• The project activities take place within the context of a UK-German school partnership where at least ten pupils from both schools are participating in trips to the other country involving project work.
• The activity focuses on thematic and coherent project work, which must be relevant and interesting for young people, leading to concrete outcomes and results. Projects should include a strong element of joint investigation of overarching issues.
• The emphasis of the project is on real and meaningful interaction, collaboration and joint activity between the pupils from both countries, including joint preparatory work and follow-up activities.
• The project includes a strong element of involvement of pupils in the conception, implementation and dissemination of the project with the travelling pupils taking on an active role as ambassadors and representatives of a wider group of young people.
• Both sides undertake trips to the partner institution; the two visits must be clearly related and embedded in the same project with the project work of the second visit building on that of the first visit.
• The period of time between the visits must be no longer than 8 months and visits should ideally take place within the same school year. Each visit must include at least three full days of dedicated and joint project activity.
• A language-learning element is welcomed but not compulsory.

For a full list of criteria, please refer to the guidelines (see Files to download list on this page).

• The maximum grant available is £5,000 and is to be shared between the participating schools. In some cases, schools can bid for up to £6,000 exceptional circumstances.
• Grants provided through the Challenge Fund grant can support costs such as travel and accommodation for reciprocal partner visits, project resources and joint activities and will be a contribution to the overall costs.
• Applicants must contribute at least 25% of the overall eligible activity costs through participants’ contributions and other sources of funding.

Before completing parts 1 & 2 of the application forms, please familiarise yourself with the programme guidelines (see Files to download list on this page).

• There are three deadlines each year: 31 January, 31 May, and 31 October. See the box at the top of this page for the next deadline.

• Proposed project activities cannot start until at least six weeks after the funding deadline. For example, an application for a project starting in February would need to be submitted for the previous October deadline.

Your full application should include the following:

• Part 1: Grant specific project description
• Part 2: General funding application form for schools
• draft programmes
• financial plan (if not included in the general funding application form)

Download and complete the forms (see Files to download list on this page) and submit them electronically to funding@ukgermanconnection.org.

Please ensure that the forms you complete are the most up-to-date versions, which are available to download on this page.

Paper copies of parts 2.6 and 2.7 of the general funding application form, including original signatures from all participating groups, must be sent by post to:

UK-German Connection
Funding Programmes
34 Belgrave Square
London
SW1X 8QB

Please note that Challenge Fund applications can only be submitted by one participating institution on behalf of the whole project. This can be either the German or British institution. The corresponding information for your German partners is available under Challenge Fund on the German section of our website.

If you have any questions about the programme or would like to discuss your plans, please contact us at funding@ukgermanconnection.org.

Good luck with your application!