Plenty of EU money is available to companies, individuals, NGOs or others through over 80 aid programmes. Quite often funds are not spent up because of lack of knowledge, experience or awareness on the part of the many individuals or organisations that are entitled to apply. A lot of the EU's budget is spent through some 80 aid programmes. Companies, individuals, NGOs or other groups can directly benefit. EU Programmes generally last for a number of years (normally, 5 years) and are managed by the various Directorate Generals of the European Commission through public tenders. These tenders are published in the Official Journal of the European Communities (OJ).

The call for tenders is the first official step to initiate a programme. Each call contains the following:
- A description of the programme and its budget
- The procedures and timelines by which a proposal should be presented
- Community contributions to a project
- The prerequisites needed to be able to participate in a programme
- The selection criteria
- Key addresses, where one can obtain information documentation or the required application forms.

Generally, the deadline by which a proposal should be presented is within three months upon publication of the call. In exceptions though, this deadline can vary between six weeks and four months.

If interested in participating in a programme, you should not wait for a tender to be published in the Official Journal. To gain time, identify which area of the programme you would be interested in and in this manner be prepared for when the tender is published. The Official Journal is the official source of documentation from the Commission and is available in all languages of the EU. It is organised in three separate publication: Series C (Information and notices), Series L (Legislation) and Series S (Supplement).

Who can participate
Project proposals can be submitted by all natural or legal persons originating from the EU Member States (e.g. enterprises, universities, research institutes, public bodies, private bodies, NGOs, etc.) or others originating from countries participating in that particular programme.

One of the major prerequisites for the participation in European programmes is the transnational character a proposal should have. Normally, a project has to involve at least two organisations of two different Member States or at least an organisation from one Member State and another from an associated State to the European Union to guarantee the realisation of the requirement.

Participants have to prove a sufficient level of technical and financial reliability.

Participants' roles
Participants are divided in three categories depending on the nature of their role in the project: Coordinator, Partner, Cofinancer.

In every project one of the participants has to take on the role of the Coordinator. This participant has to have a substantial experience in project management with the required technical capacity. The coordinator is also solely legal and financial responsible for the implementation of the project for the Commission. In particular, the coordinator is in charge of all the financial operations (receiving the contribution from the Commission and distributing it to the partners within the project), reporting on the advancement of the project and data from the partners of the project. He is accountable according to the current laws and norms. He should archive all the required lawful information on expenses and income of the project (including copies of the documentation of partners and subcontractors). These should include bills, timeline of the project, and documents calculating general expenses. The Coordinator concludes the necessary contracts with his partners to realise the project. Every contract has to clearly describe the role, the rights, the financial requirements and the responsibilities of participants.

The Partner contributes to the project in one or more aspects to the realisation and in consequence carries parts of the costs. The Partner benefits from the financial contribution of the Commission according to the contract signed by the coordinator and the Partner. He is obliged to provide all the required (technical) information to the Commission. Furthermore, if subcontractors are used, it is the responsibility of the Partner to ensure that the bills have a clear reference to the project.

The Cofinancer contribute financial resources to the project and cannot benefit from the Community contribution, apart from the case where the Co financer is also a partner in the project. It is not necessary that the Co financer participates directly in the practical realisation of the project.

Looking for partners
Identifying partners is one of the main tasks in the first phase of a project preparation. The first step is to examine the possibility to find appropriate partners amongst the organisations you are already in contact with: public bodies, clients, industry which are interested in a collaboration, universities in different countries.

This solution would considerably reduce the preparation time of a project, as it would no longer be necessary to identify a possible partner, make a first approach without knowing the outcome. In this case prior knowledge is already given, competences are clear and the work methods are known. You might be following the same objectives and therefore a dialogue is easy to construct on a basis of trust. A partnership is quicker, stronger and more effectively formed in this manner. If, on the other hand, you do not have contact with foreign partners, the Commission provides some instruments to find these.

A declaration of interest: with the help of a pre-established format you can outline the objectives of your project and the profile of a required partner you are looking for. This in turn will be collected by the appropriate office in the Commission and inserted in the data base of the Community to guarantee a maximum diffusion. http://dbs.cordis.lu/search/en/simple/IT_PART_simple.html

Infodays
Infodays are organised by the Commission around the Community programmes. A number of company representatives, representatives of research institutes, universities and other organisations already involved in the programmes or those who wish to become part of it. This is a very good opportunity to create contacts with the functionaries of the Commission, the experts and to receive key information.

The international collaboration required by these projects is not always easy to implement: the management of the project throughout its realisation often becomes more complex and costly, the contacts with new organisations of varying type and in different locations require different contracts and relationships that often slow down the implementation of the work.

On the other hand, the international collaboration has definite advantages:
- a wealth of knowledge and information, previously unattainable
- extension of your network of contacts
- The splitting of costs amongst various partners gives these partners the possibility to think of projects of greater dimensions than if they were alone
- An optimisation of the usage of competences

Directly managed funds
There are two types of Community funds: those managed directly by the European Commission and those given to the Member States to manage.

In the first case it is the Commission who manages these funds and establishes the funding criteria for the various programmes, which in turn it also manages directly.

In the second case, the funds are assigned to the Member States, in particular to certain Regions, to alleviate the inequalities between regions and develop those regions in need through economic and social stimulation (Structural Funds). On the basis of a programme approved by the Commission, the regions may use the funds according national rules.

Financial contributions
The European Union partially finances projects. Hardly ever does this contribution cover all the costs ( normally the contribution varies from a minimum of 35% of the costs of a research project to a maximum of 85% of the projects presented by NGOs) The contribution can only be used for the implementation of a project and cannot be used for the overall working of an organisation that is involved in implementing a project.

Loredana Vullo
Updated November 2004