The Interreg Sudoe Programme, a transnational cooperation programme between Spain, France, Portugal and the Principality of Andorra, will fund 36-month projects involving partners from these countries. The call for proposals involves two phases and there is no defined maximum funding amount.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
In this second call, the submission of three proposals per beneficiary is limited (one application as Principal Beneficiary and two applications as Beneficiary OR three applications as Beneficiary). Therefore, by 11 April, statements of interest in applying (as Principal Beneficiary or as Beneficiary) must be sent to the Directors of the Organic Unit to which they belong (with cesam-gesciencia@ua.pt in cc) so that GAI can centralise and ensure that UA is complying with the requirements of the call.
Priorities and specific objectives
Within the scope of this call, three Programme priorities are open, with a total of eight specific Objectives included. For more detail, please read the Portuguese version.
For each objective, the type of project and type of partnership is clearly defined, so this information should be consulted (see point 10 of the application guide) before starting to prepare the proposal. Depending on the objective, the minimum amount per beneficiary is also defined (see point 12 of the application guide).
Eligibility
Beneficiaries of the Interreg Sudoe Programme must be legal entities belonging to the SUDOE territory (see point 3 of the application guide). They can be public organisations, bodies governed by public law, private not-for-profit entities or private for-profit entities and/or companies.
There are three eligibility criteria for projects, detailed by Specific Objective. The general principles are as follows:
- The project does not focus on activities covered by the other transnational Interreg cooperation programmes (Euro-MED and Atlantic);
- The project implements pilot or demonstration actions;
- The project consortium includes all types of organisations required in accordance with the Specific Objective for which it is being submitted.
Budget
Funding is up to 75% of the total eligible cost of the project.
No minimum or maximum amount of the project’s total eligible expenditure is defined. It is up to the partnership to present a balanced and realistic budget that is consistent with the planned activities and achievements.
The first application phase only requires the maximum total project budget and the respective distribution amongst partners. In the second phase, detailed information is requested, i.e. the complete financial plan and its justification. The financial plan for the 2nd phase cannot exceed the maximum project budget indicated in the 1st phase. The budget per beneficiary may be subject to modifications, including a higher budget in the second phase, provided that the conditions of the call are respected.
There are some budgetary constraints to consider:
- Preparation costs: a lump sum of 12,500 € may be requested by the projects;
- Staff costs: maximum 50% of the beneficiary’s financial plan;
- Costs for transversal task groups: maximum 15% of the project’s financial plan.
Calendar
The deadline for the second phase will be decided by the Monitoring Committee after deliberating on the applications received in the first phase. However, it is estimated that the second phase could start in October 2024.
According to the forecasts made by the Programme Authorities, the start date for the projects could be 1 April 2025.
Supporting material
If you are looking for partners, you can use the CoopSudoe partner search tool.
The National Authorities of the Sudoe Programme and the Joint Secretariat will present the types of projects expected under this Call in three national webinars.
Webinar for Portuguese promoters: Monday 18 March at 15:30 (mainland Spain time)
If you have a very advanced project idea and have questions about preparing your application, you can also meet with the Joint Secretariat online (30 minutes). To do so, you must first fill in a form describing your project idea and indicating the issues you wish to address with the Joint Secretariat.
From the week of 22 April 2024, several meetings will be scheduled between project promoters, National Authorities and the Joint Secretariat. These sessions, organised by Member State, allow participants to ask questions about the expectations of the Programme, specific points of the call for projects, the constitution of the value chain in the partnerships, etc. The planning of these sessions will be announced in April.
All the necessary information is available here (only available in Portuguese, Spanish or French). If you want our support in the application process, please send an e-mail to cesam-gesciencia@ua.pt.