Visegrad Grants 2016 - Issues relevant to the Visegrad Region, Eastern Partnership countries and the Western Balkans

Applicant

Any legal entity or nat­ural per­son world­wide is eli­gi­ble for fund­ing, pro­vided that the given project pro­posal deals with top­ics rel­e­vant to the V4 region, pro­motes coop­er­a­tion among project part­ners in the region, and has a real impact on V4 society. Preferences are given to appli­cants from non-governmental, civil society organizations (NGOs/CSOs), munic­i­pal­i­ties and local gov­ern­ments. We will also consider applications from public schools, uni­ver­si­ties, research and sci­en­tific bod­ies and pub­lic insti­tu­tions in gen­eral. State administration institutions cannot apply, nor can they be valid project partners, incl. min­istries, embassies, official cultural insti­tutes such as Balassi Institutes (Balassi intézet), Czech Centres (České centrum), Polish Institutes (Instytut polski), or Slovak Institutes (Slovenský inštitút).

1.2 Project partners

Project partners are an essential part of your proposal. Their selection as well as their qualifications are equally important parts of the proposal and should reflect the nature of your cooperation. Note that the Visegrad Fund promotes multilateral cooperation and joint approaches to solving problems; we therefore pay a special attention to the consortia of applicants and partners and reserve the right to contact your project partners during our evaluation to get a better picture of the proposed project.

As a rule, participation of at least three V4 countries (“3xV4 rule”) is required in your proposal (e.g. applicant is from Czechia, his/her project partners are from Hungary and Poland, or applicant is from Ukraine, his/her project partners are from Hungary, Poland and Slovakia). However, where possible, we encourage applicants to seek a full V4 participation (all four countries are “on board”) regardless of potential non-V4 countries involved. Correspondingly, we request that applicants give reasons for not having all four countries involved.

The exception from these rules bilateral or trilateral “cross-border” projects (formerly “cross-border cooperation” category), where the “3xV4” rule does not apply but only in cases where the projects prove to directly benefit a specific border area between two/among three neighboring countries (please see 1.5).

Exceptions may also apply in cases when projects respond to concrete calls for proposals published by the fund (please see 1.5).

1.3 Project topic/Regional added value

In general, no pref­er­ences are given as to the con­tent of proposed projects. Each project topic shall, how­ever, con­tain a rea­son­able Visegrad dimension, i.e., the project must deal with V4 coun­tries and shall develop cooperation within the region and/or between the V4 region and other countries. Priority is given to projects that strive to cre­ate com­mon added value rather to projects which sim­ply just involve part­ners from the said countries.

1.4 Re-applying/Simultaneous applications

Applicants can only apply for a sin­gle Visegrad Grant project at a time. In case of mul­ti­ple appli­ca­tions from the same appli­cant, the first reg­is­tered appli­ca­tion will be con­sid­ered. Applicants may re-apply at any point, only if all pre­vi­ous grant projects financed by the fund have been concluded (i.e., projects with duly approved final reports). The Visegrad Strategic Program is an excep­tion; Strategic Grants can be imple­mented simul­ta­ne­ously with other grant projects.

1.5 Exceptions

Some exceptions may apply regarding project partners and other conditions in site-specific cross-border projects or in projects responding to a concrete call for proposals.

Cross-border filter

Projects that deal with specific local issues and that activate local communitiesin a concrete border areas/regions (e.g. Tokaj wine region, Těšínsko/Śląsk Cieszyński, the Tatras) can be implemented on a bilateral or trilateral basis (formerly “cross-border cooperation” category). In other words, the “3xV4” rule will not apply if the following conditions are met:

• project activities must take place within 40 km from the border, preferably on both/all three sides (the partners’ official seats do not necessarily have to be located within the 40 km limit),
• projects are implemented partnerships involving the following combinations of countries (bilateral: CZ/PL, CZ/SK, HU/SK, PL/SK; trilateral: CZ/PL/DE, CZ/PL/SK, CZ/SK/AT, HU/SK/AT, HU/SK/UA, PL/SK/UA).

Calls for proposals

Specific conditions may apply within specific calls for proposals (usually co-financed by other donors). The conditions are to be found on the fund’s website where calls for proposals are announced. Applicants confirm their intent to respond to the given call in the application form (in section III. PROJECT).

1.6 Consulting the fund

Applicants can freely con­sult the staff of the fund while applying or implementing approved projects in writ­ing (e-mail), by tele­phone, or in per­son. Visitors to the fund are kindly requested to make an appoint­ment. Unannounced vis­its or con­sul­ta­tions within 10 work­ing days of the given dead­line are dis­cour­aged.

1.7 Official language

English is the offi­cial lan­guage of the Visegrad Group as well as of the fund—application forms, as well as all offi­cial cor­re­spon­dence with the fund can only be accepted in English.

2. APPLICATION FORM/PROJECT PROPOSAL

Project proposals are accepted only electronically through an on-line application form. Neither the hard copies (printouts) of the form, nor of the accompanying documents are required.

2.1 Deadlines

Visegrad Grants (ex-Small/Standard Grants) and Strategic Grants have regular annual deadlines which are duly announced on the fund’s website.

Appli­ca­tion forms are to be sub­mit­ted on-line by 11:59:59 CET (noon) on given dead­line date. Hard-copy ver­sions (signed print­outs) with rel­e­vant accom­pa­ny­ing doc­u­men­ts are no longer required as part of the submitted application form at deadline; applicants are, however, advised to collect electronic letters of intent from their project partners as these documents might be requested at a later stage.

2.2 Project categories

In general, we seek projects that display active cooperation with the following accents: sustainability, youth, innovativeness and regional relevance. Each project proposal shall also fall within one or two thematic categories and clearly address fund‘s objectives/desired outcomes related to the theme:

2.3 On-line appli­ca­tion system

Application forms are avail­able through an on-line sys­tem at our webpage Each term is usu­ally open 30 days prior to the given dead­line. Applicants need to reg­is­ter with a valid e-mail address to start a new appli­ca­tion form. Each form is then pass­word pro­tected and can be saved and edited later. Every appli­ca­tion form has its unique 8-digit num­ber (appli­ca­tion ID#), which the appli­cants shall use in all project-related com­mu­ni­cation with the fund.

2.4 Accom­pa­ny­ing documentation

Applicants are requested to collect electronic versions of the following documents (scans), which may be required at a later stage:

• digital copies of let­ters of intent (see para­graph 2.5)
• digital copies of ID doc­u­ments (no older than 3 months) of the appli­cant and project part­ners (see para­graph 2.6)
• digital copies of con­fir­ma­tions about co-financing (copies or scan print­outs of doc­u­ments prov­ing other con­firmed finan­cial con­tri­bu­tions to the project from project part­ners, other donors or sponsors)

Letters of intent—photocopies or scan printouts

Letters of intent serve as a proof of the involvement of project partners and describe their concrete role in the project. There is no tem­plate for such letters—the statu­tory rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the part­ner orga­ni­za­tion (or the nat­ural per­son) shall in the letter for­mally declare their inten­tion to actively par­tic­i­pate in the project and describe their role in it. They can also comment on their past project expe­ri­ence with the appli­cant. Let­ters of intent shall be:

• in the form of digital copies or scans of the orig­i­nals (orig­i­nals are not required)

The original document (before scanning) must be:

• printed on an offi­cial let­ter­head paper (where applic­a­ble), writ­ten in English, referring to the project ID# and its offi­cial title (as reg­is­tered in the appli­ca­tion form), signed  by the project partner’s statu­tory rep­re­sen­ta­tive (or by nat­ural per­son if the project part­ner is not a legal entity)
• dated no ear­lier than 3 months prior to a given deadline

Letters of intent are no longer required as part of the proposal submission (i.e., by a given deadline); applicants are, however, advised to collect them as these documents may be requested at a later stage.

2.5 Budget

As of 2016, we are piloting a deliverable-based budget. The budget is newly constructed on the basis of concrete outputs (products or events) that you plan to deliver as part of the project. When creating the budget, make sure to link all planned costs to each output.

The fund can cov­er total project costs within the Visegrad Grants. We strongly encourage applicants to find additional support—financial sources (such as the applicant’s, part­ners’ or other donors’ finan­cial con­tri­bu­tions), or non-financial, in-kind con­tri­bu­tions (own work, use of own premises, etc.).

A well-planned bud­get shall be sim­ple and real­is­tic. The bud­get should include approx­i­ma­tions of the project’s future expen­di­tures in EUR (€) based on aver­age prices in the region. Applicants are rec­om­mended to use the aver­age exchange rates avail­able at the given national bank at the time of prepar­ing the appli­ca­tion form.

When plan­ning the bud­get, it is impor­tant to adhere to the fol­low­ing list of eli­gi­ble cost cat­e­gories, i.e., costs that can be cov­ered by the fund:

1. Printing/publishing costs
2. Rent and related technical services
3. Expert fees/Fees for authors or artists
4. Accommodation and board
5. Transportation and postage
6. Translation and interpreting costs
7. Awards and prizes
8. Office supplies/consumption material
9. Promotional costs
10. Copyright, licenses, fees
11. Overhead costs/contingencies (tangible/intangible assets, audits)

The fol­low­ing can only be cov­ered from the overhead costs:

1. Project audit
2. Applicant’s own indi­rect costs (e.g. util­i­ties, tele­phone bills)
3. Internal costs (rent of one’s own premises, one’s own work)
4. Salaries or finan­cial remu­ner­a­tion of employ­ees (or any expenses related employ­ment based on the labor code, includ­ing allowances and part-time work, per-diems, etc.)

3. PROJECT SELECTION

3.1 Evaluation period

Evaluation period lasts up to 50 work­days (ca. 10 weeks) after given dead­line in the case of Visegrad Grants. Applicants shall take this into account when plan­ning project events, as no project can be sched­uled to start before its potential approval.

3.2 Selection criteria

Every project is reviewed on its own as well as in the con­text of other projects within the given dead­line (with emphasis on the context of other projects in sim­i­lar topic areas). Preference is given to those projects which contribute to the development of civil soci­ety, pro­mote cross-border regional coop­er­a­tion and have Visegrad added value).

The fol­low­ing are the selec­tion criteria:

• topic and con­tent of the project, its orig­i­nal­ity and com­pli­ance with the aims of the fund,
• qual­ity, rel­e­vance and con­tri­bu­tion of project partners,
• trans­parency and accu­racy of the budget,
• devel­op­ment of civil society,
• pro­mo­tion of the con­cept of Visegrad cooperation,
• mul­ti­plica­tive effect,
• pro­posed media cov­er­age and pub­lic rela­tions, net­work­ing effect,
• con­ti­nu­ity of the project, and
• pre­vi­ous expe­ri­ence with the appli­cant (where applicable).

3.3 Approval/Rejection

Selection com­mit­tee is assembled for each dead­line and is headed by the fund’s Executive Director. The Executive Director makes his/her rec­om­men­da­tions based on the dis­cus­sion within the committee and passes the rec­om­men­da­tions to the Council of Ambassadors. The council decides on the 50th or 60th workday (see para­graph 3.1) at the lat­est, when the final results are also pub­lished on the fund’s web­site. Decisions made by the council are final and shall present no grounds for any form of appeal, nor do they require any detailed reasoning.

3.4 Announcement of results

Lists of approved projects within each dead­line are pub­lished on the fund’s website on the day of the approval by the Council of Ambassadors. All applicants—whose projects were approved or rejected—are also informed by e-mail.

For more information click "Further official information" below.

This opportunity has expired. It was originally published here:

http://visegradfund.org/news/2016/10-31/