Calling all Project Applicants - Lessons learnt from Call 4

With the fifth call for projects just around the corner (02 March - 06 April) we wanted to share some of the lessons learnt from our previous call for Phase 1 projects which took place in September – October 2016.

Completing your application form

• The project description should send a clear message of what the project is, what it will do, how it will do it and what results it will deliver. The description should also include a demonstration of the project’s innovative character and a justification of why a cross-border approach is appropriate.
• The project should provide a clear intervention logic, linking its activities to the expected impact and contribution to the Programme’s objectives.
• We want to remind applicants again that the translation of the application form needs to be of high quality. The Programme works in both French and English and therefore to have the best possible representation of your project at the selection-subcommittee, project partners need to make sure the translation of their application form is of very high quality. Committee members from both the French and English delegations noted once again that a poor quality translation reflects a poor quality partnership between French and UK partners. 
• You must check that all attachments are included in the final application. There are 3 Mandatory attachments: Phase 1 Work Plan (Annex 1), Indicative Budget (Annex 2) and Letters of Intent for each project partner.
• Regarding Annex 2 (Budget), applicants should hide unused cells in the spreadsheet.
• Please also note that the Programme output indicator 2.4 and Common indicator number 45 have been split by gender. Therefore, for projects contributing to those indicators, the number of male and females participating in the implementation of these outputs need to be indicated separately.

Submitting your application form

• We advise you to complete the offline template application form before submitting your online application via eMS (Electronic Management System). This allows you to put together your application form at your own pace and then copy and paste content to eMS when you are ready to submit your final application.
• During the 4^th call we found that applicants who read the eMS technical guidance note before submitting their application were less likely to incur technical difficulties when completing their online application.
• Before applying on eMS, you should send your completed offline template to your local facilitator for review. Make sure you leave enough time for you to adapt your application once you have received feedback. Facilitators can provide support right from the earliest stages of project development. Contact details of your local facilitator can be found here. 

Eligibility common issues:

A number of applications submitted during the last call had eligibility issues due to the following reasons:

• Project name and/or signatory name missing on Letter of Intent
• Letter of intent not signed, or not signed by the correct signatory
• Budget not provided for all project partners or budget information mistakenly hidden
• Questions on co-financing and revenue not answered in the budget table
• Project partner not a legal entity
• Attachment missing (letters of intent, budget, work plan etc.)
• Sections incomplete where an error message on the application form had not been taken in to account

You may also wish to read previous “Lessons learnt” articles listed on the ‘news and events’ section for further advice.

For any questions please contact the team on interregv@norfolk.gov.uk.