life capacity building projects – 2014 call for proposals

LIFE capacity building projects – 2014 call for proposals

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Country Duration EU contribution in EUR

Project coordinator Short description*

Bulgaria 01/01/2016 - 30/04/2018

511,833 Ministry of Environment and Water

The project is aimed at: 1. widening the outreach of LIFE programme by enhancing the support for potential beneficiaries and

applicants in the programme’s calls; 2. improving the capacity and creating a cost-effective but efficient organization of the LIFE Contact

point in Bulgaria The strategy in achieving these objectives, is based on the principles of:

• Systematic analysis, streamlining and enhancing the beneficiary consultancy and support process

• Increasing the NCP capacity and creating a better equipped, interactive and spatially distributed focal point

• Enhancing the LIFE policy integration, multiplication of project results, and coordination between funding sources

• Creating of tools for monitoring of the factors influencing LIFE absorption rate

Croatia 01/11/2015 - 31/01/2019

999,849 Ministry of Environmental and Nature Protection

Through the implementation of the CB project the administrative capacities will be significantly strengthened, which will enable the Croatian NCP to support potential beneficiaries to better prepare their projects and finally help Croatia to absorb the LIFE fund more effectively. To strengthen administrative capacities, the Croatian NCP will be build up with six additional staff members who will be trained in LIFE programme, project cycle management, public relations, public and green procurement, communication skills and other necessary skills from relevant fields which can help to reach potential LIFE beneficiaries and raise their interests and capacities to apply project proposals to LIFE. Visits to most successful other MS NCPs will be organised in order to transfer knowledge and know-how and apply it to Croatian NCP organisation and practices. Furthermore, networking events with other MS NCPs will be organised by the LIFE MENP team in which best practices can be exchanged, as well as experiences in CB project implementation. Main activities in the project will promote the LIFE program and raise interest in applying to LIFE as well as establishing a help desk and organization of INFO days, workshops and target groups meetings where all the necessary information regarding the LIFE program priority areas, application requirements, general conditions and other relevant data will be provided to the potential applicants/beneficiaries. For that purpose a new website will be created where all necessary documentation and practical information (most of them translated into Croatian) will be available. Interactive forum with questions and answers, as well as a “meet a partner” database will be featured on the site where potential applicants can exchange experiences, network, insert their contacts data and field of interests and find potential partner applicants for LIFE project consortia. The is to be regularly updated and maintained throughout and after the project implementation period acting as a first point of contact with LIFE for potential beneficiaries. Info days, workshops and meetings with potential applicants will be organised to discuss the LIFE program, thematic priorities, its general and specific conditions and other relevant information aiming to increase the number and improve the quality of project applications. Moreover, county and regional workshops on how to prepare a LIFE project will be organised as well as meetings with different target groups such as:


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universities, local authorities, NGOs, private companies, public bodies managing protected areas, etc. Raised interest will be achieved among public and commercial bodies as well as NGOs to reach objectives set in EU legislation in the field of environment, nature and climate change through the LIFE programme. Furthermore, train the trainers programme will be organised for staff members of regional development agencies which will then act as regional sources of information for potential beneficiaries. LIFE MENP team will continue to organise such events after the project completion. LIFE MENP team will also compose and regularly update a list of possible projects of national interests eligible for LIFE programme funding and raise awareness among public bodies to consider applying for LIFE. LIFE MENP staff will keep regular communication with persons responsible for project preparation and monitor the progress of preparation, as well as support potential beneficiaries throughout the process. It is planned that the management of the list of projects will continue after the completion of the CB project. MENP team will coordinate and help decision makers in selecting thematic priority to apply for LIFE IP, and provide technical assistance for IP applicants.

Cyprus 15/12/2015 - 14/12/2019

951,828 Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment (MARDE)

The Strategic Vision of the Cypriot LIFE National Contact Point (NCP) is to enhance the effectiveness of the support services and assistance provided to potential Cypriot applicants to the LIFE Programme, in order to increase their performing levels in terms of both numbers and quality of proposals. The above Vision will be materialized through the fulfilment of the Cypriot LIFE NCP’s Strategic Objective to increase its sustainability and strengthen the capacity of its resources. This will be achieved on the one hand by refining and improving its current skills and dexterities, and on the other by developing new competencies and utilizing new means and approaches. In order to properly determine these improvements and developments, and to foster their achievement, the Cypriot LIFE NCP has prepared the present “LIFE Capacity Building Proposal”, after having performed a – structured but flexible – SWOT analysis based on the European Commission’s “EuropeAid”

1 and Joint Research Centre’s

2 recommendations.

The Strategic Vision and Objective of the Cypriot LIFE NCP address well the political mandate for greater attraction and utilization of EU funds, which comes from a higher political level and is in fact part of the national strategy for competitiveness. Complementarily and synergistically to national “smart specialization”, this mandate provides the Cypriot LIFE NCP the necessary “legalization” and authorization to enhance its services, so as to ultimately enhance the successful proposals. Reformations at national level, regarding environmental legislation and management, will result to the transfer of more environment-related authorities to the Department of Environment, which will deepen the Department’s holistic approach to environment while increasing efficiency, since more synergies will be at an internal level. This will open the Department also to new “clientele”, thus bringing about more target groups for the LIFE NCP, which could potentially increase its “market” and audience. Last but not least, there is an ever increasing will throughout the public service to expand/ open to new types of training tools, to incorporate new ways of building capacity for personnel, and to utilize media such as “train-the-trainer” techniques, “twinnings” and knowledge-sharing with other LIFE NCPs, social networking, etc. These provide a very good opportunity to the Cypriot LIFE NCP for relevant activities within the scope of the present “CYprus Capacity BuiLding for life - CYCLamEn”.

1 http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/evaluation/methodology/tools/too_swo_def_en.htm#3 2 http://forlearn.jrc.ec.europa.eu/guide/4_methodology/meth_swot-analysis.htm

http://ec.europa.eu/europeaid/evaluation/methodology/tools/too_swo_def_en.htm#3

http://forlearn.jrc.ec.europa.eu/guide/4_methodology/meth_swot-analysis.htm


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Czech Republic

01/01/2015 - 31/12/2017

528,177 Ministry of the Environment The strategy of this project is to increase the personnel capacity and service base of the national contact point in order to increase the publicity of the programme and its results, raise the number of potential applicants and improve the service provided to them so as to increase the uptake of LIFE funding in the Czech Republic. On the basis of a detailed analysis of the weak points leading to a low number of successful LIFE applicants in previous years, and its main determinants, a set of actions were identified which are intended to mitigate these weak points and increase the number of projects submitted and approved under LIFE programme calls. The main new attribute of the project is its complexity and systematic approach to increase the visibility and attractiveness of the LIFE programme in respect to new applicants, building on the knowledge and proved best practices from other national contact points and successful LIFE beneficiaries, and by sharing the outcomes of the programme with professionals in the field of nature protection and eco-innovations and the general public via promotion of the best results gained with the support of LIFE funding at information seminars, in media and by spreading the information through personal contacts. A co-operation with the State Environmental Fund of the Czech Republic shall be established with the aim to ease the applicants with the financial burden of pre-financing their projects. A joint platform of complementary programmes and the base for support of integrated projects to LIFE, will be set up. A set of supportive tools will be created for the applicants making the programme more attractive and easier to grasp. An adequate promotion of LIFE programme will be ensured by an established close co-operation with journalists, the internal Independent Unit of Press and PR and the use of external professional PR services. Best practices and the technical results of successfully implemented projects will be shared and disseminated with Czech applicants and beneficiaries at information seminars, LIFE fair events, by visits to other LIFE projects in the country or abroad as well as by the means of media. The know-how of national contact point will be enhanced by an exchange of best practice with other national contact points and by a number of trainings undertaken according to individual needs of the new workers in the LIFE team. The project will enable to create four new working places at the Ministry of the Environment fully dedicated to the LIFE agenda plus four part-time jobs assigned to specific work tasks including an adequate support of the Ministry of the Environment to the programme as such. At the same time, it will create three part-time jobs at the premises of the project partner at the regional level. There will be thus an adequate personnel capacity for carrying out diverse range of necessary actions in order to raise the awareness of LIFE programme among the right target groups and increase their interest in the programme.

01/01/2016 - 31/12/2017

326,000 Ministry of the Environment The objectives of the project will be reached through educational, informative and promotional activities. In order to raise the awareness of LIFE among potential applicants and public sector officials, we will hold several regular information days and workshops during the entire capacity building project. These educational activities will raise the capacity of Estonian public sector official to help potential applicants consider LIFE more often as a source of funding and promote the funds with their specific environmental issues. On the other hand, potential applicants will know more about the program and will be able to communicate more clearly with the public sector in order to get additional help as well as advice on how to


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get co-funding for their projects. Plus, the workshops will provide them with valuable information on how to draw up better quality applications with a bigger chance of getting the funding from LIFE that they need for reaching their project goals. The capacity building project will also enable the Estonian Ministry of Environment to employ a Project manager also acting as a support person to be a first point of advice as well as going through applications to make sure the project is eligible for LIFE and drawn up in a correct way. If required, the Project Manager will forward any draft proposal to another NCP responsible for that specific field. We plan to boost the competence of LIFE among public sector officials. To achieve that, we will raise the number of NCPs in the Ministry of the Environment from 2 to 7. In addition to that, we will organize best practice exchanges and networking events for a larger group of public officials in partnership with another Member State’s organization responsible for LIFE implementation. We will also have the means to create a website which will be a valuable and thorough first go-to source for all things related to LIFE in Estonia, best practices and main contacts. Overall, the vision of the capacity building is, that Estonia will have the means to educate all parties involved in LIFE and provide them the theoretical knowledge and technical support they need in order to leverage all the LIFE possibilities.

Greece 01/01/2016 - 30/04/2019

953,600 Green Fund The experience of past Life programmes in the member states has highlighted the importance of LIFE national contact points. In this respect and taking into consideration the impacts of the present financial crisis in Greece, it is important for the country to improve the capacity of the national contact point and strengthen and collaboration between the Commission and the LIFE national contact point, to monitor the follow up and to coordinate in an efficient manner the use of the information gathered by these projects in a national level. The present project aims to enhance the capacity of the national contact point in providing appropriate information, training and guidance to national, regional and local stakeholders involved in the preparation and implementation of Life projects in Greece (e.g Ministries and NGOs at the national level, Universities, Institutes and regional authorities at the regional level, National parks, Municipalities and stakeholder groups at local level), in order to improve the quality and quantity of well-focused eligible for funding proposals under the LIFE regulation for the first multiannual programme period 2015-2018. Moreover, the needs of potential beneficiaries are now enforced by the fact that the new LIFE programme introduces new project types (eg. the integrated projects, the financial instruments, etc.) and this implies a greater need for cooperation and for applying more complicated and advanced proposals. More specifically, the project’s objective relates to applicants support and thereby contributing to the successful preparation -submission of project applications and implementation of LIFE projects. The experience of past LIFE programmes has highlighted the importance of ensuring the effective dissemination of project results and networking activities to increase the leverage effect and Union added value of the LIFE programme, in particular through the organization of seminars, workshops and other activities aiming at the exchange of experience, knowledge and good practices within the Union. As a result, the potential beneficiaries will be better informed and supported of the project’s helpdesk in order to reduce/minimize the submission of very immature proposals, reducing the person months’ costs both for the country and EU.


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Special focus needs to be given to the strengthening of targeted dissemination activities, including those with a specific focus on integrated projects and facilitate the cooperation and exchange of experiences between LIFE beneficiaries and others. As stated in the new LIFE Regulation “the success of integrated projects is dependent on close cooperation between national, regional and local authorities and non – state actors concerned by the LIFE Programme's objectives”.

Hungary 01/01/2016 - 31/12/2018

992,279 Ministry of National Development

The actions of the present project facilitates the more effective participation of Hungarian project proposals in an integrated and complex way. We have to develop the capacity of LIFE experts, in respect of climate policy in the Ministry of National Development, in respect of environment protection and nature conservation in the Ministry of Agriculture, and in respect of flexible and efficient operative and organisational activities in the MFK Magyar Fejlesztési Központ Nonprofit Kft. The partners can achieve by implementing the project actions that Hungary will be a more active and effective actor in the LIFE programme. As we are of the opinion that the most significant obstacle to have more high-quality, successful LIFE projects is that Hungary lacks enough human resources, we believe that establishing a new LCT under the existing Department for Climate Policy employing four full-time Regional Contact Points and a Head of Unit (National Contact Point) coordinating them would lead to the increase of the quantity as well as the quality of applications under LIFE Climate Action. These new regional contact points would be able to fulfil helpdesk duties and sharing best practice experience after analysing them in Member States with more accepted LIFE projects. Furthermore experts (LIFE support team) specialized on the environment protection and nature conservation (covering Environment and Resource Efficiency; Nature and Biodiversity; Environment Governance and Information strands) will be employed so the consultant and awareness-raising activity of the national contact points can be supported and become more efficient and more wide-scale. In order to improve the effectiveness of the LIFE support team, the experts will take part in study trips, where they can learn about best practices of the more successful Member States and widen their knowledge in order to support applicants and make it use during the trainings/workshops and communication. The capacity building networking workshop with the participation of Member States eligible for capacity building projects will also serve as an opportunity to exchange best practices and to improve professional networking. Besides the activity of the support team, using the improved capacity, thematic trainings will be organized, so wider target audience can be reached and informed, that can ensure the possibility to explore project ideas at an early stage. These trainings can contribute to more and higher quality project proposals in the 2014-2020 period. The national LIFE project database to be established in frame of the project will serve as a base for the development of a more effective information service. The applicants and stakeholders will find easily the most important information, experiences and indicators about closed and ongoing projects in Hungarian. Furthermore it would support the integration of LIFE results into national policies. In order to foster the exchange of experience and facilitate the elaboration of high-quality proposals, a project website would be established that would function even after the end of the project. We believe that through this webpage we would not only ease the flow of information between the LIFE contact points and the potential applicants, but also between the applicants themselves. As result of the above mentioned activities, more project ideas can come up and the number of successful


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LIFE proposals can increase with the help of the enlarged and trained LIFE support team.

Latvia 01/01/2016 - 31/12/2019

892,450 Ministry of Environmental Protection and Regional Development (MoE)

The strategic vision of CAP LIFE LAT is to increase the number of Latvian LIFE projects applied, to increase their success rate at the European LIFE competitions and support a high-level implementation quality leading to new proposals. The CAP LIFE LAT application is based on the Capacity building program elaborated by the MoE. The comprehensive capacity building programme is addressing both, the capacity of the MoE and LVAFA in steering, supporting and supervising the country’s LIFE applications, as well as project developers’ and implementers’ capacities in project design and management. CAP LIFE LAT wants to improve the identified current weaknesses with measures addressing the specific problems at the single LIFE priority areas: the lack of innovation in ENV proposals, lack of holistic approaches in NAT proposals, lack of behavioural change campaigns and large publicity outreach at INF proposals, and lack of projects in general in CLIM proposals and, if existing, their dominance on mitigation. The measures undertaken shall be a set of studies by external experts, e.g. analysing and explaining the philosophy of LIFE programmes to the different stakeholders (case based and adapted to Latvian circumstances), analysing LIFE programme priorities vis-à-vis Latvian environmental policy, cost benefit analyses of measures etc. Furthermore, a series of seminars will be implemented that will help project developers and implementers with backstopping their ideas, focus, and policy interlink. It will also help MoE and its staff to get a better connection to the LIFE programme actors and utilise their results and findings more effectively for the environmental policy uptake. It is the project’s vision that the LIFE programme must be better anchored administratively-financially in Latvia – the co-financing scheme plays an important role in the success rate of project applications; this is not necessarily an issue of amount of money but of a clear and stable system independent from governmental changes, early available at call opening and not modified each year. The project will elaborate a proposal on how to better manage the co-financing scheme and evaluate its implementation, as far as possible during its life-time. Furthermore, CAP LIFE LAT wants to set-up a support team for LIFE applications and project management by establishing a Help Desk at LVAFA consisting of 2 full time (ENV and CLIMA) and 2 part time (PR and Finances) persons, who will be recruited for the project, trained and, after project end, institutionalised. The Help Desk establishment will be accompanied by a set of technical measures that shall ease and support the applicants and project managers on routine basis. LIFE projects shall be unique and have high EU added value, they shall qualify for replication and get out of their local action and grow to regional, national and international importance. Therefore, a facilitated experience exchange is planned in CAP LIFE LAT and will be implemented by exchange meetings and study visits. CAP LIFE LAT wants to bring Latvian LIFE stakeholders and benefitting state institutions to other countries and learn from their successes and failures and benchmark own projects with the international ones. The project also wants to facilitate experience exchange on how the LIFE programme is administered and supported in different countries to draw a conclusion specifically for LV from it. And, finally, CAP LIFE LAT wants to promote the LIFE programme beyond its current “circle” of environmental NGOs, universities and environmental administration and involve particular municipalities and get private business (manufacturing and services) engaged. Both target groups are important players in implementation of environmental policy at local level; they are also important players when it comes to interlinking environmental policy to other sectors of economy and society – be it transport, employment,


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agriculture or recreation.

Lithuania 01/07/2016 - 30/06/2020

593,886 Ministry of Environment of the Republic of Lithuania

Strategic vision: Lithuanian NGOs and SMEs are well informed about opportunities offered by the LIFE programme, possess knowledge and skills to prepare LIFE applications and to implement LIFE projects, and know where to look for help, if necessary. The vision will be achieved by consistent actions to raise Lithuania’s capacity to submit quality applications and by providing opportunities for on-going and closed projects to ensure sustainability of the project outcomes:

Development of the on-line partner search tool and project idea database (ensures new opportunities to analyse the existing LIFE ideas, announce new ones, find partners and receive assistance in preparing applications);

Events “NGO meet business” (offer new opportunities to find sources of co-financing);

Thematic workshops, Site visits, Technical consultations on the preparation of applications under the LIFE programme, and Webinars (would be helpful in building capacity of potential beneficiaries/applicants and to institutions responsible for administering LIFE projects in Lithuania);

Communication and dissemination actions (will help to raise awareness about LIFE programme, this particular project and its opportunities to local NGOs and SMEs).

Malta 01/04/2016 - 31/03/2019

319,941 Ministry for Sustainable Development, the Environment and Climate change (MSDEC)

With the help of this LIFE Capacity Building project, we aim to enhance Malta’s LIFE Unit by recruiting and providing training to existing and new personnel. The LIFE Unit within MSDEC aims to see an uptake in Malta’s participation in the LIFE programme. However, the team is not striving for quantity but quality proposals. This can only be achieved by adding value in the LIFE National Contact Point. The National Contact Point will be working with stakeholders and other relevant parties in identifying environmental issues that Malta needs to address not only as a country but also to be line in with European obligations. The LIFE National Contact Point will be working closely with personnel responsible for EU policy and implementation of policy with regards to environment and climate change in order to determine gaps in policy implementation. The LIFE Unit will also embark on an awareness campaign which will be focused and targeted according to the needs that will be identified in Action A1 (qualitative study). The awareness campaign will be based on an effective communication strategy in order to target the right audience. Thanks to this LIFE Capacity Building, the LIFE Unit will establish a network with other national contact points of other European programmes. Although such a network exists, close collaboration between contact points of different programmes is not necessarily adequate to meet the client’s needs. Through this revised network, contact points will work together to build a good working relationship and guide the clients accordingly. The networking with other national contact points will also be done in promoting the financial instruments of European programmes. Moreover, the training of other officers from the ministry’s departments and entities will be very fruitful. The officers will have specified training not just in environmental areas but also in other academic areas such as marketing and financial sectors. The more knowledge these officials will have, the better the quality of their output will be as they will know better what to do and how to do it. All the different training courses; both technical and generic, at the end will provide a well-trained and informed group of officials who will be more proactive and efficient.


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Poland 01/01/2016 - 31/12/2019

592,933 National Fund for Environmental Protection and Water Management

A strategic aim of the project is to prepare Polish applicants to submit during the second MAWP high quality proposals ready for competing with proposals originating from the other European countries, what is essential for success of the LIFE Programme in Poland within the years 2018-2020. The above will be accomplished by strengthening the NFOŚiGW / National Contact Point (NCP) capacity to improve assistance to the applicants. To achieve this target, total number of employees working in the National Contact Point will be raised from 1 to 3 or above full time job equivalent through employment of additional personnel. This additional staff will be fully addressed to implement the Capacity Building project (CBP) whose salaries will be fully eligible to be financed from LIFE Programme financial resources. Further, the NCP staff will gain additional skills throughout training courses focusing e.g. on projects evaluation and assessment. Further activities covered by the project scope are focused on dissemination of knowledge on the LIFE Programme that would be available in Polish. To achieve this, NFOŚiGW intends inter alia to change the form of the LIFE open days organised each year, through organising side events to the open days, each focused on particular environmental topic selected to be specifically addressed and discussed. Finally, using the knowledge gathered, the NCP will organise dedicated workshops for potential applicants on how to prepare projects to be financed from the LIFE Programme and how to prepare applications. Additional advantage of the projects used for the purpose, is to prepare and publicise for the applicants guide how to navigate through various Commission documents and how to prepare a project. The latter will be based on experiences of the recent LIFE Programme beneficiaries.

Portugal 01/01/2016 - 31/12/2017

708,383 Portuguese Environment Agency

The proposal has been drawn to overcome weaknesses formerly identified as major obstacles for a better use of LIFE in national terms (either by inquiries promoted at the national information sessions and/or perception/communication of existing obstacles by main stakeholders). Ultimately, the identified weaknesses are mainly related with the difficulties faced by the NCP to create and maintain a national network for the LIFE program, that could not only contribute for its better dissemination but also to support proponents on overcoming difficulties faced along the project life cycle, share knowledge on their practices, and therefore contribute to an ultimate goal of increasing the number of proposals financed by LIFE under each call. The project seeks, therefore, to set up this national network, capacitating human resources to develop and maintain a set of tools and mechanisms that will remain operational and consolidated after the project period. By the end of the project, one expects an overall increased capacity to have been established not only within the project beneficiaries but also throughout potential LIFE users, public and private. APA and the other beneficiaries will also try to overcome restrictions to staff contracting - as those currently applied to public administration, if still existing by the end of the project - by demonstrating the benefits that the enlarged team generates in terms of a better national use of LIFE by potential beneficiaries. The low degree of knowledge sharing and networking among national LIFE projects, between these and potential partners – including co-financers – has been identified as creating difficulties for new users to perceive interest on the LIFE program and presentation of solid proposals. These weaknesses have contributed for a national use of LIFE that is concentrated on a few themes/subjects and proponents/beneficiaries which itself contributes for newcomers avoid the program as it is seen as majorly financing a specific type of projects. A wider use of the program (in subjects and parties that can benefit


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from it) is therefore highly dependent on the reinforcement of knowledge sharing and providing technical and administrative knowledge on how to build successful proposals. By increasing the capacity of the public bodies involved in LIFE dissemination, the project will bring out the additional enlarged benefits on disseminating the overall priorities and subjects that can be supported by LIFE, contributing to enlarge its use to other issues than those traditionally seen as opportunities for use of the LIFE Program. The project foresees that the effects of the proposed funding cannot end by the end of LIFE funding, therefore seeking to increase the installed capacity for using LIFE far behind the public administrations that are directed involved with the NFP on the project works. Having such aim, despite the project has for a start the increase and capacitation of internal teams dealing with LIFE dissemination, the main objective is to extend the benefits of such capacitation to a wider range of people and stakeholders, with whom additional works are expected for reinforcement of networking, fostering project integration and cooperation and overall increase the recognition of potential uses of the LIFE program in national terms and in cooperation with other member states. With this strategic option, one expects not only to increase the number and quality of proposal to be submitted during the period of the project but also to develop a sustainable national network of capacitated staff, that can contribute to maintain such targets and objectives after the project ends.

Romania 01/01/2016 - 31/12/2017

333,468 Ministry of Environment, Water and Forests

Ministry of Environment and Waters and Forests as national authority LIFE aims to create a structure focused on potential beneficiaries of LIFE 2014-2020. Meanwhile a very important target is that Romania becomes more competitive in relation to other EU state, efficient, innovative and responsible in Environmental Protection area. Life Unit established at MEWF will be focused on development and dissemination of knowledge/information. In the same time will actively support identification of potential applicants, according to the identified needs at local and regional level in concordance with completing the political and economic coherence meant to efficiently protect natural values. MEWF aims by this project to create a sensitive climate to the needs of national and international environmental terms and quality. MEWF recognizes the need for efficient management of all resources, no matter where they come from.

1) Networking: Organisation of 2 national conferences and 10 workshops. Prior to Conferences, there are going to be organised dissemination meetings and seminars to meet local and regional potential actors, both from private, institutional and social civil area, in order to publically aware interested groups into rules and benefits of this program. These meetings, in smaller network circles, are meant together with workshops to better prepare the National Conferences. Conferences, will be thus, organised at a national dimension, whereas workshops will be focused on regions or locally. The main objective of these activities will be to encourage debates and connect stakeholders in a network to discuss views and ideas about LIFE related issues and also to present best practice examples. We want to facilitate cooperation that fosters environmental action through exchange of opinions and expertise; we aim to transform relevant project stakeholders from passive to enthusiastic actors, by proofing right methods of approach. We also aim to connect Romanian networks with other European similar networks in order to achieve Life goals for environment protection at regional level.


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2) Public places campaigns - public places meetings organized on local and regional level with press releases and media communication in local media networks. There are going to be organised with support from local authorities, chambers of commerce, associations of entrepreneurs dedicated to different economic branches, other potential entrepreneurs, or associated (twin) chambers of commerce. Through these presentations municipalities will foster exchange of knowledge and experience about environmentally issues through Life Programme perspective. In this regard we propose the 'LifeLab' to live as a Caravan in established locations, that will be present on different environment days celebration and also according to the established calendar in order to stress and demonstrate benefits of Life project, facilitate and assure contact with direct potential applicants and targeted groups.. These campaigns are going to be supported by related films, videos, photos from already accomplished or ongoing projects and the explanations from experts and their expertise gained in projects.

3) Better integration of Life into other types of financing, in order to be able to identify possible co-financing modalities. By disseminating Life, the interested groups are going to better understand the principles and benefits of Life and with the support from Life Unit they are going to be able to find financing opportunities. Life can be seen as a opportunity to continue different activities meant to protect ecosystems or complement economic activities which can be damaging for environment, by supporting critical environment impact with efficient remediation actions. All these are meant to implement practical achievements and practical results within economic realities, within different economic and social activities

Slovenia 01/01/2016 - 30/06/2018

981,330 Ministry of Environment and Spatial Planning

The project aims at:

Improving the environment and achieving environmental policy goals through fostering the awareness of LIFE programme implementation and rising interest for more and better LIFE project applications;

Increasing LIFE programme and other EUR funding absorption capacity in order to implement national strategic and operational environmental programmes;

Fostering and disseminating project management skills thereby empowering a project-based approach to tackling environmental challenges;

Improving coordination of responsible authorities and environmental goals for preparing the content of IPs

Increasing the number and quality of LIFE programme project proposals, aimed at implementation of national priorities of environmental acquis

Increasing international (regional) cooperation in order to increase implementation of trans-boundary environmental issues with development of International networking electronic platform this will improve implementation as well in region of neighbouring Member States (AT, CRO, HU, IT).

* As submitted by the beneficiaries

life capacity building projects – 2014 call for proposals

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