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Application

Application Form

1. How many copies of the Application Form should I submit?

The Application Form should be submitted both in paper form (1 original) and in electronic form (2 files). The Application Form should be submitted to the Joint Technical Secretariat until 31/10/2018. The Lead Beneficiary submits the Application together with the Partnership statement, which is part of the Application, signed by the partner(s).

2. At what stage should I attach a building permission, environmental documents and other permits to the application?

At the application stage, the Beneficiary submits a declaration regarding the required permits and documents (in p. 3.5 of the Application Form). These documents will be verified by the auditor only at the final settlement, however the JTS recommends having a set of required documents when the pre-installment is made at the latest.

3. Is there any limit number of applications that can be submitted by one institution?

Within the frames of 2nd Call for Proposals, a Lead Beneficiary can submit up to 3 Application Forms. What is more, the JMC may decide to limit the number of grants awarded to one Lead Beneficiary. At the same time, there are no limits concerning number of Application Forms where the same institution acts as a Beneficiary.

4. Should the partnerhip agreement be attached to the Application Form?

At the stage of submitting the application, the partnership agreement is not required, only declaration of the Lead Beneficiary and partnership statement for each Beneficiary have to be submitted. These documents are included in the application form (with an appropriate checksum). They should be handwritten, signed and stamped. No later than 30 days after the conclusion of the grant contract, the Lead Beneficiary should submit to the JTS one partnership agreement for the implementation of the given project. It should be prepared in English and signed by all project Beneficiaries.

5. Can the Lead Beneficiary be Beneficiary in other projects?

The Lead Beneficiary of a project can be a Beneficiary in other project at the same time. Beneficiaries are allowed to submit more than one Application Form (maximum 3 Application Forms per one Lead Beneficiary) and take part in more than one project. The JMC may decide to limit the number of grants awarded to one Lead Beneficiary.

6. What is the deadline for submitting the application form?

The Application Form must be submitted no later than 31/10/2018. In the case of sending the application by post or courier, the date of posting / postmark is considered as the date of submission. In the case of hand delivery, the documents should be submitted to the secretariat of the Center for European Projects in Warsaw, 39 a, Domaniewska Str., until 31/10/2018 up to 15.00 local time.

7. Does the Application Form have to be filled in only in English?

English is the official language of the Programme and that is why the Application Form must be filled in only in English. Application Forms filled out in other languages will be rejected and excluded from assessment.

8. How to fill in the Application Form?

In order to correctly fill in the Application Form, it is necessary to read carefully the Programme Manual for the 2nd call for proposals, draft of the Application Form and evaluation grid. All these documents can be downloaded from the Programme's website. The e-application (generator) necessary to create project applications as well as instructions for its use will soon appear on our website. NOTE: The Application Form may be created only using the generator and must have an individual check sum. The way of filling in and creating the WA will also be presented during the trainings.

9. What should be understood by the infrastructure and investment component?

The infrastructure and investment component is a part of project expenditures related to construction / renovation works and purchases of devices and equipment, which may be used longer than the project duration period. Consumables (such as groceries or materials that will be used during project events) will not be treated as investment purchases. As a rule, microprojects support soft activities, however, within the 2nd call for proposals it is possible to purchase equipment, furniture, as well as to make some minor construction works in order to create the necessary infrastructure. The infrastructure and investment component accounts for maximum 20% of the grant, which means that in a project with a grant of EUR 60,000, the component will only amount to EUR 12,000 for the whole project and for all its Beneficiaries.

10. Where in the budget shall we put materials consumed during the planned art workshops?

All materials that will be consumed during the project implementation (e.g. clay for pottery workshops, paints or brushes for painting workshops, chemical reagents for research, food for culinary workshops, etc.) should be included in the budget line 3.4 "Other".
Materials consumed during the project are not treated as investments, therefore not included in the investment and infrastructure component.

11. Do we have to choose any indicators from the suggested list (second part of point 3.4 of the Application Form)?

No, you do not have to choose additional project indicators from the suggested list. The list is closed and if none of the indicators matches the specificity of your project, this field is left blank.
However, please remember that each project must contribute to the achievement of at least one Programme output indicator and of the result indicator for the given priority.

12. What exchange rate should be used while drawing up the project budget?

While drawing up the project budget, it is recommended to use the monthly rate of ECB of August 2018 (InforEuro rate).

13. Is there any example of methodology for calculating staff costs and travel costs?

The Programme does not impose any standard of calculating staff costs and travel costs, contrary to administrative costs. The methodology does not have to be very extensive, but it must make possible to verify the necessity and amount of the declared costs.
It is recommended to indicate in the justification of staff costs the number of people working for the project, their position, number of months, full/part-time, form of employment and the rate of remuneration. It is required that the above data are in accordance with the provisions of national law as well as with the remuneration regulations in force in a given institution.
When preparing the methodology for travel costs of project staff, the number of domestic and foreign trips, the number of people taking part in them, the duration of the trip, the subsistence allowance, unit costs of accommodation, tickets, etc. should be taken into account. All costs should be borne in accordance with the law and internal regulations regarding business trips in respective institutions.

14. On which basis should be the value of the result indicator estimated?

The Programme does not impose the selection of the indicator's verification source. You can rely, for example, on statistical data of offices, tourist boards, accommodation bases, on other documents confirming the number of visitors. You must have appropriate documentation in this regard.

15. Which of the Programme output indicators will be adequate for sport events/activities?

In the priority concerning the promotion of local culture and history, the only appropriate Programme output indicator will be number of cross-border cultural events organized using ENI support.
As part of this indicator, we can present any events that integrate local communities, such as sports events, art workshops, festivals, picnics or any other events related to the promotion of culture and history.

16. Can be the work of people preparing final report included in methodology of staff costs?

Yes - due to the fact that Beneficiaries have at most 3 months from the end date of the project to prepare their final report, a maximum of 3-month costs of remuneration of persons directly responsible for its preparation can be considered as eligible costs. Please remember to justify these costs in methodology.

17. How expression “improved site” used in the output indicator should be understood?

To talk about “improved site” in the output indicator number of improved cultural and historical sites as direct consequence of Programme support the improvement need to have permanent character while changes need to refer to its physical features, i.e. appearance, its functionality or usefulness need to be improved thanks to funds received within the project. Repairs, renovation, painting, replacement of windows these are improvements of sites but in duly justified cases. Also equipping of an object with usable elements can be understood as its improvement.

18. If and where in the application form  we should refer to regional and local strategies? Such requirement was in the 1st Call for Proposals.

In the 2nd Call for Proposals we have simplification related to the lack of necessity to describe the project relevance to national, regional and local strategies of countries participating in the Programme. Assuming that Programme Poland-Belarus-Ukraine 2014-2020 is compatible with many national, regional and local strategies of three Programme countries (chapter 3.2.4. of the Joint Operational Programme), Applicants of the 2nd Call for Proposals are requested to describe in point 2.1 of the Application Forms the relevance of the project to the Programme strategy.

19. How in detail should the information and communication plan described in the Application Form

There should be indicated promotional activities related to implementation of foreseen communication goals such as informing about the project, showing its results and its financing from the EU funds. Examples of promotional activities are issuing a publication, organization of an event, cooperation with media, production of promotional materials (for example roll-up etc.). We recommend to indicate activities with short description of the communication goal which realization the activity should serve. Specifying target group it’s nothing but describing to whom our promotional activities will be addressed. To one activity can be specified few target groups, for example high school students, citizens of a town in which the project is implemented etc. We should try to avoid very general formulations such as whole society. In the next step we should indicate tools – there can be leaflets, brochures, website, tab on the website, conference, open air event, information in the social media etc. Indicators, which are the next box to be filled in, need to show us how effectiveness of promotional activities will be measured. They should reflect results of activities in target groups, for example: number of people who received leaflet, brochure; number of views of the website/ tab on the website; number of participants of the meeting, event; number of comments, likes in social media. We should remember about eligibility of costs and indicating those costs in the project budget. 

20. What will happen if in point 3.4 of the budget there will be included purchase which could be assessed as investments?

If during the assessment of the application it will be founded that in the budget line 3.4 were indicated  purchased items which – according to the description of the project – could be used longer that the project implementation period, assessors will consider them while calculating the value of investment and infrastructure component.


Eligibility of institution

1. Can a for profit institution be a Beneficiary of the Programme?

No, any institution of commercial character cannot be Beneficiary of the Programme.

2. Can an institution from outside the Programme area be a Beneficiary of the Programme?

An institution from outside the Programme area must meet three conditions to be eligible under the Programme rules:
a) it must be established in Poland, Belarus or Ukraine
b) its participation must be justified by the nature or by the objectives of the project and be necessary for its effective implementation;
c) the total amount allocated under the project to this Beneficiary may not exceed 20% of the total project budget.
Moreover, any activities implemented outside the Programme area cannot be of infrastructural or investment character.

3. Is it possible to make a contribution in kind as own contribution?

Own contribution (at least 10%) in the project within the Cross-Border Cooperation Programme Poland-Belarus-Ukraine must be a financial contribution. In accordance with p. 6.4. of the Programme Manual for the second call for proposals, contribution in kind is not an eligible cost and can’t be treated as a minimum of 10% co-financing of the project made by the Lead Beneficiary / Beneficiary.


Eligibility of activities/costs

1. What kind of activities can be financed (eligible) under the 2nd call for proposals?

The second call for proposals is devoted to the thematic objective "Heritage" and two priorities related to:

- promotion of local culture and history,

- promotion and preservation of natural heritage.

The Programme will support joint activities and events focused on the promotion, development and preservation of cultural and natural heritage, such as:

- cultural and sport events, festivals;

- seminars and conferences;

- creation / development of cross-border strategies, plans, concepts for cross-border cooperation after 2020;

- institutional capacity building (joint training, exchange of best practices, creation of cooperation networks, coordination of policies, creation of regulatory framework);

- strengthening human potential (joint training, study visits, cultural and language courses, exchange of ideas and views, youth exchange).

More details can be found in the Program Manual, in point 2.3.

2. Can the regular events be finance under the Programme?

As a rule, the Program does not finance regular events. However, it is possible to include in the project an event that will be initiated as part of the project (it will take place for the first time) and then will be repeated. It is also possible to introduce new innovative elements to regularly organized events. If  their part is significant, such projects can be considered as eligible. Nevertheless, please remember that activities referring to regular events must be described in detail in the Application Form.

3. Which values - net or gross - should be presented in the budget? What does it mean that VAT is eligible or ineligible?

Polish Beneficiaries may plan the budget in net or gross values depending on the possibility of VAT recovery.
If the Polish Beneficiaries have no legal option (on the basis of a specific national law provision) to recover the VAT incurred, such a tax is eligible within the project and the costs in the budget are presented in gross values.
If the Beneficiaries are able to recover VAT (please note that it concerns the possibility and not the plans of its recovery), they put net amounts in the budget.
Beneficiaries from Belarus and Ukraine, who have to register a project in their country, as a rule are VAT exempt, therefore they present net amounts in the budget.


Partnership

1. Is the Polish partner obligatory in the Project? Is one partner on the Polish side enough?

Polish partner is obligatory to implement the project. One partner on the Polish side is enough. There are three possible partnership compositions: PL-UA, PL-BY, PL-BY-UA.


Project planning

1. When can I plan to start the project?

The Programme does not impose the exact dates of the project. Project can start not earlier than after signature of the grant contract. All activities in the project should be completed by 31/12/2022 and the project can’t last longer than 12 months.

2. Can projects generate income? And if not, what about the purchased equipment, which would still be used after the end of the project?

Projects can’t generate profit. According to the Programme rules, any project with infrastructure or investment component shall repay the Union contribution if, within five years of the project closure, it is subject to a substantial change affecting its nature, objectives or implementation conditions which would result in undermining its original objectives. Sums unduly paid in respect of such project shall be recovered by the MA proportionally to the period for which the sustainability requirement has not been fulfilled.

3. When the result indicator has to be achieved?

Target values of the result indicators shall be achieved not later than within the sustainability period of the project, i.e. maximum five years after its completion.

4. What will happened if the planned target value of the indicator is not achieved? Will it be necessary to return the grant or its part?

At the stage of the final report, the Beneficiary submits explanations regarding discrepancies between the planned target values of indicators and those actually achieved. Decision will be made after analyzing the reasons of the failure to achieve the indicator, the impact of this indicator on the achievement of project objectives and the costs planned to be incurred and actually incurred for actions aimed at achieving the indicator.


Support for the Applicants

1. When will the trainings and consultations for the Applicants of the 2nd call for proposals take place?

A series of trainings for the Applicants under the second call for proposals will be carried out in three Programme countries from 11 to 28 September 2018. All information regarding training (dates, cities and registration forms) can be found on the website here. At the beginning of October individual consultations will be organized for all institutions interested in submitting applications under the CBC PL-BY-UA 2014-2020. Registration for consultations will start on September, 10.

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