August Deadline for submissions of first-stage applications 31 August Unsuccessful applicants notified 16 October Successful first-stage applications asked to submit detailed proposal 19 October Deadline for submissions of detailed proposals 16 November Notification of funding decision 14 December Grant start date February 2027 Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) and Information sessions Below are some FAQs which explain a bit more about eligibility, applying and what we will require from you if your application is selected to submit a detailed proposal in the next round.

If you did not find an answer to your question below, please register for one of our information sessions, or contact us on info@europeanaifund. org >> Register for information session 3 on 24 August at 11am-12pm CET – made for those last minute questions before you submit your application before the 31 August deadline. What do you mean by building narrative power?

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. What do you mean by communities? 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. What do you mean by narrative experience?

What do we need to demonstrate? 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.

Why are you focusing on three narrative issues? Do we need to pick one of the three themes or can our project cut across two or more? 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. Can my organisation submit multiple project ideas within one theme? 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. What would a successful project look like? What outcomes are you expecting?

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. Will you fund ongoing work? 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. What does the learning programme entail? 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. Do you accept applications from all European countries?

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. Can European AI & Society Fund grantees apply for these grants? 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. Can organisations based outside of Europe partner with an organisation in Europe to deliver the project in Europe?

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.

What if my organisation is registered in Europe, but some of the beneficiaries of our work are outside of Europe? Can we still apply? 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.

What do you mean when you say you won’t fund pan-European work? 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. Can entities that don’t have a non-profit status be part of a coalition applying jointly?

Yes, however the project needs to be non-profit in nature. Will you accept applications from for-profit organisations, universities, government departments, municipality networks, an Economic Interest Grouping or the UN? 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. Do you fund regranters and/or other pooled funds?

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.

Can a coalition of several organisations apply together? 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. Can we apply multiple times?

Our organisation wants to apply as part of a coalition, and we’d like to submit a separate application as well – can we do that? Organisations can only apply once, including when they apply as part of a coalition. We are in the process of registering our organisation, can we apply?

No. Your organisation already needs to be registered when you apply. How likely are we to actually get a grant if we 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. What can the grant be spent on?

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. How much money should we request?

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. How long is the grant period? 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. Will the grants awarded under this call be renewed at the end of the grant? 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. How can I submit my application?

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. Can I use AI to write my application? 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. What does the due diligence process entail exactly, and which documents do I have to provide? 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 Audit report 2025 (if applicable) Forecast annual budget for 2026 Most recent operating budget (2025) 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’? 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. Do you support projects that are not in favour of AI?

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. Will you accept applications from artists, cultural institutions, media organisations? 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. If you did not find an answer to your question, please join one of the information sessions or contact us on info@europeanaifund.

org