Interreg Baltic Sea Region 2nd Call for Applications: Offering funds to Core and Small Projects

Deadline: 26-Jan-23

Do you have a smart project idea how to bring in innovative, water-smart and climate-neutral solutions for the benefit of people around the Baltic Sea? Do you want to develop and apply your solutions transnationally in regions around the Baltic Sea? Would you like to show how the EU values stand for real actions? If you answer – yes – to these questions, they call for your project applications! They offer EU funding for organisations to connect and work as if there were no borders. They provide more than money: They create an environment for working together across borders to let great solutions become common practice.

Core projects

Core projects are the main tool to deliver the change Interreg Baltic Sea Region aims at. All core projects are requested to prepare, pilot and transfer practical and durable solutions to the challenges they choose to tackle. These challenges must correspond to one of the Programme objectives within the priorities of Innovative societies, Water-smart societies or Climate-neutral societies.

The main results of the core project are increased capacities of the target groups to deal with the defined challenges. The target groups are organisations that have the competencies to influence the challenge and are interested in the solutions. Hence, reaching out to the target groups and involving them in the preparation of the solution, piloting and transfer are crucial for the success of the core projects.

Small projects

Small projects aim at facilitating easier access to the Programme, in particular for those partners that have not previously participated in the Programme. Applying for a small project and implementing a small project is much simpler when compared to the core projects. For example, the budget of a small project is smaller than a regular project. The work plan consists of one work package and it may be implemented by small partnerships.

In small projects, partners are encouraged to develop practical and durable outputs and solutions for challenges in the region. These challenges need to correspond to one of the Programme objectives. Small projects should increase capacity of the target groups to deal with the identified challenges during and after the end of the project implementation.The development of solutions is not obligatory in small projects. However, activities need to go beyond pure networking and knowledge exchange.

Priorities

The Programme is structured along three thematic priorities:

• Priority 1 Innovative societies
  • Objective 1.1 Resilient economies and societies
    • The priority is dedicated to actions building sustainable, fair, innovative and resilient economies and communities across the Baltic Sea region. Under resilience, the Programme means the ability to respond to external disturbances such as severe recessions and financial crises, downturns of particular industries or major health crises.
  • Objective 1.2 Responsive public authorities
    • Furthermore, the priority encourages actions to experiment with new ways of delivering public services using innovative, data-driven and participatory methods to improve the lives of citizens. It supports testing unconventional approaches to services that reduce costs, bureaucracy as well as make public services more effective.
• Priority 2 Water-smart societies
  • Objective 2.1 Sustainable waters
    • The priority supports cooperation to implement water-smart solutions improving the state of water and making its management more sustainable. These waters include the Baltic Sea, coastal waters and inland waters. Thus, the priority helps prevent and reduce water pollution across various waterways. It encourages actions to rethink planning processes for more effective water management during storms, floods, droughts and groundwater scarcity and to adapt water management practices to changing climate conditions and to use water reasonably.
  • Objective 2.2 Blue economy
    • Furthermore, the priority strives for further advancing blue economy businesses in using fresh and sea waters and marine resources more efficiently while supporting a healthy marine environment in the whole region. It helps create new business opportunities by developing value chains for sustainable fresh water and marine-based products and services and integrate climate change mitigation measures in business development plans.
• Priority 3 Climate-neutral societies
  • Objective 3.1 Circular economy
    • The priority covers actions that facilitate the shift from linear to circular use of resources. This implies keeping products and materials in use for as long as possible without increasing pressure on the environment. Thus, the priority fosters development of new circular approaches and putting them to test. It provides a space to integrate circular economy policies into territorial strategies and redefine smart specialisation approaches to advance the shift towards circularity.
  • Objective 3.2 Energy transition
    • Moreover, the priority supports the energy transition and helps develop smart solutions to move towards the decarbonisation of energy systems. Solutions to increase renewable energy production and its use should be put to test.
  • Objective 3.3 Smart green mobility
    • Furthermore, the priority strives for green and smart mobility solutions. It supports actions that ensure the smooth movement of people and goods while saving resources by increasing efficiency, integrating different transport modes and accelerating digitalisation. It helps to introduce green and intelligent mobility solutions and test innovative technologies to reduce pollution in cities and towns and their hinterland.

Funding Information

The main funding source of the Programme is the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) for partners from the EU Member States. The further funding source is Norwegian funding for partners from Norway.

• Core projects
  • Up to 36 months no limitation (proportionate to activities).
• Small projects
  • Up to 24 months up to EUR 500,000.

Eligibility Criteria

• The Programme area covers nine countries. It comprises eight EU Member States (Denmark, Estonia, Finland, parts of Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Sweden) and one third country (parts of Norway).
• Project partnership has to include at least three project partners from three different countries of the Programme area: a lead partner and at least two project partners. At least two of the project partners have to be located in the territory of two different EU Member States in the Programme area. As a general rule, organisations located in the regions belonging to the Programme area can become project partners. In exceptional cases organisations located outside the Programme can apply as project partners for European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) or Norwegian funding.
• As the project partnership is based on the lead partner principle, each project has to appoint a lead applicant/lead partner who is responsible for the preparation and submission of the application. The lead partner bears legal responsibility for the whole partnership. The lead partner is also the link between the project partners and the MA/JS.
• Lead partners must be legally registered in the territory of a Member State or Norway covered by the Programme area and must fall into the legal status category “public”. Where a legal entity is located in Germany or Norway (in the sense of legal registration) but outside the Programme area, it can still become a lead partner if it follows specific obligations.
• The Programme Manual also specifies which legal entities can act as a lead partner and project partners and provides lists of their responsibilities in the project. The lead partner and all project partners have a budget and a defined role in the project’s implementation.
• Organisations not falling under these legal requirements may participate in the projects as associated organisations. Associated organisations support the project implementation from their own resources.
• Project partners should possess the major competencies needed to deliver the expected project results. The partnership should also involve representatives of the target groups in order to capture their needs during the whole project. Any legal entity falling into one of the legal status categories defined by the Programme can be a partner in the project. However, the Programme particularly encourages public authorities to participate in the project partnership.

For more information, visit https://interreg-baltic.eu/gateway/calls/