Drug strategy

EU funding for programmes

The European Union has a huge pool of funding potentially available for drugs projects. These cover a wide range of different projects.

For example, last year the European Commission gave a grant of €405,000 to Birmingham City University for a transnational project, and an operating grant of around €96,000 to the Release project (new window).

Despite these successes, there’s a lot of EU money available in the UK which is not being used. Given the constant limitations on funding, you should take a moment to consider whether EU funding might be an option to support your project.

Below is a list of all the potential avenues of EU funding for drugs projects and the types of project they sponsor. If you are involved with a project that you feel might qualify, please follow the links for further information on how to apply.

A European Commission forum (new window) has designed for those involved in drugs projects throughout the EU to talk to their counterparts in other member states. This provides an opportunity to seek potential partners for funding bids.

Drugs prevention and information programme

Deadline: 8 April 2009
Budget: €21.35m from 2007 to 2013

This funding is open to public or private organisations or institutions working in area of information on or prevention of drug use. It is designed to support projects that:

prevent and reduce drug use, dependence and drug-related harm
contribute to the improvement of information on drug use
support work of EU drugs strategy

The 2009 call will probably be launched in autumn this year. Stakeholders are welcome to begin their preparations.

More information is available on the European Commission website (new window).

Prevention and fight against crime programme

Deadline: 31 July 2009
Budget: €597.6m from 2007 to 2013. The remaining budget under this second 2009 call is €23m.

This funding is open to projects from bodies or organisations working in law enforcement cross-border cooperation, involving more than one member state and running for no longer than three years. It is designed to support projects that:

stimulate, promote and develop horizontal methods and tools for strategically preventing and fighting crime
promote and develop co-ordination, co-operation and mutual understanding amongst law enforcement agencies

More information is available on the European Commission website (new window).

Sixth and seventh framework programme

Funds research programmes and areas that would be supported and could possibly relate to drugs include:

Under ‘health’
- brain and brain-related diseases
- HIV/AIDS and Hepatitis Co-infection
- enhanced health promotion and disease prevention and primary prevention research
Under the thematic priority 'socio-economic sciences and humanities'
- research to address economic cohesion between regions and regional development in an enlarged EU
- social cohesion and its relation to social problems such as poverty, housing, crime, delinquency and drugs
- major societal trends and lifestyles
- social exclusion of young people and adolescents, considering delinquency, criminalisation and drug use
Under the thematic priority ‘security’, possible activities to support drugs law enforcement include:
- methods for rapid identification and detection
- delivering technological solutions to combat organised crime