Visegrad Strategic Program (Strategic Grants)—Basic Information

NOTE: This doc­u­ment refers only to grants sub­mit­ted in 2010 and earlier.

Total bud­get allo­cated for Strategic Grants in 2011 is €400,000. The dead­line for appli­ca­tions in 2011 is 16 May. The fund­ing allo­cated to indi­vid­ual projects is usu­ally about €30,000.

Projects eli­gi­ble for acquir­ing a Strategic Grant must involve part­ners (coor­ga­niz­ers) from all Visegrad Group (V4) coun­tries. All part­ners must actively par­tic­i­pate in the project imple­men­ta­tion. Applicants from non-V4 coun­tries may apply for the Visegrad Strategic Program under the same conditions.

All appli­ca­tions should be deliv­ered to the Fund both elec­tron­i­cally and in one (1) hard-copy ver­sion. All attach­ments to the15  appli­ca­tion form shall also be sent in a sin­gle copy only. No appli­ca­tions will be accepted after the dead­lines men­tioned above. In case of postal deliv­ery, the date on the post­mark will be con­sid­ered decisive.

I. General Information

2010 Priorities of the Visegrad Strategic Program:

1. V4 Response to the Decade of Roma Inclusion
   Activities financed under this pri­or­ity should enhance the coop­er­a­tion in the field of Roma inte­gra­tion, shar­ing best prac­tices and know-how regard­ing deseg­re­ga­tion poli­cies among the coun­tries and part­ners con­cerned and involved. The 3 June V4 meet­ing of the Heads of Governments decided to estab­lish a work­ing group on Roma Integration aim­ing at cre­at­ing a Central-European Roma Strategy. Those pro­posed projects deal­ing with Roma issues being in accor­dance with the activ­i­ties and main goals to be set out of this work­ing group are par­tic­u­larly welcome.
2. Building a Green Visegrad
   The aim of the Green Visegrad con­cept is to pro­mote sus­tain­able eco­nomic growth in indus­try com­bined with the reduc­tion of energy con­sump­tion and CO2 emis­sion. Proposed projects should be able to offer solu­tions for eco­nomic devel­op­ment with energy effi­ciency improve­ments. A cre­ation of vir­tual train­ing classes, where lec­tur­ers and trainees from dif­fer­ent V4 coun­tries and exter­nal part­ners would share knowl­edge and expe­ri­ence is envisioned.
3. Sharing V4 Know-how with Neighboring Regions
   After hav­ing suc­cess­fully con­cluded the EU acces­sion process, the V4 coun­tries are will­ing to share the know-how stem­ming from their expe­ri­ence with the inte­gra­tion process with coun­tries which are cur­rently fac­ing chal­lenges of inter­nal reforms and aspire to join the EU in the future.
4. V4 Promotion
   All activ­i­ties financed under this strate­gic grant should have a strong edu­ca­tional pur­pose addressed not only to the youth of V4 region but to all young Europeans and coun­tries in process of demo­c­ra­tic trans­for­ma­tion, while pro­mot­ing the Visegrad coop­er­a­tion inside and out­side of the V4 region. The main goal should be the encour­age­ment of pro­mo­tion of free­dom and democ­racy that should pre­vail on the European con­ti­nent and in neigh­bor­ing regions.

The finan­cial con­tri­bu­tion of the Fund can­not exceed 50% of total project costs includ­ing the in-kind con­tri­bu­tion of appli­cant (a non-cash input which can be given a cash value, e.g. one’s own car for trans­porta­tion, one’s own premises for accom­mo­da­tion or busi­ness), or in-kind con­tri­bu­tions of other co-financing sub­jects. The max­i­mum time frame of the pro­posed bud­get is 12–36 months, even if the project is envis­aged to last longer.

The Fund may grant finan­cial resources only to cover the fol­low­ing costs:

1. Printing and pub­lish­ing costs, delivery
2. Rent of premises and related tech­ni­cal services
3. Fees for artists
4. Accommodation and boarding
5. Transportation costs
6. Fees for experts
7. Translating, inter­pret­ing costs
8. Awards and prizes
9. Office sup­plies and pro­mo­tional material
10. Public rela­tions costs (adver­tis­ing, promotion)
11. Website design and update

The fund­ing granted by the Fund is sup­posed to be used pri­mar­ily for project par­tic­i­pants from V4 coun­tries and within V4 territory.

The fund­ing granted by the Fund can­not be used for:

1. cap­i­tal investments
2. the applicant’s own indi­rect costs (electricity/gas/water/telephone bills, etc.)
3. inter­nal costs and invoices (rent of one’s own premises, one’s own accom­mo­da­tion and
   board, one’s own work—e.g. coor­di­na­tion of the project, etc.)
4. salaries, finan­cial remu­ner­a­tion of employ­ees, etc.
   (or any expenses related to an employ­ment based on the labor code, includ­ing daily allowances, part-time work, etc.)

The Fund will grant the fund­ing only based upon a writ­ten con­tract (its draft is on the web­site), which clearly sets rules for the project funding.

Projects which fall under pub­lic bud­gets and are directly financed from pub­lic bud­gets can­not be financed by the Fund, e.g. min­istries or cul­tural cen­ters. Cultural insti­tutes of the V4 coun­tries may take part in projects but the Fund can­not con­sider them as project part­ners (e.g. the Hungarian Cultural Center in Bratislava can­not be con­sid­ered a Hungarian part­ner in a Slovak project).

The Fund pri­mar­ily sup­ports activ­i­ties aimed at the devel­op­ment of civil society.

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II. Project Preparation

The appli­cant must pre­pare the project using the respec­tive appli­ca­tion form (avail­able on-line). If nec­es­sary, the appli­cant can pro­vide addi­tional infor­ma­tion on the project in a form of an attach­ment to the hard-copy of the appli­ca­tion form.

The appli­ca­tion must be filled in English and deliv­ered to the Fund both elec­tron­i­cally and in hard copy. The hard-copy ver­sion of the appli­ca­tion must con­tain orig­i­nal sig­na­tures of the appli­cants. In case the appli­cant is not a nat­ural per­son, the appli­ca­tion form must be signed by the statu­tory rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the organization.

Eligible appli­ca­tions must con­tain the fol­low­ing com­pul­sory attach­ments apart from the appli­ca­tion form as such:

1. copies of iden­ti­fi­ca­tion doc­u­ment for nat­ural persons
2. copies of reg­is­tra­tion doc­u­ments (legal enti­ties); such doc­u­ments must, how­ever, con­tain the fol­low­ing:
   • the name of the statu­tory rep­re­sen­ta­tive
   • the reg­is­tered seat of the orga­ni­za­tion
   • iden­ti­fi­ca­tion num­ber of the orga­ni­za­tion (e.g. tax ID)
   • non-V4 appli­cants also sub­mit an English trans­la­tion thereof signed by the statu­tory representative
3. copies of reg­is­tra­tion or ID doc­u­ments of the project partners
4. orig­i­nal let­ters of intent from the project part­ners which:
   • must be writ­ten in English
   • must be printed on offi­cial let­ter­head paper
   • must be signed by the partner’s statu­tory rep­re­sen­ta­tive
   • must indi­cate the project’s name and the partner’s role
   • can­not be older than 3 months
5. copies of let­ters from co-financing entities
6. spe­cial per­mis­sions for project imple­men­ta­tion (where applicable)

Note: All doc­u­ments must be deliv­ered to the Fund together with the appli­ca­tion form in a sin­gle (one) enve­lope; sep­a­rately deliv­ered doc­u­ments can­not be considered.

The Fund’s con­tact details are as follows:

International Visegrad Fund
Kráľovské údolie 8
811 02 Bratislava
Slovak Republic

The Secretariat of the Fund will record the appli­ca­tions in the order in which they were received. The appli­cants will be noti­fied by e-mail about the receipt of their appli­ca­tions and each will be given its own ser­ial num­ber. Please make sure to use this num­ber dur­ing any future cor­re­spon­dence with the Fund.

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III. Project Approval

The Secretariat of the Fund reviews all deliv­ered appli­ca­tions in terms of their com­pli­ance with for­mal require­ments. The Executive Director reviews each appli­ca­tion in terms of its con­tent with spe­cial empha­sis on its com­pli­ance with the aims of the Fund. The Executive Director then rec­om­mends or does not rec­om­mend an approval of the projects.

At its ses­sion, the Council of Ambassadors either a) accepts or b) rejects the projects. Decisions made by the Council of Ambassadors are final. They shall present no grounds for legal pro­ceed­ings and they require no detailed reasoning.

In the case of Strategic Grants, the screen­ing process may last up to 10 weeks after the dead­line. When prepar­ing the cal­en­dar of activ­i­ties, the appli­cants should take this fact into account as the Fund can­not con­sider and sup­port projects that are to be imple­mented before the screen­ing process is over.

The Fund shall inform the appli­cant about the results in writ­ing (by post and/or by e-mail). The Fund has no oblig­a­tion to give rea­sons for the deci­sion, nor is it obliged to return the appli­ca­tion to the appli­cant. The Applicant, whose project was rejected, can apply with the same project again in the future rounds, pro­vided that the time plan is changed for later period and a new appli­ca­tion is submitted.

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IV. Project Implementation

The appli­cant has the oblig­a­tion to imple­ment the approved project in com­pli­ance with the time frame and finan­cial con­di­tions agreed upon in the con­tract. The Fund shall make the resources avail­able for the appli­cant accord­ing to the con­tract. In prin­ci­ple, the appli­cant is reim­bursed upon receipts sub­mit­ted to the Fund (invoices, cash receipts, travel expense state­ments or trans­porta­tion tick­ets, con­tracts, copies of bank state­ments, etc.).

The appli­cant shall be reim­bursed by the Fund either in one install­ment or in sev­eral install­ments (each in the value higher than €1,000, except for the final one).

In excep­tional cases, the appli­cant can request changes in the already approved project. Requests for changes in the time frame and finan­cial frame­work of the project will be con­sid­ered by the Fund. All requests shall be writ­ten in English and addressed to the Secretariat of the Fund.

The appli­cants have the oblig­a­tion to pro­vide the Fund with media mon­i­tor­ing related to the sup­ported project and the project’s pro­mo­tion mate­ri­als, and to reg­u­larly inform the Fund about the progress of the project.

The appli­cants also have the oblig­a­tion to:

A. Inform the Fund about the planned events that take place dur­ing the imple­men­ta­tion of the project and send invi­ta­tions or announce­ments to the Fund at least 14 days in advance.

B. Spread and sup­port the idea of Visegrad coop­er­a­tion and the good rep­u­ta­tion of the International Visegrad Fund dur­ing the imple­men­ta­tion process and present the Fund’s logo (and, where pos­si­ble, link to the web­site www.visegradfund.org) in all infor­ma­tion and pro­mo­tional mate­ri­als, includ­ing invi­ta­tions related to the project imple­men­ta­tion. Format and size of the Fund’s logo has to be pro­por­tional to the Fund’s con­tri­bu­tion to the project.

C. Submit to the Fund thor­ough reports on the project imple­men­ta­tion, as well as a finan­cial report every 6 months.

D. Submit to the Fund the Final Report on the results and achieve­ments of the project including:

• the final finan­cial settlement
• project doc­u­men­ta­tion prov­ing acknowl­edg­ment of the Fund’s sup­port to the project.

The Final Report must be deliv­ered to the Fund not later than 30 days after the end of the con­trac­tual period.

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V. Project Evaluation

All projects of the Fund are sub­ject to con­tin­u­ous super­vi­sion and final eval­u­a­tion by the Fund.

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VI. Financial Settlement

The grant can be reim­bursed only after the deliv­ery of a com­plete Financial Settlement con­sist­ing of paid finan­cial doc­u­ments processed in a pre­scribed form (using the forms avail­able on the Fund’s website).

Financial set­tle­ment shall be pre­pared only for the costs requested for reim­burse­ment from the Fund (i.e. as con­tracted). All remain­ing costs of the project shall be declared in a sep­a­rate table of the Final Report. The Final report shall be signed by the statu­tory rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the applicant.

Please note that the Fund can accept for reim­burse­ment only those expenses which were paid by the appli­cant and/or his con­tracted partner/-s (enclosed to the con­tract) and within the con­trac­tual period.

Eligible cost items are clearly spec­i­fied in the contract.

The Fund can­not accept any inter­nal costs of the appli­cant or his/her con­tracted part­ners, nor costs result­ing from con­tracts ruled by the Labor Code.

Formal cri­te­ria:

• finan­cial set­tle­ment must be pre­pared with the use of com­pul­sory forms
  (i.e. finan­cial set­tle­ment table—FS, enclo­sures to the FS—Enc., the final report—FR)
• an enclo­sure (cover sheet) has to be attached to every sin­gle finan­cial doc­u­ment
  (together with a pay­ment confirmation)
• all enclo­sures must be signed by a per­son who pre­pared it
• all enclo­sures must be summed up in a sum­mary table—FS
• all enclo­sures must be in chrono­log­i­cal order
• both the FS and the FR have to be signed by the statu­tory rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the appli­cant
  (rep­re­sent­ing an offi­cial reim­burse­ment request towards the Fund)

Applicants from non-V4 coun­tries must always attach to the Financial Settlement an English trans­la­tion of the fol­low­ing doc­u­ments signed by the statu­tory representative:

• bank state­ment copy
• petty-cash voucher
• all finan­cial doc­u­ments (e.g. invoices, con­tracts, bills, receipts etc.)
• other inter­nal doc­u­ments nec­es­sary for the project reimbursement
• other doc­u­ments requested by the Fund

All the com­pul­sory forms, as well as “Instructions to FS” and “FS Requirements” can be down­loaded from the Fund’s website.

(2010)

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