Basic Conditions and Key Points of INTERREG IVC Interregional Cooperation in Europe INTERREG IVC Programme 2007 - 2013

Basic Conditions and Key Points of INTERREG IVC

InterregionalCooperation in EuropeINTERREG IVC Programme 2007 - 2013

Programme’s Characteristics INTERREG Programmes Overall Objective Structure Priorities

Main Characteristics of the Types of Interventions Regional Initiative Projects Capitalisation Projects

Co-financing

Partnership Eligible Institutions / Organisations Lead Partner Principle

Provisional Time Frame

Structure

First Partner Meeting Munich 8th of April 2008

European Urban Landscape Partnership INTERREG IVC bid

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Project Activities Project Components

Monitoring Project Activities Outputs and Results Indicators

Budget Cost Budgeting Eligible Costs / Budget Lines Reporting

Project Application Necessary Documents Co-financing Statement Project Time Plan Selection Criteria

Structure

First Partner Meeting Munich 8th of April 2008

European Urban Landscape Partnership INTERREG IVC bid

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First Partner Meeting Munich 8th

of April 2008 European Urban Landscape Partnership INTERREG IVC bid

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Structural Funds Policies 2007 - 2013

Objective 1: Convergence match high performance and developing regions

Objective 2: Regional Competitiveness and Employment implement Lisbon and Gothenburg targets

modernise regional and local development

Objective 3: European Territorial Cooperation transfer best practices to regions wishing to improve

Programme’s Characteristics



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INTERREG C ≠ INTERREG A & B

Key elements: Link to regional / local policies

Exchange of experiences

Identification and / or transfer of good practices

INTERREG IVC ≠ implementation programme

INTERREG IVC ≠ research & development programme




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1 Programme for

27 Member States + CH + NOR

INTERREG IVC is a ’Capitalisation’ Programme, focusing on the identification, analysis and dissemination and transfer of good practices by public authorities in order to improve the effectiveness of regional and local policies.




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INTERREG IIIC versus IVC

INTERREG IIIC 315 MEUR ERDF

Cofinancing up to 50% (75% for Objective 1 Regions)

Four programmes: 4 Managing, 4 Paying and 4Audit Authorities

4 JTS

All themes of regional and local public activities

Three types of operations

INTERREG IVC 321 MEUR

Cofinancing 75/85 % b

One programme: 1Managing, 1 Certifying and 1 Audit Authority

1 JTS in Lille and 4 Information Points in Rostock, Katowice (with support from Vienna), Valencia and Lille

Focus on Lisbon and Gothenburg Agendas

2 types of interventions




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Overall Objective of INTERREG IVC

Improve the effectiveness of regional development policies

Contribute to economic modernisation and increased competitiveness of Europe

… by…

Enabling exchange of experiences and knowledge

Matching less experienced with more advanced regions

Ensuring transfer of identified good practice into mainstream programmes




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Programme PrioritiesPriority 1: Innovation and Knowledge Economy (177 M€ ERDF /

55%) Innovation, Research & Technology Development

Entrepreneurship and SMEs

Information Society

Employment, Human Resources and Education

Priority 2: Environment and Risk Prevention (125 M€ ERDF / 39%) Energy and Sustainable Transport

Biodiversity and Preservation of Natural Heritage

Natural and Technological Risks

Water & Waste Management

Cultural Heritage and Landscape

Priority 3: Technical Assistance (19 M€ ERDF / 6%)




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Types of Interventions

Regional Initiatives projects Exchange of experience and good practice, development of tools

and instruments of regional policies

Capitalisation projects, including Fast Track projects Capitalisation projects: optimise results achieved, transfer of good

practices identified into main stream programmes

Fast Track projects: Specific European Commission assistance and expertise offered to certain capitalisation projects with reference to the Regions for Economic Change (RFEC)” initiative

Aim: detailed action plan to transfer best practices identified into mainstream programmes




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Type 1 ‘Regional Initiative Projects’ Definition & Main Characteristics

Cooperation projects between partners on a shared regional policy issue within the two thematic priorities of the programme

‘Classic’ type of interregional cooperation projects

Intensity of cooperation from networking activities to intensive joint implementation, to mini-programmes

Regardless of this intensity, 2 requirements for all projects:

- Specific focus on exchange of experience / identification of good practices in the policy area tackled by the project

- Necessity to deliver concrete outputs (e.g. good practice guide)




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Type 1 ‘Regional Initiative Projects’ Overview of Recommendations

Size of Partnership Basic level: min of 8 to max of 20 partners

Minimum requirement: partners from at least 3 countries from which two have to be from EU-MS and financed under IVC

Duration Up to 36 months

Budget Min ERDF: EUR 500,000 / Max ERDF: EUR 5 million

Average Volume: EURO 2 million




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Intensity of Co-operation, Activities and ResultsIntensity of cooperation Example of activities Expected results Basic Exchange and dissemination of experience

Thematic seminars, Study visits

Exchanges of staff Conferences Web sites, newsletters,

brochures Production of good practice

guides

New knowledge and skills Possible improvement of

regional / local policies and strategies

Medium Exchange and dissemination of experience + transfer of practices / development of new approaches

In addition to ‘example 1’ activities: Pilot experimentations (for instance in the context of a transfer of

practice) Development of regional policy

tools (methodologies, software)

In addition to ‘example 1’ results: Successful transfer of practices

between partners Direct improvement of

regional/local policies and strategies

High Exchange and dissemination of experience + joint development of new approaches (mini programme)

In addition to examples 1 and 2 activities:

Development of sub-projects

In addition to ‘examples 1 and 2’ results: Improvements of policies /

strategies at the sub-projects’ level

No preferences will be given to projects with a particular level of intensity of cooperation during the assessment process




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Capitalisation

Contribute to optimising the results achieved in a specific domain of regional policy

Consist of the collection, analysis, dissemination and transfer of good practices

Preferably transfer of the good practises identified into the Structural Funds mainstream programmes




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Nature of Proposed Activities

Under INTERREG IVC, local implementations will be possible only if the following 3 criteria are respected:

Relevance to the programme

Interregionality criterion

e.g. transfer from one region to another

Additionality criterion

Activities would not be supported without the INTERREG support




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ERDF Co-financing Rate for Partners

The ERDF amount will be matched with national co-financing Up to 75% for partners coming from the following Member States:

Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxemburg, Netherlands, Spain, Sweden, UK.

Up to 85% for partners coming from the following Member States: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Cyprus, Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Lithuania, Latvia, Malta, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia.

Partners from Norway and Switzerland can make use of the respective allocations of Norwegian Swiss funding in the programme

The other partners can participate in INTERREG IV at their own costs

Co-financing



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Who Can Apply / Partners

INTERREG IVC is dedicated to public authorities and bodies governed by public law

Bodies governed by public law (Directive 2004/18/EC, Art.1) a) meeting needs in general interest, no industrial or commercial character

b) having legal personality

c) financed for the most part by the State, regional or local authorities or other bodies governed by public law or

subject to management supervision of these bodies or

having administrative, managerial or supervisory board more than half of whose members are appointed by these bodies

INTERREG IVC operations can only involve contributing partners. It is not possible to participate with an “observer” status.

Partnership



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Lead Partner Principle

1 Lead Partner for each project Forming link between project and JTS/MA

Responsibility for management, communication, implementation and co-ordination of activities among involved partners

Full administrative and financial responsibility

Bears legal responsibility and liability for the whole partnership

To ensure tasks, Lead Partner has to appoint or sub-contract a coordinator, responsible for organisation of project’s work

a financial manager, in charge of accounts, financial reporting and internal handling of ERDF funds and national co-financing

Partnership



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Provisional Time Frame

Autumn 2008 expected opening of second call

Winter 2008/09 Deadline for submission of project proposals

Spring 2009 Approval of first project proposals

Projects should be ready to start implementation within 2 month following the date of approval

Time Table



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Project Components

Logical organisation of Project Activities into Components with 2 Focuses:

Implementation-related (e.g. Management and coordination, Communication and dissemination)

Content-related (e.g. Exchange of experience)

Components are NOT determined by chronology of activities or location

Minimum of 3 Components (pre-defined)

Maximum of 5 Components + Component “Preparation-activities”

Compulsory Project Time Plan Component work runs parallel

Project Activities



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Project ComponentsPre-defined:

Components 1 and 2: “Implementation Related”

Management and Coordination

Communication and Dissemination (+Website Development)

Components 3: “Content-related”

Exchange of experiences (Content of the Website)

Component “Preparation activities”

Not pre-defined:

Components 4 and 5 are free to use

Activities should be complementing and must not overlap with activities in Components 1-3

Project Activities



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Component “Preparation Activities”

Approved Projects can receive funding for preparation costs, such as: Development of the Project idea and partner search

Meetings with Project partners

Completion of the Application From

Participation in INTERREG IVC Partner search forum, Lead Applicant seminar, individual consultation with members of the Joint Technical Secretariat and/or with the Information Points.

Preparation costs are: subject to ceiling of EUR 30.000,

only eligible if incurred between 1st January 2007 and submission date of Application Form

to be paid out before they are reported

to be proofed according to accounting requirements of INTERREG IVC programme Keep all your Bills!

Project Activities



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Component 1 “Management and Coordination”

Activities necessary to run an INTERREG IVC project

Management and coordination costs should not exceed 20% of overall budget

List of indicative activities: Finalisation and conclusion of the partnership agreement

Preparation of progress reports

Organisation of Steering Committee meetings

Monitoring and control of the incurred expenditure

Project Activities



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Component 2 “Communication and Dissemination”

Dissemination of project activities and achievements to relevant stakeholders outside the project (e.g. policy makers at the local, regional, national and European levels)

List of indicative activities: Publication and dissemination of joint leaflets / brochures / newsletters

Organisation of joint launch and closing conferences

Development of the project’s web site

Organisation of press conferences

Dissemination of project outputs (good practice guides, policy recommendations, etc.)

Project Activities



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Component 3 “Exchange of Experience”

Core Component of INTERREG IVC “exchange of experience dedicated to the identification and analysis of good practices”

Identification and exchange of good practices developed by the partners Organisation of activities to ensure efficient exchange of experience amongst partners

Production of a concrete document and follow up of these exchanges, providing a comprehensive summary of results of the exchange of policy experiences (e.g. good practice guides, case study collections or policy recommendations paper)

Containing detailed information on relevant practices identified during the exchange of experiences; descriptions of main lessons learnt from these practices.

Project Activities



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Component 3 “Exchange of Experience”

List of indicative activities: Organisation of joint thematic seminars / workshops / conferences

Organisation of study / site visits

Organisation of staff exchanges

Organisation of joint interregional ‘training’ sessions

Production of joint thematic surveys / studies

Production of case studies / good practice guides / policy recommendations / strategic guidelines

Development of action plans

Project Activities



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Outputs and Results

Usefulness and efficiency of interregional cooperation has to be clearly demonstrated!

Outputs (Quantified term: tangible deliverables)

Report on WHAT the main “products” are

Measured in physical units, e.g. number of seminars, site visits, conferences, participants, publications, good practices identified, or policies addressed

Results (Qualified term: effects resulting from project and production of outputs)

Report on WHY the project is delivering a specific output

Measured in physical units, e.g. number of staff with increased capacity {new knowledge and skills}, number of improved regional or local policies

Monitoring of Activities



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Outputs and Results




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Pre-defined Indicators at Programme Level1/ Contribution to the Programme’s objectives

1.1/ Objective: Exchange of experience and improvement of capacities and knowledge of regional and local stakeholders in particular by matching less experienced regions with regions with more experience

Output indicators No. of interregional events organised by operations to exchange

experience

No. of participants in these interregional events

Result Indicators

No. of staff members with increased capacity (awareness / knowledge / skills) resulting from the exchange of experience at interregional events

No. of action plans developed by Objective ‘Convergence’ regions further to the lessons learnt from ‘Objective Competitiveness’ regions




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1.2/ Objective: Identification, sharing and transfer of good practices into regional policies and into EU Structural Funds mainstream programmes

Output indicators No. of good practices identified by Regional Initiative Projects

No. of good practices already identified and made available to regional and local actors involved in Capitalisation Projects

Result indicators No. of good practices successfully transferred within Regional

Initiative Projects

No. of action plans developed under Capitalisation Projects

Amount of mainstream funds (Cohesion/ERDF/ESF) dedicated to the implementation of good practices coming from Capitalisation Projects


Pre-defined Indicators at Programme Level



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1.3/ Objective: Improvement of regional and local policies

Output indicators No. of regional/local policies and instruments addressed in the field tackled

by the project

Result indicators No. of regional/local policies and instruments improved in the field tackled by

the project





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2/ General performance of projects

2.1/ Management and coordination

Output indicator Average number of steering committee meetings organised by operations per

year




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2.2/ Dissemination

Output indicators No. of press releases disseminated

No. of brochures (no. of issues created, not no. of copies printed or disseminated)

No. of copies of brochures disseminated

No. of newsletters (no. of issues created, not no. of copies printed or disseminated)

No. of copies of newsletters disseminated

No. of dissemination events organised

No. of other events participated in (with presentations/stands about the operation activities)




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2.2/ Dissemination

Result indicators No. of articles/appearances published in the press and in other

media

Estimated no. of participants in events (organised and participated in)

Average no. of visits per month to an operation’s website




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Optional Self-defined Indicators

Definition of own output and result indicators

Indicators must be meaningful and measurable

Clear distinction between output and result indicators




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Optional Self-defined Indicators

Example of project : Water management with a particular focus on flood prevention

Output indicators Number of river basins ad-dressed within the project

Number of comparative survey(s) on the number and characteristics of recent floods in the participating regions

Number of flood awareness campaigns that are analysed within the project

Result indicators Number of new projects dedicated to water management resulting from the

exchange of experience

Number of new river basin management plans initiated through the cooperation

Number of new tools developed for flood awareness campaigns




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Screen Shot of Application Form



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Budget1. Agreement on project content

2. Construction of project time plan, definition of activities by component, their duration and of outputs

3. Identification of partners involved in carrying out determined activities by component

Identification of resources needed by each partner to complete activities

Approximation of related cost and forecast of payment date

Reorganisation of these figures by budget line

Budget

!!! Shared Costs (e.g. website design, catering, conference organisation): Each partner should check beforehand that their controllers agree with the foreseen shared costs!



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Budget Lines / Eligible Costs

Staff

Administration

Travel and Accommodation

Equipment

External Expertise and Services; comprising experts’ staff, administration + travel, equipment costs if applicable

Preparation costs (up to EUR 30.000; only eligible for approved projects)

There will be no advanced payment, only reimbursements of eligible expenditures !

for personnel employed directly by partners in AF

Budget



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Reporting

Subdivision of Project in 6-month periods

Each period:

Submission of progress report consisting of:

Activity part

Financial part

Budget



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Budget




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Budget




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Project Application2nd Call will most probably not differ much from 1st

guidelines for 1st call still adequate

The application should be developed in close cooperation with the future partners

Programme language is English only

Application Pack: Application Form (EXCEL-Document)

Co-financing statements from all partners

Project time plan

Project Application



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Project Application



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Project Time Plan

Project Application



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Eligibility Criteria

Submission of Application Form in time

The Application is complete including:

- Application Form (EXCEL-Document)

- Co-financing statements from each partner

- Project time plan

Duly and fully filled in Application

Co-financing statements printed on letter headed paper- stamped- signed and dated

Sum stated corresponds to amount indicated in Application Form

At least 3 Partners from at least 2 EU Member States

Project Application



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Quality Criteria

Based on 2 types of selection criteria: ‘content related’ criteria

‘implementation related’ criteria

Criteria must be fulfilled as much as possible, due to stiff competition!

Project Application



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Content Related Criteria

Criterion 1: Relevance of the proposal Contribution to main objective of the Programme (i.e. improvement

of the effectiveness of regional / local policies)

Clear link between project theme and Programme priorities

Clearly interregional activities

Clear focus on the exchange of experience building on experiences of partners

Clear contribution to Lisbon / Gothenburg agendas

Project Application



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Criterion 2: Coherence of the proposal Clearly defined and meaningful objectives and expected effects

(outputs and results)

Logical interrelation of issues, objectives and expected effects

Rationality of proposed approach and methodology

Clear and coherent work plan

- Precisely defined activities and outputs

- Correspondence of activities with objectives and expected effects

- Logical links between components

- No overlapping activities between project components

Project Application



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Criterion 3: Quality of the results Precise (specified and quantified) and clear (visible and measurable)

outputs/results

Sufficient planned information and publicity measures

Results need to be innovative and bring clear added value compared to other current or past initiatives

Clear demonstration of project’s impact on partner’s policies

Clear and convincing provisions to ensure the durability of the project’s results

Project Application



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Implementation Related Criteria

Criterion 4: Quality of management Functioning management and coordination procedures

Clear management structure/transparent decision-making and monitoring procedures

Clearly explained day-to-day management procedures

Rational financial procedures

Lead Partner’s experience in project management

Project Application



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Criterion 5: Quality of partnership Involvement of relevant partners for solving the defined problem

Eligibility of partner’s position to directly influence their regional policies / strategies

Commonality of tackled issue to all partners

Balanced financial contribution between partners / Or if not, justification in project’s

Arrangements

Geographical coverage of the partnership beyond cross-border or transnational cooperation programmes

Mix between well experienced and less experienced partners

Project Application



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Criterion 6: Budget and Finances Demonstration of value for money / Reasonable budget compared

to planned activities and number of partners involved

Logical distribution of budget between budget lines and Components

Reasonable allocation of budget to management and coordination tasks (Component 1)

Financial arrangements need to reflect planned activities

Realistic and coherent six-monthly payment forecast

Justified level and nature of “External expertise and services” costs

Budgeted equipment costs (e.g. IT equipment) must clearly benefit the partnership

Project Application



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www.interreg4c.net

Assistance to Applicants FAQ

Project Feedback form

Individual Consultations

Lead Applicant Seminars

Thank you for your attention!

Reference Documents Operational Programme

Programme Manual

Application Pack

http://www.interreg4c.net/