INTERREG IV-C-Prezentare generala 2011

EUROPEAN REGIONAL
DEVELOPMENT FUND

Introduction to INTERREG IVC

Romanian National Information Day
25 January 2011

Thorsten Kohlish, Project Adviser,
Zornitsa Tsoneva, Communication & Project Adviser
INTERREG IVC Info Point East
1

Agenda

1. Programme’s main features

3. Programme state of play

5. Fourth call for proposals

7. Recommendations and advice

2 Romanian INTERREG IVC Info Day – 25 January 2011


Eligible area

All EU Member
States, Norway and
Switzerland

Total budget

€302 million for project
funding



Overall Objective

 Improve the effectiveness of
regional development policies

by

 Enabling exchange of experiences and knowledge
 Matching less experienced and more advanced regions

in the fields of

 Innovation and the knowledge economy
 Environment and risk prevention


Programme Priorities
Priority 1: Innovation and the knowledge economy

 Innovation, research & technological development

 Entrepreneurship and SMEs

 Information society

 Employment, human capital and education



Programme Priorities
Priority 2: Environment and risk prevention

 Natural and technological risks; climate change
 Water management
 Waste prevention and management
 Biodiversity and preservation of natural heritage;
air quality
 Energy and sustainable transport
 Cultural heritage and landscape


Eligible partners

 Regional and local authorities as main ‘target group’

 In justified cases, also bodies governed by public law
See Directive 2004/18/EC on public procurement rules, Art. 1

 In case of doubt, National Contact Points
are responsible for confirming the legal status
of partners based on their territory



Types of Interventions

Type 1: Regional Initiative Projects
Cooperation between project partners on a shared
regional policy issue within the thematic priorities of
the programme

Type 2: Capitalisation Projects
Transfer of good practices into EU Structural Funds
mainsteam programmes of the participating regions



Regional Initiative Projects

• ‘Classic’ type of interregional cooperation projects:
Cooperation projects between partners on a shared
regional policy issue within the programme’s thematic
priorities

• Intensity of cooperation from networking activities to
joint development of policy tools and pilot actions

• Regardless of the intensity, one core requirement for
all: specific focus on the interregional exchange of
experience at policy level


Regional Initiative Projects

Recommended number of partners depends
Size of on the level of intensity of cooperation
partnership basic level (networking): up to 20
medium level (pilots, transfer): up to 15

Duration 36 months (including project closure)

Budget Expected average ERDF budget: € 1-2 million



Main activities
 Exchange of experience
e.g. thematic seminars, workshops, conferences,
study visits, staff exchange, joint training sessions, etc.
 Pilot actions (optional)
testing good practice in selected partner regions
NB! has to benefit all partners
 Communication and dissemination
e.g. conferences, publications, website
 Management and coordination



Requirements for activities

 Relevance to the programme
Activities have to be in line with the programme’s overall
objective - contributing to the improvement of policies
 Interregionality
Joint implementation of interregional activities
In case of pilot experimentation: transfer from one region
to another, but benefiting all partners
 Additionality
Activities would be different from the normal and regular
tasks of the partners involved


Co-financing rates

Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland,
France, Germany, Ireland, Italy,
75% ERDF
Luxembourg, Netherlands, Spain,
Sweden, United Kingdom
Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Cyprus,
Estonia, Greece, Hungary, Latvia,
85% ERDF
Lithuania, Malta, Poland, Portugal,
Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia
50% NO funding Norway



Finances: good to know
 No pre-financing! Eligibile costs are later reimbursed
 Own financing can come from public sources at
national, regional, or local level; not other EU funding!
 Staff costs count as cash contribution (if properly paid out)
 Recommendation: avoid shared costs!
 Public procurement: EU, national, and internal rules apply
 Equipment costs considered exceptional



Approved projects and ERDF committed

Projects Submitted Approved Funds committed
Regional Initiative 934 102 € 173,746,470
Projects
Capitalisation 68 20 € 30,556,492
Projects

TOTAL 1002 122 € 204,302,962

≈ 68% of available ERDF budget


17
Number of projects

0
5
10
15
20
25
30
Innovation &

22
RTD

Entrepreneurship
26
& SMEs

Information

12
Society

Employment &
Sub-themes of Priority 1

11
human capital

Nat & tech risks;
13

climate change

Water
6

management

Waste
4

management

Biodiversity &
5

natural heritage

Energy & sust
Sub-themes of Priority 2

19

transport
Approved projects by sub-theme (1-3 Call)

Cultural heritage
4

Romanian INTERREG IVC Info Day – 25 January 2011

& landscape


Country representation in approved projects


Fourth call for proposals



Core features of the call

• Timing of the call - Open: 1 December 2010
Close: 1 April 2011
• All priorities / sub-themes open
• Types of intervention: open only to Regional Initiative Projects
(excluding mini-programmes)
• Budget available: all remaining funds
Around EUR 100 million ERDF: EUR 62 million for priority 1
EUR 38 million for priority 2



Specific requirement:
Elaboration of Implementation Plans

• Additional output required in component 3 (‘Exchange of
experience’ component)
• To be produced by each participating ‘region’
• It specifies how each ‘region’ will work to integrate
the lessons learnt from the cooperation into its policies
• Aim: to professionalise the exchange of experience and
to contribute to improve the durability of projects results



Specific requirement: geographical coverage

 At least one partner from each of the four Information
Point areas
 IP North: DE, DK, EE, FI, LT, LV, NO, SE
 IP East: AT, BG, CZ, HU, PL, RO, SK, SI
 IP South: CY, EL, ES, IT, MT, PT
 IP West: BE, CH, FR, IE, LU, NL, UK
 At least one partner from the 12 newer
Member States (joined 2004 or later): BG, CY, CZ, EE,
HU, LT, LV, MT, PL, RO, SK, SI


Importance of the innovative character

To clearly demonstrate the added-value of fourth call
applications compared with the 122 approved projects
in particular regarding:
 the topic tackled
 the partners involved

An analysis of the current programme thematic &
geographical coverage is available in the programme
evaluation on www.interreg4c.eu



Innovation & RTD sub-theme: 22 projects already
Index Acronym Project title
Mainstreaming Innovative Instruments for SME development in
0004R1 MINI EUROPE
Europe
0055C1 ERIK ACTION ERIK ACTION - Upgrading the innovation capacity of existing firms
0086R1 CLIQ Creating Local Innovation through a Quadruple Helix
0120R1 I4W Innovation for Welfare
0230C1 RAPIDE Regional Action Plans for Innovation Development and Enterprise
0326R1 NANO4M Nanotechnology for Market
0499R2 FRESH Forwarding Resgional Sustainable Environmental Hierarchies
0557C2 MKW Making Knowledge Work
0568R2 Know-Man Knowledge Network Management in Technology Parks
0595R2 PERIA Partnership on European Regional Innovation Agencies
0596R2 ECREIN+ European Clusters and Regions for Eco-Innovation Network Plus
0602R2 IPP Interregional Partnership Platform
0649R2 INNOHUBS Innovation Hubs for Edge Cities
0699R2 ChemClust Improving Innovation Capacity in European Chemical Clusters
0744R2 INNOPOLIS Innovation Policy in University City Regions
Disseminating Innovative STRategIes for Capitalization of Targeted
0787R2 DISTRICT+
Good Practices
0799R2 SMART+ Mini-Programme for SME Innovation and Promotion of RTD
0806R2 EURIS European Collaborative and Open Regional Innovation Strategies
0809R2 PROSESC Producer Services for European Sustainability and Competitiveness
0842C2 SCINNOPOLI SCanning INNOvation POLicy Impact
0945R2 INOLINK Connecting the territory through the innovation network
0969R2 ERMIS Effective Reproducible Model of Innovation Systems



Financial simplification on administration costs

• Administration costs = all types of office running costs
(direct and indirect)

• Up to now, all expenditure reported based on real costs
(=> extensive evidence)

• For fourth call applications, administration costs are
automatically calculated as 12% of budgeted (and later
on reported) staff costs (NB!)


4. Recommendations
& advice


4. Recommendations & advice

Eligibility requirements

• Almost 20% of submitted applications ineligible during the
previous calls

• Main reasons for ineligibility: wrong co-financing
statements
(60% of the ineligible cases)

Please check the eligibility rules carefully !



Quality of the work plan in the application form
• Activities of the work plan need to be described as
precisely as possible:
 To allow a proper assessment (without detailed information,
the whole application remains vague and the compliance of
the activities with programme’s requirements cannot be
checked)
 To allow a proper monitoring in case of approval (the work
plan is the main basis for monitoring project’s implementation

• Description of the work plan need to be consistent
(i.e. perfect correspondence between indicators / activities /
outputs)


Quality of the work plan in the application form

Activities and
outputs not
consistent
NO!

YES!



Importance of the programme’s rationale!

Programme strategic objective: improvement of regional policies
• INTERREG IVC = ‘capitalisation’ programme

• Interregional cooperation ≠ cross-border cooperation
• Interregional cooperation ≠ transnational cooperation

Capitalisation: process of collecting, analysing, disseminating and
transferring good practices in a certain policy area with
the objective of optimising the results achieved in this
specific domain of regional policy



Importance of the programme’s rationale!

Key elements derive from this programme’s rationale:

 Local & regional authorities = ‘natural’ target group of IVC
Other bodies may be involved only if their link with regional
and local policies is clearly demonstrated

 Exchange of experiences = core activities of all IVC projects
Pilot actions / experimentations possible but only under very
strict conditions (relevance, interregionality & additionality)



Partner search
 Project Idea
Database at
www.interreg4c.eu

 Four Information
Points
 National Contact
Points
 Partner search
events



Upcoming events
Interregional partner search forum
 3-4 February 2011 in Budapest, Hungary
Lead Applicant Seminar, followed by individual consultations
 3 March 2011 in Vienna, Austria
Individual consultations in Katowice, Poland /IP East premises/
 8 February 2011
 22 February 2011
 7, 8, 9, 10, 11 March 2011



Additional Information
Reference documents at www.interreg4c.eu
 Terms of reference for the 4th call
 Programme Manual
 FAQ section
 Programme publications

Assistance
 Project Assistance Forms
 Lead Applicant Seminars
 Individual consultations
 Advice by phone and e-mail


Contact us!

Contact us and share your interesting ideas!

www.interreg4c.eu

IP-East@interreg4c.eu

Zornitsa Tsoneva Thorsten Kohlisch
Communication & Project Adviser IP Coordinator & Project Adviser
zornitsa.tsoneva@interreg4c.eu
thorsten.kohlisch@interreg4c.eu
+48 (0) 32 205 32 30 +48 (0) 32 205 32 30

INTERREG IV-C-Prezentare generala 2011

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