Sustainable Use of Regional funds - for Nature 1
Environment Agency Austria Leading Austrian expert institution for all environmental topics Actual number of employees: 480 Partner institution of the European Environment Agency EEA Involvement in several INTERREG project as lead or normal partner 2
SURF-Nature - Key facts SURF: Sustainable Use of Regional Funds for Nature 14 partners from 10 countries in Europe Austria, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Italy, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, UK Lead partner: Environment Agency Austria Duration: Jan 2010 Dec 2012 Budget: ERDF Funding: ca. 1.2 Mio Public Co-financing: ca. 300.000 Total budget eligible: ca. 1.5 Mio 3
History of SURF-Nature 2004: EU Decision to increase funding for natural heritage, biodiversity, and nature conservation As result: For the first time the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) 2007-2013 contains options for financing natural heritage, biodiversity and nature conservation, including Natura 2000 4
History of SURF-Nature European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) 2,7 billions in period 2007-2013 for Environmental protection and risk prevention, category 51 promotion of biodiversity and nature protection (including Natura 2000) A large number and variety of opportunities for financing nature conservation Great potential for countries and regions to learn from each others approaches Project idea for SURF-Nature developed in 2008 5
Overall objective of SURF-Nature Improve regional policies and practises for nature conservation and biodiversity By increasing the opportunities for and the impacts of financing nature conservation measures from ERDF funds 6
Further objectives To establish and strengthen a network of experts and stakeholders concerned with financing nature conservation measures To enable the network to serve as a communication platform for promotion and improvement of ERDF-funded nature conservation projects throughout the EU for the current and future programming periods To identify and overview different approaches to the planning and allocation of ERDF funds for nature conservation 7
Main tasks To analyse success factors for ERDF-funded nature conservation projects and assess their transferability across member states and regions To develop a data base of 60 ERDF-funded nature conservation projects To develop good practice techniques based on actual partner experience targeted at the funding themes green infrastructure, tourism, education, forest biodiversity, Natura 2000 management 8
Main Tasks To exchange experiences and good practises between partners at workshops To provide training and capacity-building for regions in order to improve policies and practises To improve the quality of future nature conservation projects through the development and dissemination of a guideline summarising and analyzing good practices To positively influence the strategic planning and funding allocation for 2014+ through development and dissemination of a handbook on the new generation of funding for nature protection 9
Preparing a project proposal 10
Project preparation Networking and creating a suitable partner consortium Clear project structure and clear outputs and results Sorting out the project budget and co-financing Getting along with the application form 11
Networking with your national contact point of INTERREG IVC to precise your idea to reserve your idea on a national level to get help in finding partners and co-financing NA may give you hints and valuable insights of the program 12
Searching for partners General recommendations 8-15 Partners in a consortium are a manageable size Geographical coverage: get partners from all parts of Europe Partner should have a profound experience in the thematic field of the project idea Preferably partners should have their working field on a regional or local level Preferably partners should be experienced in Interreg Projects 13
Searching for partners General recommendations Check the project and partner database of INTERREG IVC and other INTERREG programs (South east, Central Europe, Alpine Space ) Ask your partners if they know other potential partners Take part at INTERREG seminars for partner searching 14
Searching for partners Specific recommendations Invite future partners to a preparatory meeting To get a common ground of the project To amend the project idea with input from the others. Clarifying future responsibilities among the consortium Sharing the work for proposal writing Check the reliability and commitment of your partners. 15
Clear project structure & outputs Given Component structure in application form helps you organising your project Component 1: Management and Co-ordination Finalisation and conclusion of the partnership agreement Preparation of progress reports Organisation of project s steering group meetings Monitoring and control of the incurred expenditure. 16
Clear project structure & outputs Given Component structure in application form helps you organising your project Component 2: Communication and Dissemination: leaflets / brochures / newsletters launch and closing conferences web site press conferences Dissemination of project outputs (good practice guides, policy recommendations, etc.). 17
Clear project structure & outputs Given Component structure in application form helps you organising your project Component 3 - Exchange of experience: joint thematic seminars / workshops / conferences study / site visits / staff exchanges joint interregional training sessions joint thematic surveys / studies case studies / good practice guides / policy recommendations / strategic guidelines Development of action plans 18
Outputs & Results Outputs are tangible deliverables from the activities carried out in the project Results are... direct and immediate effects resulting from the project and from the production of the outputs. 19
Project budget and co-financing Calculation of partner budgets depends on Resources needed for project tasks (Person month, travel costs, ) Amount of co-financing the partner is able to cover Level of salaries in different countries. Sort out your co-financing Start as early as possible to find a co-financer Are you able to cover your co-financing part on your own, in case you don t find a co-financer? 20
Application form The application form is long excel file with various input fields & explanations helps you structuring your project Due to space limitation: Text needs to be short & clear Recommendation for initial stage of proposal writing Use a Word-file with main input fields of the application form Enable Track Changes Mode in Word for sharing the document with colleagues and partners Enable spell checking to reduce writing mistakes Copy the content back to the application form 21
Thank you! Contact details Peter Tramberend Tel: +43-1-31304-5935 peter.tramberend@umweltbundesamt.at Environment Agency Austria - Umweltbundesamt www.umweltbundesamt.at 22