Ukraine Partnership Facility - UPF

As of Friday, 17 October 2025, 10:00 CEST, you can submit the mandatory quick scan. The closing date for the quick scan is Friday, 21 November 2025, 17:00 CET. Based on your quick scan, you will receive non-binding advice. After completing the advisory process, you can decide whether to submit a formal subsidy application.

UPF3 will open for subsidy applications on Friday, 30 January 2026, 10:00 CET.
The closing date for subsidy applications is Thursday, 30 April 2026, 17:00 CEST.

Please note that the criteria and forms for this opening round differ from previous openings. You can find the criteria for UPF3 on this page. 

The Ukraine Partnership Facility (UPF) works on the reconstruction and sustainable recovery of Ukraine's economy and society. For more information on the projects approved for this subsidy programme, see our page

Approved projects UPF

For whom?

Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the needs there have been enormous and continue to grow. The UPF3 subsidy scheme supports partnerships of companies and civil society organisations that want to work on the reconstruction and sustainable recovery of the Ukrainian economy and society. These companies and organisations set up and implement a concrete project in Ukraine. The subsidy applicant (lead partner) is a Dutch company or civil society organisation. Partnerships consist of at least one Dutch company and one local organisation.

Aim

Aid needs in Ukraine are such that it is crucial to support the private sector in its contribution to sustainable recovery. The aim of the programme is therefore to relieve the pressure on the Ukrainian public sector. It involves concrete projects with tangible results from which wider local economic and social development will emerge. Projects must have a long-term impact on the local community or a chain of businesses and civil society organisations. It concerns projects that are not feasible due to market failure and not commercially fundable.

UPF3 does not engage in projects that exclusively benefit one company, a group of companies or a single civil society organisation.

Sectors

Projects contribute to the reconstruction of facilities damaged or destroyed by war, or to local employment or employability (knowledge, skills, mental and physical health) of Ukrainian citizens. Where possible, projects also contribute to improving the position of vulnerable groups, including women, youth and war veterans.

Projects eligible for funding from the UPF3 facility must take place in one or more of the following sectors: healthcare, water, circular construction, renewable energy or agriculture.

Agriculture

The agricultural sector needs projects in agrologistics, particularly in storage, refrigeration, distribution and irrigation. Because of global and local food supply and security, these projects have a public character and thus serve a wider societal interest.

Circular construction

The circular construction sector needs projects aimed at developing, using or reusing buildings, areas and infrastructure without unnecessarily depleting natural resources, polluting the living environment or affecting ecosystems. Building in an economically responsible manner will contribute to the well-being of people and animals, now and in the future. Projects that prioritise housing and social infrastructure have preference.

Sustainable energy

The sustainable energy sector needs projects that contribute to:

• decentralisation of generation capacity,
• energy efficiency and energy storage, and
• renewable energy technologies, including green gas for use in Ukraine.

Projects are thus solutions that cannot directly replace centralised Ukrainian generation capacity, but can have an impact in the short term and prove their value for the Ukrainian energy system.

Projects that provide an independent energy supply for social infrastructure, such as hospitals and schools, are preferred.

Applications primarily aimed at projects that meet the energy needs of a single company and are not reliant on the grid are not eligible for a subsidy.

Water

The water sector needs projects aimed at recovering the water supply (vodokanals) and water purification plants.

Healthcare

The healthcare sector needs projects aimed at expanding or recovering capacity, rather than focusing exclusively on modernisation.
Mental Health and Psychosocial Support (MHPSS) is looking for projects that connect to the wider programmes of the Ukrainian government, using methods accepted by the World Health Organization (WHO).

Budget

For the UPF3 opening round, a total budget of €26,500,000 is available.

Each application must request a minimum subsidy of €500,000 and a maximum of €4,000,000.

Subsidies will cover up to 90% of eligible costs. The remaining portion of the costs, which must be at least 10%, needs to be funded by the partnerships' own contributions. The partnership must show how they will cover this 10% and how they will handle unforeseen costs.
Projects must not be commercially fundable and must be non-profit-making.

Project duration

• Project activities must start within 2 months of being awarded the UPF subsidy.
• Activities last at least 6 months.
• The maximum project duration is 4 years. 

Frequently asked questions

On our Q&A page, you will find the most frequently asked questions and answers. Is your question not listed? Email your question to upf@rvo.nl.

International Responsible Business Conduct (RBC)

Your project follows the guidelines for international Responsible Business Conduct (RBC). We consider international RBC when assessing your funding application. Therefore, we ask that you:

• follow the OECD guidelines;
• demonstrate how you carry out your activities following these guidelines;
• make a risk analysis of social and environmental risks;
• describe what measures you will take to prevent and reduce these risks;
• report on the risks and measures you prepared or took to reduce risks during your project.

As part of the application process, Dutch companies complete an RBC scan. With this scan, the Dutch government tests whether a company knows and follows the OECD guidelines. This is a condition for approval of your project.

Conditions

See the publication in the Government Gazette (in Dutch) for all the conditions, or read the unofficial translation in the downloads section below.

Assessment criteria

Besides the conditions, we use 4 criteria to assess applications. Also, projects can earn bonus points. The 4 criteria are:

1. Connecting to local needs and priorities;
2. Results and impact;
3. Action plan and efficiency;
4. Bonus points.

Specific criteria are more important than others, so each is assigned a weighting factor. Consider the criteria carefully. Project proposals must score sufficiently on all criteria.

For a list of criteria and their respective weighting factors, see the publication in the Dutch Government Gazette.

You can earn extra points for UPF3 by focusing on these topics:

• The project benefits one of the following regions: Odesa, Mykolaiv, Kherson, Dnipro, Kharkiv, Poltava, Sumy, Chernihiv, Zaporizhzhia, and Donetsk.
• On top of the required 10% own contribution, the partnership provides up to another 10% from its own or third-party funds, excluding resources from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. This extra amount cannot be in kind. The amount of extra points will vary based on how much extra the partners will contribute.

Most important changes in UPF3

• UPF3 has a mandatory quick scan.
• UPF3 is a 90% subsidy.
• UPF3 has a strong focus on easing the burden on the public sector and the needs of local governments. This results in an increased focus on business-to-government (B2G). The broader local societal and economic impact is important here.
• UPF3 has more specific focus sectors. See the Government Gazette (in Dutch) for the full description or the unofficial translation in the downloads section below.
• RVO can award extra points in the assessment if the project focuses on a number of designated regions in Ukraine, and if the partnership contributes more than the compulsory 10% own contribution.
• Per partner, and if applicable, per group or fiscal unit to which a partner belongs, subsidies will only be awarded for a maximum of 2 projects, with subsidy awards from previous rounds of the Ukraine Partner Facility counting.

See the publication in the Government Gazette for all requirements.

Preparing your application

Have you formed a partnership? See our apply page (in English) for the steps to take. On our apply page, you will find the mandatory quick scan and project proposal forms. Based on your quick scan, you will receive non-binding advice. Upon completing the advisory process, you can decide whether to apply for a subsidy.

During the opening round, you can apply for funding via eLoket. You will need eHerkenning level 2+ or 3 to do so. If you do not have this yet, please register now. Processing your request may take up to several days. 

On our Q&A page, you will find the most frequently asked questions and answers. Is your question not listed? Mail your question to upf@rvo.nl.

After your application

After submitting your application, you will receive a confirmation of receipt. This is not a confirmation that we have processed your application. We will not process your application until it is complete. You will receive a separate confirmation of receipt.

We process applications in order of receipt of complete applications on a first-come, first-served basis. RVO advisors assess your application and obtain advice from the Dutch embassy in Kyiv, and possibly from internal and external experts at RVO.

• Is your application not complete? We will notify you of this. You can add documents to complete your application until the closing date.
• Is your application complete? We aim to let you know within 13 weeks of receiving your complete application whether we will approve your subsidy application. We will send you a letter with the decision on the assessment of your application.
• Have we approved your application? We will upload project management documents to our website soon after.

Do you have questions about your approved project? Send an email to upf@rvo.nl.

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