UCF will provide anti-crisis support to cultural institutions

Apply for the program

In addition to basic tasks of public institutions, new changes to the Law of Ukraine "On Ukrainian Cultural Foundation" of July 16, 2020 have been introduced, including "providing grants institutional support to legal entities of all forms of ownership to ensure the competitiveness and the creation of working places in terms of the actions implemented under to legislative restrictions of economic activity, caused an extraordinary situation or emergency condition or taking administrative and ( or ) medical- sanitary measures (quarantine) "and also" provide grants to support and develop projects in the fields of culture and arts , creative industries and cultural and Educational ( domestic ) tourism ".

In order to implement these tasks UCF has developed a competitive program "Culture in times of crisis: institutional support", with the open call starting on July 30, 2020. The program is aimed at providing grants institutional support to cover debts, which have arisen during March - August 2020, and also to cover the costs for operating activities before the end of the year. Its implementation became possible due to the temporary decision of the Ukrainian Government to support cultural and creative industries in times of large-scale losses and threats.

In accordance with Decree number 592 of July 8, 2020, Ukrainian Cultural Foundation has received 590 million UAH "to provide grants institutional support to legal entities of all forms of ownership in sphere of culture , educational ( domestic ) tourism and those persons which main activity belongs to creative industries , to ensure the competitiveness and the creation of working places considering the law limits of business activities , caused by emergency or due to administrative and ( or ) medical-sanitary measures (quarantine). "  

The program is set to promote sustainable development of cultural and creative industries in times of pandemic and improve the competitiveness of small and medium businesses cultural field .

Program goals:

• To support organizational capacity of cultural institutions of all forms, affected by the quarantine restrictions;
• To promote the increase in the number of jobs in the creative industries and securing the reduction of workers;
• To stabilize of the work of the actors in cultural and educational ( domestic ) tourism through compensation of losses in connection with the quarantine restrictions ;
• To support the film industry in times of pandemic.

The budget of the program is UAH 540 million. (The program budget does not include costs related to the administration and evaluation of projects by employees and experts of the Foundation's expert councils).

Under the program, support will be provided for 9 LOTs in the relevant sectors of the CCI:

 The maximum grant amount for LOTS 2-9 for legal entities of all forms, except for sole proprietors - UAH 1 million.  

The maximum grant amount for LOTS 2-9 for Individual entrepreneurs is UAH 500,000. 

Maximum grant amount for LOT 1:

• For manufacturers, distributors and actors of  movie demonstration ( Individual Entrepreneurs ) - 500 thousand. UAH 
• for manufacturers, distributors and subjects of movies (legal entities of all forms of property, except individual entrepreneurs) - 1 million UAH 
• for movie demonstration subjects, which are connected to network - 4 million UAH  

The grant program "Culture in Times of Crisis: Institutional Support" covers the amount of credit debt arose due to and in during restrictive measures related to the spread of coronavirus (12 March 2020 - the date of the start of the quarantine) and expenditures planned by the applicant to the end of 2020 according to estimates of the following types and kinds of costs to support :  

• Fees to full-time workers (limiting the size of the monthly payment not more than 3 times the minimum wage boards as of 01/01/2020 - UAH 4,723.00. If the size of the official salary of regular workers is below the set limit, the amount of the payment is set at the level of monthly payments, approved by the staff list of the Grantee organization);
• social contributions;
• rent of machinery, equipment, land plots and premises;
• Operating expenses for the maintenance of premises and utility services (electricity, central water supply, etc.);
• Utilization of material assets (except for capital expenditures, i.e. the cost of utilization without VAT should not exceed UAH 6000.00);
• costs for services communications, the internet, service sites and software maintenance;   
• banking services;
• audit services.

Eligibility Criteria:

• Legal entities of all forms of ownership and individual entrepreneurs, activities and position which are not contrary to the principles and values of the UCF;
• legal entities registered on the territory of Ukraine for at least 2 years (as of 1.01.2020) and whose main NACE corresponds to the submitted list ;    
• final beneficiaries of the applicant can only be citizens of Ukraine;
• non- grantees of the UCF in 2020.

Applicants for the "Visual arts" LOT may only be filmmakers and subjects related to film demonstration, which have to confirm:      

for producers of films :

• presence in the State Register of Film Producers and Distributors
• production of national films, which confirms the presence of a national film certificate issued during 2019-2020.

for subjects demonstration movies:

• presence in the State Register of Film Producers and Distributors
• for network cinemas - confirmation of network availability.

Applicants for ‘‘Cultural and Educational (domestic) Tourism’’ LOT may be the only subjects of tourist activity, that:  

• are registered on the territory of Ukraine as of 1.01.2020 for not less than 5 years ;  
• have a valid license for tour operator activities (domestic tourism) or a certificate of establishment of hotel categories;
• not have debt on delivery of statistical reports to the State Statistics Service (for hotels) and CEA (for tour operators ) in the field of tourism for the 2019 year ;
• The amount paid taxes to the budget is not less than 500 thousand. UAH for the last reporting year;
• the number of full-time employees not less than five persons simultaneously over 2020 years;
• the volume of tourists served

for tour operators :

• 500+ people for the last reporting year;

for hotels :

• 30+ rooms – not less than 3000 people for the last reporting year; 
• 50+ rooms – not less than 5,000 people for the last reporting year;    
• 100+ rooms – not less than 10,000 people for the last reporting year; 
• 150+ rooms - not less than 15 000 people for the last reporting year.   

The list of documents and requirements to applicants for "Audiovisual arts, TV-production, distribution and demonstration’’ and "Cultural and educational tourism" is drafted jointly by the State Agency for Cinema and the State Agency of Tourism.  

In case of receiving several applications from different legal entities, but with the same final beneficiary, only one application is supported.

Applicants are required to remember, that the costs specified in the estimate, submitted in obtaining grant institutional support, cannot be financed by the state and local budgets. Doubling the budget implies the financial and legal liability of the applicant.

Submission of application packages in electronic form will begin on July 30, 2020. Detailed information about the program will be provided on the UCF website and in the Instructions for Applicants.