VAPRO

The Ministry of European Funds announced today the extension of the deadline of the call for proposals “Internships for students in the agri-industry and services sectors” – POCU, until 1^st of February 2017.

The clarifications and additions needed for the call will be the subject of a new corrigendum which is currently in preparation.

We remind you the most important information about the call:

Project value: minimum 75.000 euro, maximum 500.000 euro.
Implementation period: 9 – 24 months.

Eligible applicants and partners: (Projects can be submitted ONLY in partnership):

• Accredited private and public universities;
• Employers (as traineeship/internship partners);
• NGOs;
• Professional Associations;
• Chambers of commerce and industry; Public and private professional counselling and guiding services providers; Ministry of Education and subordinated/coordinated: institutions/ agencies/ organizations; – only for projects regarding the industry and services areas;
• County School Inspectorates – only for projects regarding the agriculture, food industry, forest and agro-tourism areas;

Target group:

• Pupils from secondary schools, high-schools;
• Students;

Activities:

• Development and implementation of learning programs at work, traineeship, internship;
• Providing professional counselling services;
• Development of partnerships between educational institutions and traineeship/internship partners, organizing professional competitions etc.

Activities eligible only for projects regarding industry and services areas:

• Development of a coordinated information system;
• Organization of professional competitions;
• Piloting innovative solutions to facilitate the internship;
• Organizing internships in EU Member States;

For more information click here.

The Ministry of European Funds extended another two calls for projects under the 2014-2020 POCU!

The new deadlines for submitting applications for funding are:

• for the call “Motivated teachers in disadvantaged schools” – 14^th December, 2016
• for the call “School for All” – 16^th December, 2016

We remind you the most important information about the calls:

“School for all” (SO 6.2, 6.3, 6.4, 6.6) – financing line dedicated to:

• facilitating the access to education and preventing / reducing the rate of early school leaving;
• increasing the quality of educational services;
• developing the capacity of human resources in schools;

Target group:

• Children with ante-preschool age (2-3 years), preschool age, students from groups with school dropout risk, with accent on the ones belonging to Roma minority and from rural areas/disadvantaged communities, including their parents;
• Teachers and other specialists in education;
• Youngsters and adults who abandoned school;

Maximum project value:

• Simple projects: maximum 1.450.000 euro;
• Combined projects: maxim 2.100.000 euro. 

Non-reimbursable financing:

• 100% for NGOs; 95% for private beneficiaries; 98%/85% for public institutions;

Eligible applicants:

• NGOs;
• Religious institutions;
• Public or private educational institutions;
• The Ministry of Education and subordinated bodies;
• Various organizations with attributions in education area, according to the Guidelines;

 “Motivated teachers in disadvantaged schools” (SO 6.2, 6.3, 6.6) – financing line dedicated to:

• attracting and maintaining quality, competent and motivated human resources in the target schools;
• developing the institutional capacity of managerial teams from the target schools;

Target group:

• Teachers from secondary schools
• Support personnel from schools;
• School managers;
• Social partners personnel, including NGOs, which work in the targeted schools;

Project value:

• Large projects (min. 300 persons from the target group, from the same development region category) – maximum 1.500.000 euro;
• Small projects (min. 90 persons from the target group, from the same development region category) – 450.000 euro

Non-reimbursable financing:

• 100% for NGOs; 95% for private beneficiaries; 98%/85% for public institutions;

Eligible applicants:

• NGOs;
• Public or private educational institutions;
• Local public authorities with responsibilities in the field;
• Guidance, counselling, scholar mediation services providers;
• Ministry of Education and subordinated institutions;
• Social partners from pre-university education system;
• National Administration of Penitentiaries and subordinated institutions (SO 6.3 and 6.6);

Until 9 December 2016 projects under the call: “Traineeship and internship for students from agri-food field, industry and services” (OS 6.13, OS 6.14) within POCU 2014-2020 can be submitted!

Project value: minimum 75.000 euro, maximum 500.000 euro.
Implementation period: 9 – 24 months.

Eligible applicants and partners: (Projects can be submitted ONLY in partnership):

• Accredited private and public universities;
• Employers (as traineeship/internship partners);
• NGOs;
• Professional Associations;
• Chambers of commerce and industry; Public and private professional counselling and guiding services providers; Ministry of Education and subordinated/coordinated: institutions/ agencies/ organizations; – only for projects regarding the industry and services areas;
• County School Inspectorates – only for projects regarding the agriculture, food industry, forest and agro-tourism areas;

Target group:

• Pupils from secondary schools, high-schools;
• Students;

Activities:

• Development and implementation of learning programs at work, traineeship, internship;
• Providing professional counselling services;
• Development of partnerships between educational institutions and traineeship/internship partners, organizing professional competitions etc.

Activities eligible only for projects regarding industry and services areas:

• Development of a coordinated information system;
• Organization of professional competitions;
• Piloting innovative solutions to facilitate the internship;
• Organizing internships in EU Member States;

For more information click here.

A new consultative version of the Applicant’s Guide for Regional Operational Program – financing call for SMEs has been published for public debate until 12.11.2016.

Compared with the last version of the document there are significant changes:

• Companies with a minimum of 1 year  of activity (registered no later than 5.01.2015) can apply for financing; The previous condition of at least 3 years of activity has been eliminated;
• The condition regarding operating profit and having a continuous activity for the current and previous fiscal year has been kept;
• The condition for registration of income from the activity proposed for the project for at least 3 year has been eliminated; so companies can apply for funding a new activity
• Companies with a minimum of 3 employees can now submit projects, compared with at least 5 employees as previously required;
• The list of eligible activity fields (CAEN codes) has been extended with new codes, such as 6202, 6209 for IT&C services, 3250 – production of medical devices and many more;

A short reminder of other important aspects of this call:

The value of the grant obtained: minimum 200.000 euro and maximum 1.000.000 euro.

Eligible expenses:

• Expenses related to construction, extension, modernization of the production/ services areas;
• Acquisition of equipment, machines, intangible assets including e-commerce tools.

For more information click here.

AFIR extended the submission period for 3 sub-measures within PNDR (4.1a, 4.2 and 4.2a), as follows:

sM 4.1a – until 30^th November 2016;
sM 4.2 and 4.2a – until 15 December 2016;

We remind you the most important information about the submeasures:

• Sub measure 4.1.a Support for investments in fruit-growing holdings

Type of investments financed: modernization of fruit-growing farms, reconversion of fruit plantations, modernization of fruit nurseries, storage systems, conditioning and packaging and on-farm processing units, etc.
Grant awarded: up to 1.050.000 euro.
Financing rate: up to 90% of eligible expenses.

• Sub measure 4.2 Support for investments in processing / marketing and / or development of agricultural products

Type of investments financed: Setting-up, extension and / or modernization and endowment of processing units, including investments in products’ marketing (e.g. labelling, packaging), local networks of collection, reception, storage, conditioning, selection and packaging capacity etc.
Grant awarded: up to 2.500.000 euro.
Financing rate: up to 50% of eligible expenses.

• Sub measure 4.2.a Support for investments in processing / marketing of products in the fruit-growing sector

Type of investments financed: setting-up, extension and/ or modernization of processing units for the raw material from the fruit-growing sector, mobile processing units / local networks for collection, reception, storage, conditioning, selection and packaging; purchasing of new machinery, installations, equipment and specialized transportation for the collection of raw material.
Grant awarded: up to 1.500.000 euro.
Financing rate: up to 50% of eligible expenses.

The consultative form of the POCU 2014-2020 Applicant Guidelines – Specific Conditions: “Children first 2016“ (SO 4.12, 4.13, 4.14) have been published.

Project value: minimum 450.000 euro, maximum 1.300.000 euro.
Implementation period: maximum 36 months.

Eligible applicants/partners:

• Public local institutions with responsabilities in child protection, in partnership with
• Authorized social services providers

The participation of the General Directorate of Social Assistance and Child Protection under which the orphanage is subordinated it is compulsory in the project!

Target group:

• Institutionalized persons (children / youth);
• People who left protection system in the past two years;
• Children at risk of family separation;
• Maternal assistants; 

Activities:

• Integrated support services to ensure the transition from institutional care to community-based services;
• Assistance programs for young people from residential institutions in preparation to a independent living;
• Provision of services and preventive measures and early intervention for children to prevent child separation form the family and institutionalization;

Projects under this call will be correlated with investment supported by POR, PA 8 – Health and social infrastructure development.

For more information about the complementarity with POR you can consult the Applicant Guideline and annexes here.

The Ministry of European Funds launched the call for projects: “Traineeship and internship for students from agri-food field, industry and services” (OS 6.13, OS 6.14) within POCU 2014-2020. Projects can be submitted in the period: 13 October 2016 – 9 December 2016! 

Project value: minimum 75.000 euro, maximum 500.000 euro.
Implementation period: 9 – 24 months.

Eligible applicants and partners: (Projects can be submitted ONLY in partnership):

• Accredited private and public universities;
• Employers (as traineeship/internship partners);
• NGOs;
• Professional Associations;
• Chambers of commerce and industry; Public and private professional counselling and guiding services providers; Ministry of Education and subordinated/coordinated: institutions/ agencies/ organizations; – only for projects regarding the industry and services areas;
• County School Inspectorates – only for projects regarding the agriculture, food industry, forest and agro-tourism areas;

Target group:

• Pupils from secondary schools, high-schools;
• Students;

Activities:

• Development and implementation of learning programs at work, traineeship, internship;
• Providing professional counseling services;
• Development of partnerships between educational institutions and traineeship/internship partners, organizing professional competitions etc.

Activities eligible only for projects regarding industry and services areas:

• Development of a coordinated information system;
• Organization of professional competitions;
• Piloting innovative solutions to facilitate the internship;
• Organizing internships in EU Member States;

For more information you can consult the Applicant Guideline here.

The Ministry of European Funds launched yesterday the call “Diaspora Start-up” (SO 3.7) within POCU 2014-2020, projects under this call can be submitted until 29 November 2016.

The Beneficiary will support Romanian citizens living abroad to open a business in Romania through micro-grants of up to 40.000 euro.

Maximum project value: 5.000.000 euro.

Implementation period: maximum 36 months

Eligible applicants/partners:

• Public and private training providers;
• Chambers of Commerce and Industry;
• NGOs;
• Trade unions;
• Members of Sectoral Committees and legal Sectoral Committees;
• Authorities of local public administration;
• Professional Associations;
• Universities;
• Ministry of Economy, Trade and Business Environment and subordinated/ coordinated: institutions / agencies / organizations;

Target group:

• Romanian citizens (minimum age: 18 years old) that can prove their residence or domicile abroad for at least 12 months until the registration as target group and who intend to establish a business in Romania.

Activities:

• Entrepreneurship training programs, also e-learning;
• Providing personalized consulting and counselling services;
• A micro-grant of maximum 40.000 euro/business plan, in 2 instalments (1^st  instalment – 30.000 euro, 2^nd instalment – the remaining difference);
• A monitoring program of the business functioning and development;

For more information you can consult a presentation of the project here.

A revised version of the Applicant Guideline for: “Innovative companies: start-ups and spin-offs”, Competitive Program, has been published.

This scheme aims to support the creation of innovative SPIN-OFF and development of START-Ups. The call has a continuous submission, with periodic evaluation every 3 months, in the limit of the allocated budget.

Eligible beneficiaries:

• Start-ups (up to 3 years of activity);
• Spin-offs: companies that will be set up on the basis of results obtained in public research organizations;

Project eliminatory condition:

The project is based on a previous result of R&D, which may be:

1. Patent;
2. Patent application;
3. ;
4. Rights to use the research findings of a research project financed through a public program;
5. Rights to use the research findings of a research project conducted for the case of a research institution funded by the applicant company (only for start-ups).

Eligible grant: maximum 200.000 euro

Non-reimbursable grant percentage: 90% of total eligible project costs;

Eligible expenditures:

• Expenditures with research and development activities;
• Expenditures for introducing in production the research and development results of products / processes / technology / services – mandatory activity;
• Expenditures with consulting services for innovation area and for innovation support services;
• Expenditures with general administration of project;
• Expenditures with information and publicity for the project – mandatory;
• Expenditures with taxes / subscriptions / fees / agreements / authorizations.

VAPRO Romania together with Structural Consulting™ Group – www.fonduri-structurale.ro developed a series of recommendations to improve the Applicant Guideline, Specific Conditions “Traineeship and internship for students from agro-food field, industry and services” financed within The Human Capital Operational Programme.

The recommendations have been submitted today, 30^th September 2016, to the Ministry of European Funds – MA POCU.

Some of the main aspects proposed in the submitted document by VAPRO and Structural Consulting Group experts are listed below:

• to allow the organization of the same types of activities for projects implemented in all sectors of activity;
• to provide access to financing also to large and medium sized enterprises from the food sector;
• to introduce as eligible in the target group students of ISCED 2-3, skill level 2;
• the implementation of the projects should be multi-regional;
• to publish the list of definitions of the indicators and the expenditures list;
• to downsize the target indicators;
• to eliminate the special allocation for agro-food sector;
• to publish the Applicant’s Guide at least two weeks before the launching of the call for proposals.

For more information about the submitted recommendations download the document from here.