Call for Proposals: Business and Consumer Surveys

Objectives

• BCS framework partnerships provide a long-term cooperation with partner institutes that carry out business and/or consumer surveys (statistical institutes, central banks, federations of employers, universities, research institutes, market research companies, etc).
• The framework partnerships are concluded for a maximum period of two years (from 1 May 2026 to 30 April 2028) and will specify the surveys to be conducted. They may give rise to maximum two specific grants with a duration of 12 months each, which are awarded following an invitation to submit a proposal and which will fix the budget for the surveys to be conducted for each year.
• Proposals for framework partnerships must cover one or more of the following surveys:
  • Consumer survey
  • Construction survey
  • Industry survey
  • Retail trade survey
  • Services survey

Aims

• The BCS Programme aims to produce harmonised and comparable data sets across countries, in order to allow the comparison of business cycles as well as the calculation of meaningful business cycle indices for the euro area and the EU as a whole.

Funding Information

• The estimated available total annual call budget for the specific grants concluded each year under the framework partnerships is around EUR 6 100 000.
• Maximum project budgets per country are:
  • for the business surveys (collective ceilings apply):
    • EUR 195 000 for all 4 surveys
    • EUR 165 000 for Industry + Retail + Services (no Construction)
    • EUR 130 000 for Construction + Retail + Services (no Industry)
    • EUR 150 000 for Industry + Construction + Services (no Retail)
    • EUR 140 000 for Industry + Construction + Retail (no Services)
    • EUR 95 000 for Industry + Construction (no Retail + Services)
    • EUR 110 000 for Industry + Retail (no Construction + Services)
    • EUR 120 000 for Industry + Services (no Construction + Retail)
    • EUR 75 000 for Construction + Retail (no Industry + Services)
    • EUR 85 000 for Construction + Services (no Industry + Retail)
    • EUR 100 000 for Retail + Services (no Industry + Construction)
    • EUR 65 000 for Industry (no Construction + Retail + Services)
    • EUR 30 000 for Construction (no Industry + Retail + Services)
    • EUR 45 000 for Retail (no Industry + Construction + Services)
    • EUR 55 000 for Services (no Industry + Construction + Retail)
  • for the Consumer survey: EUR 125 000.
• Duration:
  • For framework partnerships, the maximum duration is two years, from 1 May 2026 to 30 April 2028.
  • For specific grants, the projects should normally be 12 months.
  • Extensions are possible, if duly justified and through an amendment.

Expected Impact

• The BCS surveys are expected to produce comparable data sets across countries, in order to allow the comparison of managers’ and consumers’ economic perceptions and expectations in the different countries as well the calculation of a series of indicators (flash consumer survey indicator, economic sentiment indicator, sectoral confidence and uncertainty indicators, etc) which are published by the European Commission.

Eligibility Criteria

• In order to be eligible for a framework partnership, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
  • be legal entities (public or private bodies)
  • be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
    • EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs))
    • non-EU countries:
      • Albania, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia, Tűrkiye

For more information, visit EC.