10.
FAQ
So many calls for proposals there are, so many kinds of questions may occur. Nevertheless, there are established habits and pieces of best practices which can help us during the preparation of a project proposal. When only consortiums are eligible to apply for a call, applicants have to face the difficulties of collective research, indicate a coordinator organisation, collect different types of official documents, etc. This chapter provides useful information for those who have no extended practice in such activities. General Questions 1. Why doing a specific project? A unique project idea is always advantageous for the applicants. The European Union primarily supports projects that comply with the following general rules: the project proposal has an added value the project proposal has multiplier effect the project proposal promotes the goals and the objectives of the specific call
2. How to solve a particular problem? Programme operators are at the applicants’ disposal by e-mail. There are specific workgroups for technical and IT questions, and professional experts are available for administrative, bureaucratic, and professional issues related to the content of a proposal.
3. What differs for private/public organisations concerning obligations? All application systems are more permissive in cases of public entities concerning mandatory annexes. The most important one is to provide proof for the evaluators about the official legal status of the organisation. Sometimes it is enough to submit a simple declaration; however, occasionally applicants have to submit at least one document to certify their legal status. Basically, most of the calls for proposals provide the opportunity to submit other supporting documents. The documents that are most commonly looked and asked for are the Legal Entity Form4 and the Financial Identification Form5 whose templates are available in 23 languages. Frequently requested documents in case of private entities: extract from the official journal copy of articles of association 4 5
http://ec.europa.eu/budget/contracts_grants/info_contracts/legal_entities/legal_entities_en.cfm http://ec.europa.eu/budget/contracts_grants/info_contracts/financial_id/financial_id_en.cfm
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