Guidelines and annex

Application form

Budget form (in Excel)

Financial information explanatory note

Evaluation guide - how your application is assessed 

Slate Funding is aimed at medium-sized companies which have experience at an international level and the financial capacity to contemplate and support the simultaneous development of several projects.

Which companies can apply? 
Applications are accepted from European, independent production companies which at the time of applying:

* have been officially registered for at least 36 months
* hold a minimum of 50% of the rights in the projects
* can demonstrate a previous track record (as detailed below).
There are no minimum requirements in terms of the company's turnover or profit, but the company must provide evidence of its financial capacity.

What kind of track record must the company have to be eligible?
The company must be able to provide evidence that in the five years prior to submission they have completed and internationally distributed, as the majority producer, two previous works in one of MEDIA's eligible project categories.

 
What if the company doesn't have the required track record? 
If the company lacks the above previous experience, then the individual track record of professionals who are linked to the company can be used even if they produced the previous work for other companies or worked on a freelance basis. In this case at the time of submission the individual must be one of the following:
* shareholder
* CEO/MD of the company
* on the company's payroll as a producer for the last 12 months. 
On a previous production they must have a producer, executive producer or delegate producer credit.
 
What kinds of projects are eligible?
* Fiction (one-off and series, minimum duration 50 minutes)
* Creative documentary (one-off and series, minimum duration 25 minutes)
* Animation (one-off or series, minimum duration 24 minutes) 

Slate funding supports three to six projects. All projects must demonstrate a European dimension - they need to have the potential to find audiences and distribution markets in Europe.

If you are working on multi-platform projects you might find it useful to see our Interactive Development scheme guidelines.

How much money is available?
* Up to 50% of the development budget submitted with the application is offered as a non-repayable grant
* Matching funds (in cash) are the responsibility of the applicant.
 
Slate funding supports three to six projects. Grants of €10,000 to €60,000 are available for each project. The total amount of support per slate is from €70,000 to €190,000.

The overall budget available for Single Project and Slate Funding applications under this Call for Proposals is €17 million (or approx €8.5m per deadline).

Which costs are eligible?
This scheme aims to support development costs and cannot be used to fund the production phase of projects. These costs are eligible:

* The acquisition of rights
* Research (including archive research)
* All script writing up to and including the final draft (provided that it is paid before first day of principal photography or pre-production)
* Storyboards
* Identification of the key cast and crew
* Preparation of the production budget and schedule
* Preparation of financing plan 
* Identification of industry partners, co-producers and financiers
* Initial marketing and sales plans (attending markets and attracting buyers).

 Other eligible costs:
* For drama and creative documentary: teaser / video treatment
* For animation: graphics research and production of a pilot
 
What is the period of eligibility of costs? 
All costs are eligible from the date of submission of the application with the exception of costs that are related to the acquisition of rights (these can be eligible for the 12 months prior to the date of submission).

Eligibility ends on the date of entry into production or on:
30 June 2012 for projects submitted under the 27 November 2009 deadline
30 November 2012 for projects submitted under the 12 April 2010 deadline
(whichever is the earlier).

What is Slate Funding Second Stage?

Slate Funding Second Stage is available to companies who currently have an active MEDIA Slate and can show that at least one project on the existing slate has entered production. For full details please contact your local MEDIA Desk or Antenna.