FAQ BSB JOP 2014-2020 - 2nd Call for Proposals
This page contains answers to questions submitted by interested ENI CBC Black Sea Basin Program applicants, beneficiaries and controllers. The questions and answers are organized by topic of interest and are updated on a regular basis, as we collect new questions. To preview the questions, click on the topic of interest.
General Questions
According to Guidelines for Grant Applicants, Section 2.1. Timetable for submission of Applications: The deadline for the submission of Applications is 31 January 2019, 14:00 hrs. Romania time. Please take the time zone differences into account.
In order to upload a project idea on the programme website, we recommend you to create an account on www.blacksea-cbc.net, and after that to go to Section „Project Ideas Search” where you have the opportunity to upload a project idea. Also if you access “Partner Search” section on the website, you can add your organization and contact details so that potential beneficiaries that are looking for partners to contact you.
According to the Guidelines for Grant Applicants, section 2.7.1 General Criteria Regarding Eligibility of Costs, the studies and documentation for projects including an infrastructure component are eligible dated starting after the approval date of the Programme, respectively 18 December 2015.
Electronic signatures are accepted as long as evidence of this electronic signature is provided. Usually this evidence takes the form of an electronic certificate included in a pdf document, according to the national legislation of the applicant.
Eligibility of Applicants and Partners
According to the Guidelines for Grant Applicants, Section 2.5. Partnerships – Eligibility Requirements: „The project Lead Partner may be from any of the participating countries.”
In accordance with the provisions of the Guidelines for Grant Applicants Section 2.5. Partnerships – Eligibility Requirements: „A Lead Partner may submit more than one application under this Call for Proposals” and „A Lead Partner or a Project Partner may at the same time be partner in other application(s)”. However, any organization has to take into consideration the requirements regarding the professional and financial capacity.Also, be aware that a Lead Partner may not be awarded more than two grants under this Call for Proposals, one grant per each Specific Objective.
According to section 2.4 Applicants – Eligibility Requirements, (2.4.2) Geographical location, of the Guidelines for Grant Applicants, eligible applicants (Lead Partners and Project Partners) have to be a legal entity effectively established (registered and located) in the eligible area of the programme. If an organization has offices that are legal entities effectively established (registered and located) in the eligible area, then they are eligible, even though the central office is outside of the eligible area. If these offices do not have a legal personality, then these entities/offices are not eligible. However, please note that the eligibility of the applicants will be assessed and decided during the administrative and eligibility check by the assessors.
According to Section 2.4. Applicants – Eligibility Requirements, (2.4.6) Ineligible Applicants of the Guidelines for Grant Applicants: “Profit making entities from the public or private sector” are not eligible.
There is no such limitation. However, the requirements specified in the Guidelines for Grant Applicants section 2.5 Partnerships – Eligibility requirements shall be observed.
Eligibility of Costs
According to the Guidelines for Grant Applicants section 2.7.1 General
Criteria Regarding Eligibility of Costs, Eligible direct costs have to meet several criteria including the following: a) they are incurred during the implementation period of the Project, in particular: – costs relating to services and works shall relate to activities performed during the implementation period.
Notwithstanding the paragraph above, costs related to studies and documentation for projects including an infrastructure component, which are required during the evaluation stage are eligible even if they are incurred during the project preparation period, which starts after the approval date of the Programme, respectively 18 December 2015.
According to the Guidelines for Grant Applicants, section 2.7.7 Budget Structure/ Budget Line 1 – Staff Costs, staff costs, covering internal management or internal expertise, are eligible provided that they are paid for employees who are directly employed by the concerned beneficiary and who execute project related tasks. Staff can either be already employed or be employed by the beneficiary specifically for the project after the conclusion of the grant contract.
Expenditure on staff costs shall be limited to the following:a) salary payments related to the activities which the entity would not carry out if the activities concerned were not undertaken, fixed in an employment/work contract, an appointment decision (both hereinafter referred to as “employment document”), or by law;
b) any other costs directly linked to salary payments incurred and paid by the employer, such as employment taxes and social security payments provided that they are: (i) fixed in an employment document or by law; (ii) in accordance with the legislation referred to in the employment document and with standard practices in the country and/or organization where the individual staff member is actually working; and (iii) not recoverable by the employer.The staff can be allocated to work full-time (100% of the working time is allocated to the project) or part-time for the project (flexible number of hours).
In accordance with Guidelines for grant applicants, section 2.7.7 Budget Structure/ Budget Line 4 – External expertise and services, it is compulsory for each project partner from Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Turkey, Ukraine to include in its project budget costs for expenditure verifications.
In accordance with the Guidelines for Grant Applicants, section 2.7.7 Budget Structure/ Budget Line 4 – External expertise and services, it is compulsory for each project partner from Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Turkey and Ukraine to include in its project budget the costs for expenditure verification. No other costs for project audit should be budgeted.
Project partners from Romania and Greece should not include in their project budget the costs for expenditure verification or for project audit, as they are not eligible, since the expenditure verification shall be examined free of charge, by public officers.
For details on how expenditure verification is organised in each participating country and the maximum amount to be foreseen in the budget in some of the countries (Bulgaria and Turkey), please read section 2.7.7 Budget Structure/ Budget Line 4 – External expertise and services of the Guidelines for Grant Applicants.
According to Guidelines for Grant Applicants, Section 2.2. Allocation for this Call for Proposals/2.2.3 Co-Financing, the national co-financing may take the following forms:
– Beneficiary’s own resources;
– Financial contributions by third parties, from sources other than the European Union.
Each participating country shall decide on its own co-financing system (from national/ regional/local level or directly from the Beneficiary, or both from the national/regional/local level and from the Beneficiary itself). No resources from other EU Assistance may be taken into account as co-financing.
We recommend each applicant to contact the National Authority of their country related to this issue.
Our strong recommendation is to include in the project budget for each project partner an amount for maximum 2 events/ each project implementing year, for 2 participants/event.Such costs shall be budgeted under the Management group of activities.
According to the Guidelines for Grant Applicants, section 3.2. Drafting the Application/3.2.2. Contents of the Application, section E.1- Partner budget – Travel and Accommodation, you should identify categories of events (see examples below) and estimate an amount per each category. Further, the comment box from travel and accommodation should contain only justification of the purpose of the travel, link with the project activities and any other relevant information regarding this sub-budget line. No other details have to be provided (ex. number of flights, of participants, of accommodation nights, etc).
Example for a 2 years project (24 months):
Estimated number of events: number of events (4 meetings/events organised by Programme management structures + number of meetings of the project partners related to project coordination, other types identified)
Estimated budget per event: amount Euro
Total estimated budget for Travel and accommodation under the Management group of activities: number of events X amount Euro/event = total estimated amount Euro
According to the Guidelines for Grant Applicants, Sections E/F – Project budget, “Expenditure on staff costs shall consist of gross employment costs of staff employed by the beneficiary in one of the following ways:
(a) full time;
(b) part-time with a flexible number of hours.”
Therefore, please check for each partner that for every sub-budget line for Staff costs, under Unit type (first box) – “part-time with a flexible number of hours” is selected (instead of “hourly basis” or “part time with a fixed percentage”), while for Unit type (second box) –“hours” is selected.
Furthermore, for all project partners, you have to:
specify the activities in which the respective staff will be involved;
provide information to justify the estimated number of hours;
provide justification on how the hourly rate was established.
eMS
If you already have a username in the eMS, it can be used to fill in an application form for the second Call for Proposals. There is no need to register in the eMS one more username.
There is no such option to reverse the submission. All submitted applications shall be assessed. In case you submit an application by mistake (a draft version), you have to re-write it, introduce all information and then submit it again. Both applications shall be assessed and scored according to the information introduced.
In order to submit the application the applicant should rewrite it and make sure it fully observes all the criteria described in the Guidelines for Grant Applicants for the second call for proposals.
Yes, you can enter and fill in the application as many times as necessary, before submitting it. However, you should not forget to permanently save the information introduced. Also, remember that is your and your partners’ responsibility to check again the content of the application before submitting it and to make sure that the information you want is there and not the draft version. Communicate closely with the project leader and make sure that sufficient time is allocated for checking that all required information and annexes from all partners are uploaded according to the requirements!