The EU has allocated EUR 1.8 million for the development of agricultural cooperatives in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia in order to contribute to improving the competitiveness of the agricultural sector in line with EU accession requirements. The objective of this call for proposals is to create incentives for farmers to cooperate and thereby increasing marketing opportunities, economic development and overall productivity in agriculture.

Key Priorities

• Providing institutional support to the Ministry of Agriculture and Water Economy (MAFWE) in order to improve the legislation related to agricultural cooperatives and to design effective and efficient policy measures under the National Programme for Rural Development.
• Strengthening existing agricultural cooperatives and supporting the creation of new ones.

Size of grants 

Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts: 

• minimum amount: EUR 1.6 million; 
• maximum amount: EUR 1.8 million.

Any grant requested under this Call for Proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum percentages of total eligible costs of the action:

• Minimum percentage: 60% of the total eligible costs of the action;
• Maximum percentage: 95% of the total eligible costs of the action.

Eligibility criteria

In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant and it co-applicants must: 

• be a legal person
• be a specific type of organisation such as: non-governmental organisation, public body, local authority, economic actor, international (inter-governmental) organisation of the Rules of application of the EU Financial Regulation

  be established in a Member State of the European Union or in a country covered by Regulation (EU) No 236/2014 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 11 March 2014 laying down common rules and procedures for the implementation of the Union’s instruments for financing external action. This obligation does not apply to international organisations;

• be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the co-applicant(s) and affiliated entity(ies), not acting as an intermediary.

The Lead Applicant must act with minimum 1 and maximum 3 co-applicant(s) as follows:

– Eligible applicants established in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia must act with at least one (1) co-applicant established in any of the eligible countries;
– Eligible applicants not established in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia must act with at least one (1) co-applicant established in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.

Location 

Actions must take place in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. 

Types of eligible actions 

The types of action which may be financed under this call must include these three areas: 

1. support to MAFWE to review and improve the full package of legislations and policies related to agricultural cooperatives, and strengthening of the capacities of an umbrella organisation of agricultural cooperatives; 
2. increase awareness on cooperatives among farmers, business community and the general public; 
3. provide technical and financial support to existing and new cooperatives.

Deadline

The deadline for the submission of applications is 2 June 2017 at 12:00 (Brussels date and time).

How to Apply

In order to apply for the grants, applicants have to register themselves in PADOR. Applications must be submitted online via PROSPECT https://webgate.ec.europa.eu/europeaid/prospect following the instructions given in the PROSPECT user manual. Concept notes ad full applications are to be submitted together under this call for proposals.

For more information, please visit Europeaid and download the guidelines.

VisitScotland’s Growth Fund is a platform which supports groups in leveraging additional and focused marketing investment, stimulating collaboration within the industry, closer working with VisitScotland and achieving strategic alignment with the national Tourism 2020 strategy.

As consumers are more inclined to planning and booking their holidays online, this Fund helps businesses to build their digital capability, and showcase Scotland better and to a higher number of potential visitors.

Successful applications must demonstrate the following:

• Strong strategic alignment – to meet the objectives of the Tourism 2020 Strategy. 
• An innovative approach – to achieve customer engagement and additional visits. 
• Strong digital focus – to match the needs of the modern digital consumer. 
• Effective partnerships and collaboration – business working together in the tourism industry. 
• Achievable and measurable growth targets – projects must aim to increase the number of visitors to Scotland and the overall visitor spend. 
• A sustainable approach – a long-term view. 
• Project viability and deliverability – a clear, achievable project that delivers value for money. 

Eligibility of applicants 

Applications must come from constituted groups of tourism businesses. A collaborative approach must be demonstrated with a strong mix of businesses from different tourism sectors.  

The Growth Fund team will support you through the process and provide advice around monitoring and evaluation. 

Eligible activities 

Activities eligible for support through the Growth Fund Grant award include: 

• Digital marketing activity that complements VisitScotland’s ‘Discovery’ strategy and harnesses the Spirit of Scotland approach. 
• Marketing activity may be focused on generating additional visitors to a specific area or to engage with a specific activity or sector.
• Marketing activity designed to bring visitors from other parts of Scotland, the rest of the UK and International markets.
• Marketing activity such as: Digital activity – including Search, PPC, Social Media and Display; Content Creation – video, images, copy; Paid Media Advertising – including Radio, Press and Outdoor; PR – FAM trips, agency fees; Printed collateral – design fees, distribution and print production; Joint activity with VisitScotland (up to 25% of total budget); Event and exhibition attendance, both consumer and trade; Project management – including consultancy, campaign management and delivery. No more than 15% of total eligible activity costs; Monitoring and evaluation; Marketing campaigns must be twelve months long with a further three months to complete monitoring and evaluation. Campaigns are expected to commence no later than eight weeks after approval.

Size of grants 

Growth Fund Grant awards are available from £10,000 to a maximum of £40,000. The fund can support groups with up to 50% of approved total marketing costs. The rest of the 50% can be match funding from private or public sector sources.

Deadline 

The deadline for initial expressions of interest is 22 March 2017. 

How to apply 

Applicants must speak with a member of the Growth Fund team prior to making a full application, well in advance of the deadlines. Please contact the team at growthfund@visitscotland.com to discuss your application, or complete the Expression of Interest form on their website.

The Belmont Forum and NORFACE have launched the Programme ”Transformations to Sustainability” (T2S), which will contribute to re-structuring the broad field of sustainability research by placing social science and humanities at the heart of interdisciplinary research. Co-production of knowledge and research problem formulation is considered to be critical to the process of societal transformation.

Objectives

This programme has two major objectives:

• To develop understanding of and promote research on transformations to sustainability which are of significant social, economic and policy concern throughout the world and of great relevance to both academics and stakeholders.
• To build capacity, overcome fragmentation and have a lasting impact on both society and the research landscape by cultivating durable research collaboration across multiple borders, disciplinary boundaries, and with practitioners and societal partners. This includes facilitating the development of new research collaborations with parts of the world which are not often involved in large-scale international research efforts, notably low- and middle-income countries.

Themes

The programme is structured around three themes, every research project should focus on at least one of these themes:

• Governance and institutional dimensions of transformations to sustainability
• Economy and finance of transformations to sustainability 
• Well-being, quality of life, identity, and social and cultural values in relation to transformations to sustainability

Funding

The total funding available for this T2S programme over a period of three years has been set at a minimum of 13 M€ across the international funding partners. Small and large projects are equally welcome. The total funding requested from the T2S partners must not exceed € 1,500,000 across all participating partners for each project. Projects can last up to 36 months.

Eligibility

Each consortium should be led by a Main Applicant from social sciences/humanities (SSH) and bring into
being integrated teams of scientists from relevant other academic disciplines ( e.g. natural sciences,
technical and engineering sciences) as appropriate, and engage with societal stakeholders to produce new
knowledge and perspectives that can contribute to finding equitable and durable solutions to the
challenges of sustainability in specific contexts. 

Consortia may consist of partners active across several positions within the research and
development system (i.e. innovation, applied research, fundamental research) and across disciplines (e.g.
natural sciences, social sciences and humanities, and engineering).

Depending on the national/ISSC eligibility rules, eligible applicants may come from organisations such as:

• Research organisations (universities, university colleges, research institutes or other authorities with research undertakings)
• NGOs, citizens’ representatives 
• Cities, municipalities, regions 
• Companies (from industry/large companies to SMEs) 
• Consumers (e.g. business enterprises, test households)

Eligibility rules in the UK

UK applicants (principal investigators) requesting funding from T2S must be associated with an eligible research organisation. The call is open to principal investigators based in recognised higher education institutions, research organisations or organisations with a credible research capacity to undertake highquality research. This refers to institutions which possess an existing in-house capacity to host a grant and to carry out research that materially extends and enhances the national or international research base, and is able to demonstrate an independent capability to undertake and lead research projects.

Business, third sector or government body co-investigators based in the UK can also be included in UK-led projects under this call, in accordance with ESRC policy. Please refer to ESRC’s guidance available at: www.esrc.ac.uk/funding/guidance-for-applicants/inclusion-of-uk-business-third-sector-or-governmentbody-co-investigators-on-proposals/.

How to apply

Proposals to the T2S research programme will be processed in two stages. In the first stage, Outline Proposals are invited with a deadline of 5 April 2017. Shortlisted applicants will be invited to submit a Full Proposal, with a deadline of 26 September 2017.

For more information, please visit T2S Call for Proposals.

The Scottish Community Development Centre (SCDC) is now into the third phase of their Supporting Communities programme, which is an expanded package of support for community organisations across Scotland. This year SCDC offers support to community anchor organisations who want to improve their community engagement practice and get help with common issues such as: 

• Finding out the needs of your community, and planning how to address these 
• Engaging with your whole community in an inclusive way 
• Methods and skills for community engagement 
• Planning for community engagement activity, and demonstrating impact 
• Embedding and sustaining good practice in community engagement

What is Supporting Communities?

Supporting Communities is a package of support for community organisations across Scotland with the aim of increasing the capacity of community groups and organisations at all levels and stages to effect change and contribute to the regeneration of their communities. The programme is designed to supplement existing community capacity building support being provided at local level and to help groups to connect with each other and with other sources of support that exist locally.

If you want to find out if your organisation can receive support, and learn more about the programme, then please fill out your detail on their online form.

For further information, please see the SCDC website or contact david.allan@scdc.org.uk or andrew.paterson@scdc.org.uk.

In partnership with the Scottish Government and the UK Treasury, Comic Relief have developed the ‘Levelling the Field’ initiative to support projects using sport to create change for women and girls. This supports the role that sport can play in the attainment of Sustainable Development Goal 5: Gender Equality.

Projects can be based in the UK or one of the following countries:

• Malawi
• Zambia
• Rwanda
• Colombia
• India

Grants for projects based in the UK – Levelling the Field, UK

This is a £1 million initiative funded by Comic Relief and the Treasury to support projects in the UK. Applications are welcome for a minimum of £30,000 and a maximum of £250,000, over a period of between 12 and 36 months.

Comic Relief encourage a variety of different types of projects. This could be a pilot for an innovative piece of work or the continued development of a proven piece of work. Funding is available for project delivery, research, or for a campaign.

Comic Relief will only accept applications from organisations working in partnership. The partnership must include a track record of working with women and girls, and using sport as a tool for change. There must be one lead organisation which must have at least one partner, however Comic Relief expect both/all partners to play a role in project delivery.

There is no minimum / maximum turnover for applicant organisations.

Grants for international projects – Levelling the field, International

This is a £2.2 million initiative funded by Comic Relief and the Scottish Government. Grants made in Malawi, Zambia and Rwanda (partner countries for the Scottish Government’s International Development Fund in Sub-Saharan Africa) will be joint funded by Comic Relief and the Scottish Government. Grants made in Colombia and India will be funded by Comic Relief only. They will make the grants under this initiative in two rounds. A second round of funding will be announced later in 2017.

Applications are welcome for up to £150,000 over a period of 36 months. Applicants should have been registered for at least 3 years and have a turnover of at least £100,000.

Comic Relief are encouraging a variety of different types of projects. This could be a pilot for an innovative piece of work or the continued development of a proven piece of work. Funding is available for project delivery, research or for a campaign.

Proposals are welcomed from both UK based organisations working in partnership with a local organisation leading the delivery of the project, and from non-UK organisations playing this role directly. Applications are particularly encouraged where the local organisation delivering the project is embedded in the communities where the work will take place.

Applicants should have been registered for at least 3 years and have a turnover of at least £100,000.

Deadline

16 March 2017

How to apply

Applications are made online. For further information and to access the online application form please visit Comic Relief.

 

If you need help with your application or have questions, please do not hesitate to contact us for a free consultation.