CLARIFICATIONS N°2
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS
Civil Society Facility and Media Programme 2018-2019
Publication reference: EuropeAid/162473/DH/ACT/Multi
Many questions received concerning this Call for Proposals can be answered by carefully reading the Guidelines. Below are replies to the most Frequently Asked Questions received in the call functional mailbox.
| No. | Question | Answer |
| Evaluation of the concept notes | ||
| 1 | Can you share the scores given to our concept note? | Successful applicants cannot be given the scores awarded to their concept notes and therefore we cannot reply to this request otherwise the principle of equal treatment would be compromised. However, the Guidelines for Applicants contain all the necessary elements to help applicants prepare competitive full applications. |
| Co-applicants | ||
| 2 | Is it possible to add one more Co-applicant? | We kindly invite you to refer to the Guidelines for Applicants, Paragraph 2.2.5 “Full applications” at page 24: “Lead applicants invited to submit a full application following pre-selection of their concept note must do so using Part B of the grant application form annexed to these guidelines (Annex A). Lead applicants should then keep strictly to the format of the grant application form and fill in the paragraphs and pages in order. The elements outlined in the concept note cannot be modified by the lead applicant in the full application. The EU contribution may not vary from the initial estimate by more than 20 %, although lead applicants are free to adapt the percentage of co-financing required within the minimum and maximum amount and percentages of co-financing, as laid down in these guidelines under Section 1.3. The lead applicant may replace a co-applicant or an affiliated entity only in duly justified cases (e.g. bankruptcy of initial coapplicant or affiliated entity). In this case the new co-applicant/affiliated entity must be of a similar nature as the initial one. The lead applicant may adjust the duration of the action if unforeseen circumstances outside the scope of the applicants have taken place following the submission of the concept note and require such adaptation (risk of action not being carried out). In such cases the duration must remain within the limits imposed by the guidelines for applicants. An explanation/justification of the relevant replacement/adjustment shall be included in an accompanying letter or email. ” |
| Audit report | ||
| 3 | Having in mind that the national laws of some IPA II beneficiaries do not oblige non-profit organisations to submit an audit report with a regular annual financial report, do we have the obligation to provide you with an audit report? Or, is it enough to send you just a statement as a self-declaration? | We kindly invite you to refer to the Guidelines for Applicants, Paragraph 2.4: “For action grants exceeding EUR 750 000 and for operating grants above EUR 100 000, the lead applicant must provide an audit report produced by an approved external auditor where it is available, and always in cases where a statutory audit is required by EU or national law. That report shall certify the accounts for up to the last 3 financial years available. In all other cases, the applicant shall provide a self-declaration signed by its authorised representative certifying the validity of its accounts for up to the last 3 financial years available. This requirement shall apply only to the first application made by a beneficiary to an authorising officer responsible in any one financial year. ” The above must be interpreted in the sense that, if an audit report is not available or it is not required by the national law, the lead applicant shall provide a self-declaration signed by its authorised representative certifying the validity of its accounts for up to the last 3 financial years available. |
| Annex A 2 – Grant Application Form – Full Application | ||
| 4 | In the Instructions for drafting the Full Applications, under Section 2.1 Description of the Action, 2.1.1 Description (max 13 pages), i. – iv, the instructions given in paragraphs ii. and iv. significantly overlap with the information already provided in the Concept Note: should the Full Application summarise the information provided in the Concept Note, or is the applicant expected to provide new information in this phase? | The Applicants are requested to provide more in-depth information in the full applications compared to the information they previously included in the concept notes. The latter indeed represent the basis for further development of the proposed actions. Additionally, we kindly invite you to refer to the Guidelines for Applicants, Paragraph 2.2.5 “Full applications” at page 24: “Lead applicants invited to submit a full application following pre-selection of their concept note must do so using Part B of the grant application form annexed to these guidelines (Annex A). Lead applicants should then keep strictly to the format of the grant application form and fill in the paragraphs and pages in order. The elements outlined in the concept note cannot be modified by the lead applicant in the full application. ” |
| 5 | In the Table of contents it is indicated that experiences must be provided for the Lead applicant. However, in the section Instructions for drafting the full application it’s noted that the Experience in similar actions must be provided from The lead applicant, The co- applicant(s) and The affiliated entity(ies). So our question is, do we need to provide the Experience of only the Lead applicant or from The lead applicant, The co-applicant(s) and The affiliated entity(ies). | Under the paragraph 2.2 “Lead Applicant’s Experience”, you are requested to give information on the lead applicant’s experience in managing similar actions, in the form of a narrative paragraph with free text. Under the Annexes (i) and (ii) information in the form ofpre-defned tables have to be provided for the lead applicants, the co-applicants and the affiliated entity(ies). |
| 6 | Does the rule of submitting maximum 10 actions in the section (ii) Experience in other actions in the past 3 years, also apply to the section (i) Experience in similar actions in the past 3 years? | No, it does not. |