Piloting Programme
Some organisations are confident in their democratic innovation and already know how they want to scale it, but lack the means to make their bold, out-of-the-box ideas happen.
The Piloting Programme provides these organisations with the right resources and guidance.
What it is
A 12-month, action-oriented programme for organisations testing and learning from innovative approaches to scaling democratic participation.
It provides the missing resources to explore ideas that address one or more of the four scaling dimensions, with a strong focus on experimentation and practical results.
Pilots work on reaching more people and communities (Scale Out), improving the quality of their initiatives (Scale In), engaging decision-makers and embedding participation in institutions (Scale High), or achieving cultural resonance (Scale Deep).
Meet the five pilot projects
- Scaling Inclusive Recruitment for Citizens’ Assemblies Across Europe – Sortition Europe (Lead)
- From Pilot to System_Scaling Education for Democracy through Local Ownership in Bosnia and Herzegovina – Auschwitz Institute for the Prevention of Genocide and Mass Atrocities (AIPG) (Lead), Center for Peacebuilding (CIM)
- EMERGEn-CY: EMpowERinG civic Engagement and democratic participation in Cyprus – Center for the Advancement of Research and Development in Educational Technology (CARDET) (Lead)
- Bre2Act / From Breakfast to Action: A Deliberative Neighbourhood Dialogue Model for Participatory Local Governance – Osmangazi Municipality (Lead)
- Youth Voice, Local Choice — Jashtar Üni: Scaling Participatory Budgeting to Kyrgyzstan – European Association for Local Democracy (ALDA), Institute for Youth Development (IYD/Jashtar)
Funding up to €100,000 per project
Dedicated support to test innovative ideas for scaling a democratic innovation in real contexts.
Peer learning with other pilot teams
Regular exchange with a cohort of pilot teams facing similar scaling gaps.
Mentoring from ScaleDem experts
Tailored guidance from the ScaleDem consortium throughout implementation.
International visibility and network access
Access to a European network of democratic innovators, allies and stakeholders.
Dedicating working time to the pilot activities
Each team dedicates time every week to carrying out its pilot, depending on the goals of the pilot and the activities planned.
Contributing actively to the programm activities
Beyond their own pilot, participants take part in the programme’s events, including regular consortium meetings, information and training sessions and networking activities.
Contributing to evaluation report
Each pilot contributes to a report on its activities and results, based on a template provided by ScaleDem. These reports feed into ScaleDem’s research on what makes scaling work.
Two Q&A sessions held on 20 and 29 January 2026
Applications assessed by the jury
Selected pilots announced
Physical kick-off event held in Cascais, Portugal
Three mandatory online capacity-building events
Two voluntary peer-to-peer advisory and networking events online
In-person final evaluation meeting
Discover the Twinning Programme
While the Piloting Programme funds experimental ideas, the Twinning Programme helps organisations with running projects overcome a specific scaling gap. Mentors who have already scaled a democratic innovation work with mentees adapting it to their own context, through coaching, peer learning and additional resources.