Bank account

Q: Do I need a bank account in EUR?

A: You don’t need to open a new account in EUR, but it is vital that the chosen account will be owned and managed by your organization. In order to avoid the fluctuations of exchange rates and extra transaction costs, it is advised to have the preferred account in EUR (€). 

Q: What bank account should I insert into the online system?

A: You are obliged to provide a bank account for the purposes of the grant payments. All project transactions must be carried out through the bank account owned by the grantee; private bank accounts and accounts of the project partners cannot be used.

The bank account must be made available within 20 working days (ca. 4 weeks) after the approval of a project. The Fund does not require a specific account to be opened only for the purpose of the project, you can use your existing accounts as well.

Please remember that you have to conduct bank-transfer (non-cash) transactions for the entire duration of the project, as cash operations are not allowed.

Project website

Q: What if the website is part of my project deliverables and will only be created later?

A: If the project website is part of your planned outputs, you still need to create a temporary site which meets the criteria mentioned above. Once the new website is ready, we can change the link in our system.

Q: What should the project website look like?

A: The project website can be a webpage within an existing website or can be set up on social media/networking sites or blogs. Each project web page must have a unique address (URL) and contain:

  • the description of the project in English
  • the details of the project partners and direct links to their websites
  • the Fund’s logo with a direct link to the Fund’s website

When publicly communicating through social media, grantees and partners are obliged to make references/link to the Fund’s active accounts on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram.

Q: When do I have to set up the project’s website?

A: The project webpage shall be set up and made available within 20 working days (ca. 4 weeks) after the approval of a project and must remain active during the whole contractual period.

Output update

Q: What is the Output update section?

A: When you submitted your grant proposal, you had already made a list of the proposed deliverables (products, events) and the corresponding budget. In this stage we need you to go through this section and check the individual costs for each output, for two reasons. Firstly, the approval of projects always comes at least 2 months after the submission deadline. In that period the prices for certain services might change compared to your original estimates, and therefore, require some adjustments.

Secondly, when evaluating your project, the Fund might consider supporting only a certain number of outputs from the list and/or propose certain budget adjustments.

Therefore, once your project is approved, check the approved sum of your grant on our website (in the Results section, using your project ID). If you see the same amount as you requested and you don’t wish to make any changes in the budget, just open the Output update section and click on “CONFIRM” at the bottom of the page.

Should you notice a lower amount than in your original proposal, open the Output update section and adjust the sums in the “Expected” column so that they correspond with the ones under “Approved”. Those numbers that need adjustments will be marked in red colour. Once all lines are cleared, click on “SAVE”, and then “CONFIRM” if you don’t plan further changes.

Please note that changes between budget categories (e.g. Accommodation and board and Expert fees) are possible within the limitations listed below and depend on the size of the grant approved by the Fund. Any change exceeding these amounts needs to be approved by the Fund in advance. Also, when making changes to individual budget lines, keep in mind that the total sum for each output must remain the same (e.g. reducing travel costs by €100.00 and increasing accommodation by €100.00, so that the final sum would not change).

Budget changes acceptable without the Fund’s prior approval: 

  1. For a grant below or equal to €10,000.00, you can reallocate up to €500.00 per budget category.  
  2. For a grant above €10,000.00 and below or equal to €30,000.00, you can reallocate up to €1,000.00 per budget category. 
  3. For a grant above €30,000.00 and below or equal to €50,000.00, you can reallocate up to 1,500.00 per budget category. 
  4. For a grant above €50,000.00, you can reallocate up to €2,000.00 per budget category. 

Partners’ confirmation

Q: Can I change my partners? What if my project partner wants to withdraw?

A: Changing or removing one of your project partners is considered a serious change compared to your submitted application and as such, it requires prior approval of the Fund.

In both cases we need a written request by the statutory representative of the applicant in which he/she states the reasons for removing/changing the project partner. The request must be prepared in English, on a letterhead paper, and must be sent to your assigned project manager via e-mail.

If a new partner organization is to enter the consortium, we will also need a letter of intent by their statutory representative (for the format, see 2.9.)

Q: There is a typo in one of the e-mail addresses. How can we fix it?

A: Your assigned project manager will change the e-mail address once you provide the new/correct email address to them.

Q: My partner did not receive the confirmation e-mail. What should we do?

A: Firstly, make sure the email you provided in the application is correct. Secondly, please check with the partner whether the email is in their spam folder. If, for technical reasons the partner is not able to confirm their participation via email, they can provide a letter of intent (see 2.9.). Provide the scan of the letter of intent to your project manager and she/he will confirm the partner’s participation in the system.

Q: How do partners confirm their participation in the project?

A: In the section Overview you can see all your partners listed.  By clicking on “Send/Resend Email” next to the partner’s name, an automatically generated e-mail will be sent to the e-mail address of the respective partner, containing a web URL. Following the link, the partner will be able to see their own contact details and the submitted application form, enabling them to check for any mistakes in their data. They have to click “Confirm” to formally agree to participate in the project.

In exceptional cases the Fund may request a letter of intent from one or more partners, once the application has been approved for funding. Please note that the Fund does not provide samples of these documents. The letter of intent must be written on a letterhead paper, stating the partner’s main identification data, expressing their willingness to be involved in the given project (the project title should be mentioned) and including the basic information regarding the purpose of the co-operation and the role of the partner. The letter must bear the signature of the statutory representative and the stamp of the partner organization. It must be sent to your assigned project manager in scanned form, via e-mail.

Events confirmation

Q: What information should be inserted regarding each event?

A: The following information should be provided:

  • Project name and event title
  • Whether the event is public or private
  • Event type (you can mark more than one option)
  • Event Web Page or a separate Facebook event – at the stage of pre-contractual steps you can insert the general project website
  • Short description of the event, exact dates, city and country

Q: What if some of my events last longer than a few days?

A: If justified, some events can be indicated in this section for a longer period of time (e.g. a month-long training, an exhibition, etc.).

Q: I don’t know the exact dates of our events. How should I confirm this part?

A: In the Event Calendar you provide information about the approximate date/dates of the planned project events. Please do not write big time intervals, e.g. 2 months for a one-day conference. Once the event is confirmed during implementation, it will be automatically published on the Fund’s website, hence why we need as precise a date as possible. The dates of events can be changed once the project has been contracted, but it is necessary to confirm the preliminary dates in the Event Calendar, as the events become part of the contract.

Contract

Q: When do we receive the first payment?

A: The first installment of the grant will be sent to your bank account within 15 working days after receiving the signed copy of the contract to the Fund's secretariat. In order to avoid delays, always make sure that you enter the correct mailing address to our system.

Contracts without the signatures (on multiple pages) of the statutory representative of the grantee will be returned to the sender.

Q: When we can start spending the grant?

A: All costs connected to your project have to be paid within the implementation period, which cannot start sooner than the date of the contract’s electronic confirmation. If the implementation period of your project starts later, you must wait for the given start date to start utilizing the grant.

Q: Do we have to print the contract?

A: No, the contract will be sent to you by post.

Q: When do we sign the contract?

A: When all the pre-contractual steps are finished and checked by your project manager, you will receive an automatic notification that the contract is ready to be confirmed in the online system. You should read it carefully, then click on CONFIRM. The contract copies will be printed and signed by the Fund, and sent to you by post. The statutory representative of your organization should sign them and send one copy back to the Fund via post.

Q: My project got approved, what should I do now?

A: Once the project has been approved, you have to take the following steps:

  • allocate a bank account where the Fund can send the awarded grant
  • set up a project webpage
  • accept the budget allocated for the concrete outputs in the Output update section of our online system
  • confirm the list of events in the Calendar in our online system
  • the partners must confirm their willingness to participate in the project