Third Call Alpine Space Interreg

Date de clôture : 28 juin 2017  
APPEL À PROJET CLÔTURÉ

Aim of the programme

The Alpine Space programme is an EU transnational cooperation programme to support sustainable regional development in the Alpine region. Contributing to the EU 2020 strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth, it provides stakeholders with a framework to develop, test, implement and coordinate new solutions.

Depending on the availability of funds the programme regularly launches calls for project proposals. These calls are based on the programme strategy as defined in the cooperation programme while more detailed information about each call is available in the terms of reference. In the present terms of reference the expectations of the programme and the general requirements for applications for the third call are described to enable the applicants to better target their proposals.

The programme has four funding priorities: innovative Alpine Space, low carbon Alpine Space, liveable Alpine Space and well-governed Alpine Space.

Call 3 priorities

The present third call for project proposals is open throughout priorities 1-4 of the cooperation programme available on the programme website: www.alpine-space.eu. In order to better target the projects to the programme, without being exclusive, the following topics indicate those thematic fields of priorities 1-4 where projects are particularly welcome.

Priority 1: Innovative Alpine Space

Specific objective: Improve the framework conditions for innovation in the Alpine Space

•   Developing new or better value chains in key strategic sectors as identified in the relevant smart specialisation strategies.

•   Improving the framework conditions for cooperation in the field of circular economy and eco-innovation, with specific regard to high-technological applications and eco- innovation services.

•   Promoting social innovation as a new vision for innovation in the Alpine Space.

•   Facilitating youth entrepreneurship as well as dual education.

•  Improving the uptake of digital technologies in SMEs.

Specific objective: Increase capacities for the delivery of service of general interest in a changing society

•   Fostering innovation and accessibility of services of general interest in remote, urban and peripheral areas, in order to tackle marginality, gender inequality, social exclusion and demographic change.

•   Improving the capacities of social organisations and public authorities for receiving migrants and refugees, caring for them, and integrating them in the Alpine Space communities.

Priority 2: Low carbon Alpine Space

Specific objective: Establish trans-nationally integrated low carbon policy instruments

•   Promoting the use of renewable resources such as biomass, by exploiting local/regional value chains.

•   Fostering the development of energy sufficient models for the whole Alpine area.

•   Supporting policy tools to promote decentralised energy production and smart energy management systems.

•   Promoting policy instruments to foster the retrofitting of buildings, considering also the use of local and innovative construction materials.

•   Raising awareness on the necessity and benefits of low carbon lifestyles across the Alps by bridging the gap between technical strategies and actively experimenting sustainable lifestyle.

Specific objective: Increase options for low carbon mobility and transport

•   Fostering the availability and use of low-carbon mobility and transport solutions.

•   Increasing the efficiency of existing networks and the use of less impacting transport means by coordinating local and regional transport (modal shift).

•   Increasing intermodal and low carbon transport options through improved interfaces between national networks and transnational corridors, by improving common decision tools.

•   Improving transport and mobility flows with regard to land use by enhancing the interaction of logistics, mobility and spatial development.

•   Developing low carbon mobility options as well as related information services via smart mobility or a common travel information system.

•   Promoting sustainable mobility through active and participative behaviour change.

Priority 3: Liveable Alpine Space

Specific objective: Sustainably valorise Alpine Space cultural and natural heritage

•   Strengthening an Alpine cultural identity through the use/valorisation of its material and non-material assets (green growth as constituent element of the Alpine lifestyle).

•   Establishing balanced models on resource management and protection of cultural and natural heritage.

•   Valorize traditional skills and jobs, value chains and local products based on cultural and/or natural resources. Encouraging measures supporting local communities involved in the protection and promotion of Alpine cultural heritage in order to increase awareness on that topic.

•   Developing and promoting new approaches to sustainable tourism, throughout four seasons and consideration of local cultural and natural heritage, as an opportunity for revitalising peripheral and declining areas.

•   Promoting the valorisation of the natural environment and the diversification of its functions (e.g. for social, recreational and environmental purposes and/or as driver for sustainable local/regional development).

Specific objective: Enhance the protection, the conservation and the ecological connectivity of Alpine Space ecosystems

•   Supporting initiatives to improve public policies on biodiversity management in areas dealing with specific constraints.

•   Promoting green infrastructure and supporting the integrated concept of landscape planning to enhance ecological connectivity in the Alps.

•   Fostering risk governance concepts in the Alps with specific regard to climate change driven scenarios by raising awareness on natural hazards and developing of innovative and transnational integrated solutions and methodologies.

•   Supporting development initiatives in isolated mountain settlements (small villages, mountain refuges, alpine farmsteads, etc.) by encouraging sustainable strategic planning and transnational networking solutions.

•   Developing new models and networks for the integrated management of aquatic ecosystems with special focus on its different functions, water uses and flood control.

Priority 4: Well-governed Alpine Space

Specific objective: Increase the application of multilevel and transnational governance in the Alpine Space.

•   Setting up a policy foresight for governance challenges in relation to the Alpine Space driving forces: such as climate change, tensions on the energy market, economic globalization, rise of the information society and the knowledge economy, socio- demographic change, migration/refugees, increased mobility of goods and persons.

•   Developing transnational models for the design, testing, up-scaling, comparison and evaluation of innovations (tools, processes, actors, organisations and interfaces) in the field of public administration.

•   Setting up frameworks for strategic stakeholder cooperation to build cross sector clustered sets or chains of projects that address multiple funding sources to induce the envisaged changes.

Expectations of the programme

The programme expects projects to understand the underpinning assumptions and the rationale of the Alpine Space programme as set out in the factsheet “Quality requirements and contents”. Applicants are highly recommended to study this factsheet in which guidance and illustration is given to allow projects to better understand the programme expectations regarding quality project proposals.
Projects are requested to clearly demonstrating their added value compared to previously financed projects, in the context of the Alpine Space programme and other programmes. Applicants are invited to carefully check the programme website (www.alpine- space.eu/project-results/project-overview/overview) and the keep database (www.keep.eu/keep/search).

Projects should present their embedment in the existing policy framework. In this context, they should demonstrate, wherever relevant, how they contribute to the EU Strategy for the Alpine Region (EUSALP). More information about the EUSALP and the work of the relevant action groups can be found on the website www.alpine-region.eu.

Project partnership

The minimum number of participants which a project can have is four, coming from at least four different Partner States - Austria, France, Germany, Italy, Liechtenstein, Slovenia or Switzerland. On the other hand, the size of partnership should not exceed a total of fifteen project participants, including the lead partner and non-EU partners. Project developers are advised to consider that it is not the number of partners that makes a project good but the appropriateness and relevance of the partners and the quality of the partnership.

Project budget

The programme does not set specific budget restrictions for the projects applying to priorities 1 to 3. However, applicants should pay attention to the consistency of the project budget with the envisaged activities and outputs. As a general recommendation, applicants may orientate themselves on the average ERDF allocation to projects funded by the forerunner and present programmes which amounts to around EUR 1,7 Mio ERDF.

Project proposals submitted under priority 4 in this third call for proposals are expected to have an amount of max. EUR 1 Mio ERDF.

Project duration

The duration of projects cannot exceed 36 months including the project closure. Also in regards to project duration applicants should pay attention to its consistency with the envisaged activities and outputs.
The start date for the implementation of all projects is the date of project approval by the programme committee (PC). This is currently foreseen for April 2018. The exact date will be made available during step 2 of the application process.

Available funding

The indicative funding available for this call is EUR 27 Mio ERDF. The programme will seek balance in the exhaustion of thematic priorities.

Application procedure

In this third call, project proposals will be selected in a two-step application procedure (see details in the factsheet “project application”).
In a first step, applicants are requested to submit a short project description, called expression of interest (EoI). Proposals approved in the first step will be invited in the second step to submit a more detailed application form (AF) as well as a partnership agreement.

Deadlines

Call 3 submissions for project proposals in priorities 1-4 will run according to the following schedule.
Step one: EoI shall be submitted via the eMS between 13.04.2017 and 28.6.2017 at 2 pm. All submissions will be acknowledged with an automatic email confirmation. Applicants should reserve enough time for filling in the online EoI.

Step two: project proposals selected by the PC in October 2017 will be invited to submit the AF together with the signed partnership agreement via the eMS, from October 2017 until 20.12.2017 at 2 pm. All submissions will be acknowledged with an automatic email confirmation. Applicants should reserve enough time for filling in the online AF.

The final decision on project selection in priorities 1-4 will be taken by the PC in a meeting foreseen in April 2018. More information: www.alpine-space.eu

Project selection procedure

The assessment of EoI and AF will be done by the joint secretariat (JS) with the support of the alpine space contact points (ACP). For details see factsheet “project selection: procedure and criteria”.
The JS will propose a ranking list to the PC composed by the Partner States of the programme. The PC will finally select the projects by consensus in both steps.

Programme assistance

The cooperation programme and other relevant documents are available on the programme website: www.alpine-space.eu. Moreover, interested persons are invited to attend various information events organised in Partner States.

Interested project developers are also encouraged to contact the ACPs for clarifications and to use the project idea community (7sheep) offered by the programme to get informal feedback on their project ideas. The ACPs are available for support in both steps of the application procedure. The contact details about ACPs in each country can be found here: http://www.alpine-space.eu/contacts_landing_page/acp.

The JS is also available in case of technical questions. Contact details are available here: http://www.alpine-space.eu/contacts_landing_page/js.