GSS EU Science Funding Gateway

Civil society organisations play a crucial role in help ensuring an effective implementation of these legal standards. Projects under this priority should support and protect whistleblowers and build capacity of national authorities and legal practitioners to ensure adequate legal remedies to protect whistleblowers.

The following activities can be covered:

• Capacity building activities to enhance the effective implementation of the national laws in force transposing the Directive on Whistleblower protection. This may include activities aimed at building the capacity of civil society organisations active in this field and/or the capacity of national, regional, or local public authorities, legal practitioners and private organisations working in partnership with civil society organisations, including by developing targeted guidance or training materials or train-the-trainer programmes;
• Activities and tools to promote awareness raising and communication activities to increase the public’s knowledge and understanding of the national laws transposing the Directive on Whistleblower protection, of the existence of the internal and external reporting channels and the legal remedies and measures of protection available in case retaliation occurs;
• Analytical activities, such as data collection on whistleblower reports and cases of retaliation, development of indicators to effectively record cases and research, in particular on caselaw and the creation of tools or other databases (e.g. on the collection of the data mentioned above and thematic databases of jurisprudence);
• Mutual learning activities and activities aimed at exchange of good practices on the effective implementation of the Directive on Whistleblower protection, in particular as regards the establishment of internal or external reporting channels, handling of whistleblowing reports, effective measures to ensure confidentiality and the application of adequate legal remedies for the protection of whistleblowers against retaliation and of support measures for whistleblowers;
• Activities enhancing and facilitating cooperation between national, regional or local authorities and civil society organisations, including by elaborating national, regional or local protocols on whistleblower protection or contributing to the review of the national system of whistleblower protection.