The EEA Grants provide funding to 16 EU countries in Central, Eastern and Southern Europe. An amount of EUR1.79 billion has been set aside under the EEA and Norway Grants for the programming period 2009-2014.
The overall objectives of the Financial Mechanisms 2009-2014 are to contribute to the reduction of economic and social disparities within the EEA and to strengthen the bilateral relations between the Donor States and the Beneficiary State.
In order to ensure the implementation of the EEA Financial Mechanism, a Memorandum of Understanding between the Kingdom of Norway, the Republic of Iceland, the Principality of Liechtenstein and the Government of Romania on the implementation of the EEA Financial Mechanism for the period 2009-2014 is in force as of 22 March 2012, amended 18 October 2012.
The rules and requirements on the implementation of the EEA grants are set out in the Regulation on the implementation of the European Economic Area (EEA) Financial Mechanism 2009-2014, including its annexes. Further information can be found at www.eeagrants.org.
The EEA Grants contribute, inter alia, to protecting cultural heritage and revitalizing cultural heritage and to promoting cultural diversity, intercultural dialogue, fostering minority cultures and cultural exchange by providing more than €200 million support in 14 beneficiary countries. In Romania a total of €20,8 million is provided for support in this area, of which €16,470,588 will be available for support in the area of protecting and revitalizing cultural heritage. The total budget of the present call for proposals is € 1.176.470.
In Romania, the programme operator for Conservation and Revitalisation of Cultural and Natural Heritage Programme, hereinafter named the Programme, is the Project Management Unit (PMU), within the Ministry of Culture, implementing the Programme in partnership with the Directorate for Cultural Heritage Norway.
At least 10% of the total eligible costs of the Programme shall target the improvement of the situation of the Roma population. The focus is to increase the protection and valorisation of the Roma cultural heritage with the aim towards strengthening their cultural identity and the contribution of the project’s relevance regarding cultural minorities (including Roma) will be taken into account in the evaluation criteria.
The general objective of the Programme is to contribute to cultural and natural heritage for future generations safeguarded and conserved and made publicly available.
As well, the implementation of the Programme shall contribute to:
The present grant scheme within the Programme envisages the achievement of the following outcomes and outputs:
Outcome A: Cultural heritage restored, renovated and protected
Outputs:
Outcome B: Local communities further developed and economically sustainable livelihoods established through the revitalization of cultural and natural heritage
Outputs:
Under the present call for proposals, all activities which aim to achieve the objectives, outcomes and outputs outlined above are considered eligible, such as:
The list of activities is indicative and not limited to the examples mentioned above.
Under this call for proposals the following cross-cutting issues have to be considered in projects: good governance, sustainable development and gender equality (according to Protocol 38 B and Article 1.6 of the Regulations).
Good governance has 6 main principles: it is participatory and inclusive, accountable, transparent, responsive, effective and efficient, and follows the rule of law. These principles apply to project level, too. Transparency and openess shall characterise all phases of project implementation.
Sustainable development is a framework for a long-term vision of sustainability in which economic growth, social cohesion and environmental protection go hand in hand and are mutually supporting. This term is defined as „development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future mgenerations to meet their needs”. The principles of sustainable development have to be observed at project level.
Gender equality refers to men and women having equal rights and opportunities in all areas of society and economy, such as representation and participation, access to resources, rights, norms and values. Principles of equal rights and opportunities for men and women have to be applied at project level.
The horizontal concerns to be addressed are: combating hate speech, extremism, racism, homophobia, anti - semitism, tolerance, sexual harassment, violence against women, trafficking. These will be addressed directly or indirectly by the proposed activities. Applicants will give details in the application form about the horizontal concerns the project contributes to and how the horizontal concerns are addressed within the project. The selection criteria take into consideration the principles of equality and tolerance and they foster the submission of project applications supporting cultural diversity and cultural expression of minority groups, including Roma.
3.1. The total budget of the present call for proposals is 1.176.470 EUR. This amount consists of 999.999 EUR (85%) provided by the EEA Financial Mechanism and 176.471 EUR (15%) provided by the Romanian Government.
3.2. The above total budget of the present call will be allocated for both outcomes of the Programme, as follows:
Under outcome 2 at least 150.000 Eur is allocated to cultural projects related to the improvement of the situation of Roma population.
3.3. Project grant rate
The grant rate for the implementation of a project is as follows:
In case of private entities, in-kind contributions are accepted. Such contributions shall amount to maximum 50% of the co-financing provided by the applicant. Contributions in kind are possible only in the form of voluntary work.
The basis for the calculation of the unit prices for voluntary work will be the official data on minimum and average salary in the economy at national level, as established by the National Commission for Prognosis in force at the time of the call for proposal launching. The eventual net revenues gained in a project must be reinvested in the project.
Further details about these aspects are available in the Applicant’s Guide.
3.4 Grant amounts:
4.1. For both Programme outcomes, the eligible applicants are Romanian organizations:
The applicant shall be legal owner/holder of the heritage monument, item or collection included in the project.
4.2. The applicant shall be legal owner/holder of the heritage monument, item or collection included in the project.
4.3. Applicants are not eligible to receive granting within the Programme should they fall under one of the following categories:
4.4. In addition, applicants will not receive grants within the Programme, should they be in one the following:
4.4 Donor project partners (DPPs)
To enhance cooperation, partnerships between organisations from Romania and Donor States are strongly encouraged. It should be noted that the application is to be submitted by an applicant from Romania which may establish a partnership with one or more organisations from the donor states: Iceland, Liechtenstein and/or Norway.
Both parties must work out and agree to their respective roles within the proposed project. The applicant and the partner shall sign a Partnership Letter of intent using a template provided together with the Application Form template to be submitted together with the application.
Donor project partners can be organisations registered as legal entities in Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway. A donor project partner shall meet the following requirements:
All project costs must be directly linked to the implementation of the proposed activities. All project costs have to be proportionate, justified and necessary for the implementation of the project and actually incurred by the Project Promoter/Project Partner.
The following project costs are considered eligible costs under this call of proposals:
a) Management costs including, among others:
b) Consulting and expertise costs including, among others:
c) Specific costs including, among others:
d) Costs for publicity and information including, among others:
e) Indirect costs for projects (overheads) up to 20% of the project total direct eligible costs; indirect costs per project will be estimated according to the methodology indicated in the Programme Proposal and in the Applicant’s Guide
As a general rule, the total value of the management cost together with the indirect costs should not exceed 20% of the project total direct eligible value.
Within the project, the value added tax that directly relates to the project may be eligible if the project promoter cannot recover it completely or partly according to taxation laws and regulations.
Within this call for proposals, the following costs are not considered eligible:
The project promoters and partners which are public institutions in Romania, financed under the Programme must fully comply with all of the national applicable regulations, in particular to the public procurement national legislation, i.e. Government Emergency Ordinance no 34/2006 regarding the awarding of public procurement contracts, including subsequent amendments and completions.
The project promoters and partners which are private entities in Romania, financed under the Programme must fully comply with the provisions of Ministerial Order no. 1120/2013 regarding the simplified procedures applied to private beneficiaries in case of projects financed through Structural Instruments, Convergence Objective, and projects financed under EEA and Norway Grants for awardingsupply, works or services contracts, respectively the Government Emergency Ordinance no. 34/2006 including subsequent amendments and completions, if applicable according to art.9, par. c and c1.
The main principles in implementation of the public procurement procedure include: equal treatment of contractors and transparency of the procedure, appropriate deadlines, mutual recognition of diplomas, certificates and other documents confirming qualifications proper publicity of the procedure, in accordance with the Romanian law.
According to the provisions of GEO no.117/2006 on the national procedures regarding state aid, these rules apply to economic undertakings with a lucrative purpose. The eligible project promoters and project partners in the Programme arepublic or private organisations not aiming at gaining profit.
The Programme is not subject to the State Aid provisions because of the nature of the specific activities to be funded within the Programme, because the applicants do not act as economic operators in implementing the specific activities, because there are no arguments to appreciate that competition on the European market will be distorted and taking into account the maximum limit of the grant awarded per project, as well.
Payments to projects will take the form of advance payment, interim payments and final balance payment. The advance payment shall be set in the financial plan of each project and shall not exceed 30% of the total project grant.
Interim payments to the projects will be made on the basis of approved interim reports, provided that the costs for at least 70% of any previous payment have been incurred.
The Project interim reports are to be submitted by the project promoter to the Programme Operator in line with the frequency set in the project contract. As a general rule, an interim report shall cover a reporting period of 4 months, but for short term projects a final report may be seen as sufficient.
More details about payments and reporting are provided in the Applicant’s Guide.
The Programme Operator may withhold up to 10% of the total grant amount for the payment of the final balance. The payment of the final balance will be disbursed within 15 working days after the approval of the final report.
With regard to individual projects, the project selection criteria are:
Detailed evaluation criteria and maximum scores to be awarded are presented in the table below:
Criteria |
Max score |
I. Quality and innovation |
15 |
I.1. Overall project quality |
8 |
I.2. Innovation of the approach, methods and techniques |
7 |
II. Project relevance |
30 |
II.1. Relevance of the project for the identified needs |
10 |
a. Arguments suporting the need to implement the project |
5 |
b. Methods to address the identified needs |
5 |
II.2. Contribution to the Programme’s objectives |
5 |
|
|
- protection of the Romanian cultural heritage |
|
- development of communities by improving their tourist and investment attractiveness through the conservation, restoration and valorisation of cultural heritage |
|
- conservation and valorisation of intangible heritage with an aim towards strengthening cultural identity of ethnical and cultural minorities, including Roma population |
|
II.3. Contribution to the protection and promotion of cultural diversity and cultural expression of minority groups, including Roma |
2 |
II.4. Coherence with national and/or relevant European policies for the cultural sector |
2 |
II. 5. Contribution to the EEA Financial Mechanism objectives |
4 |
a. reduction of economic and social disparities in the European Economic Area |
2 |
b. strengthening of bilateral relations between the Donor States and Romania |
2 |
II.6. Partnership with organisations from the Donor States |
5 |
a. Level of involvement of project partners both in the design and implementation of the project |
3 |
b. Envisaged measures for encouraging long term partnership |
2 |
II.7. Relevance for cross-cutting issues |
2 |
III. Project feasibility |
30 |
III.1. Capacity and experience of applicant and partner(s) |
8 |
a. Implementation capacity and experience in project management of applicant and partner(s) |
4 |
b. Competences of applicant and partner(s) in the field of the project |
4 |
III.2 Methodology |
12 |
a. SMART objectives (specific, measurable, achievable, realistic, timed) and realistic results |
2 |
b. Corelation of activities with project objectives and expected results |
3 |
c. Project coherence with the implementation schedule |
3 |
d. Risk management and mitigation plan |
2 |
e. Internal evaluation and monitoring |
2 |
III. 3 Budget |
10 |
a. Cost effectiveness |
5 |
b. Coherence of estimated expenditures with planned activities and results |
5 |
IV. Project impact |
25 |
IV.1. Visibility and/or audience reached |
5 |
IV.2. Social, economic and cultural benefits created by the project for the local community |
10 |
IV. 3. Capacity of further dissemination and use of results |
5 |
IV.4.Sustainability of project results ensured in terms of financial, organizational and functional perspective |
5 |
Total score |
100 |
Threshold: Only applications receiving 70 points or more will be considered for funding.
More detailed information about the selection procedure is provided in the Applicant’s Guide.
For reasons of equal treatment and non-discrimination, applicants shall not contact the programme operator or the evaluators after submission deadline, except in cases where clarifications are requested from them by the programme operator.
The implementation period of projects under this call for proposals must not extend beyond April 30, 2016.
The application form is available on the Programme dedicated website: www.fonduri-patrimoniu.ro and on the website of the Ministry of Culture, Project Management Unit: www.umpcultura.ro. The application form shall be completed in Romanian language, accompanied by a summary in English language. If any of the supporting documents is in a language other than Romanian or English, a translation in Romanian or English must be attached. Handwritten applications will not be accepted.
Applications shall be submitted:
Applications shall be submitted at the following address:
Project Management Unit
Ministry of Culture
Unirii Bld. No. 22, 5th floor, Room 503, 3rd district, Bucharest, postal code 030833
The sealed envelope must have the following information marked:
EEA Grants
PA 16/RO12 - Conservation and Revitalisation of Cultural and Natural Heritage
Call for Applications round 1/2013 – Small Grant Scheme
Applicant: < Complete name and address>
Project Title: Project <Title>
The deadline for submission of project applications is April 25 of the delivery to the courier shall be considered as submission date.
Requests for further clarification may be submitted in writing at the e-mail address: office@fonduri-patrimoniu.ro, until April 25, 2014. The term of response to questions/ clarifications is 3 - 5 working days.
Additional information about the call for proposals and the full text of the call for proposals is available at the following addresses: www.fonduri-patrimoniu.ro and www.umpcultura.ro.
For further information, please contact
Project Management Unit
Ministry of Culture
office@fonduri-patrimoniu.ro
Phone / fax: 021-2228479, 021-2244512
Contact details for additional information on partner search for Norway, Iceland and Liechtenstein:
Jørgen Holten Jørgensen
Riksantikvaren - Directorate for Cultural Heritage
P.O.Box 8196 Dep.
N-0034 Oslo, Norway
Tel.: (+47) 22 94 04 00
E-mail: jj@ra.no
Agnes Stefánsdóttir
Minjastofnun Íslands - The Cultural Heritage Agency of Iceland
Suðurgötu 39
101 Reykjavík, Iceland
Tel: (+354) 570 1300 - Fax: (+354) 570 1301
E-mail: agnes@minjastofnun.is
Kerstin Appel-Huston
Ministerium für Äusseres, Bildung und Kultur – Ministry of Education and Culture
Peter-Kaiser-Platz 1, Regierungsgebäude
9490 Vaduz, Liechtenstein
Tel. (+423) 236 6024
E-mail: Kerstin.Appel@regierung.li
ERRATUM regarding Annex 4 – Statement of eligibility