Life cycle of EU-funded programmes
In developing and implementing a programme for the promotion of agricultural products, a life cycle or implementation cycle begins, involving a range of stakeholders, each with their own responsibilities.
The Annual Work Plan
The Call for proposals
This cycle begins with the European Commission establishing an Annual Work Plan, which sets out an action plan for the next 12 months, describing how policy priorities will be translated into concrete actions. This plan sets out priorities for resource allocation, with the involvement of stakeholders and Member States.
The Annual Work Plan is governed on the basis of the basic regulations drawn up by the EU legislators:
Thus, under these regulations, the eligibility, selection, exclusion and award criteria to be applied for the development of the agricultural promotion programmes are defined.
Once the annual plan has been regularised and established, the Call for proposals period for the promotion of agricultural products is opened by the European Commission’s Research Executive Agency (REA). Each year a call for proposals is launched, both for single and multi EU- funded programmes.
This is when the proposal preparation phase begins and applicants’ interests come into play. During this phase, applicants are responsible for finding other participating partners for the project and preparing the project proposal.
Depending on whether the applicants are two or more organisations, from several Member States or an EU-wide organisation, it will be a multi-programme proposal. If they are all from the same Member State, then they will develop a single programme proposal.
The Submission period
Once the proposal has been developed together with the other applicants, the project submission phase starts. This is done through telematic means, using the Horizon 2020 IT system on the Participant Portal of the European Commission’s website. Projects must be submitted by the established deadline.
This phase has not only pre-defined submission forms and templates for the project proposal and detailed budget, but also a set of guidelines designed to assist applicants in writing and submitting the proposal.
The Evaluation Phase
At the end of the submission period, the European Commission starts the Evaluation Phase of the submitted proposals for the promotion of agricultural products. This evaluation is carried out in the strictest confidence by three external experts who assess the quality and score the projects using a system based on the quality, impact and relevance of the project. The experts are rotated every call for proposals.
The Evaluation Committee, composed of Research Executive Agency and Commission staff, establishes a ranked list for each of the priority topics listed in the call for proposals. The highest ranked proposals are then awarded co-financing subject to budget availability.
This process is monitored by REA and the European Commission, which informs the Council and the European Parliament of its progress.
After the evaluation phase, there is a period of adaptation of the projects and corrections. Successful applicants proceed to the adaptation of the projects in accordance with the recommendations of the Evaluation Committee.
Once all proposals have been evaluated and corrected, the Commission proceeds to the decision on the allocation of co-funding for the approved programmes.
The Grant Agreement preparation for the EU-funded programmes
This concludes the process of preparation, submission, evaluation and approval of the programmes for the promotion of agricultural products. The only remaining step is the signature of the Grant Agreement between the participants and the European Commission for those applicants selected.
Once the Grant Agreement is signed, the implementation of the grant can finally proceed, subject to certain requirements:
- Reporting and payments once a year
- Obligation to submit a series of project deliverables
- Monitoring of project progress and indicators
- Evaluation of the project by external bodies
Atlas Marketing Studio assistance in the european programmes for the promotion of agricultural products
As can be seen, the preparation and presentation of the life cycle of EU agri-food promotion programmes is an elaborate and complex process.
It is therefore advisable to have professional help in order to submit proposals that meet the Commission’s evaluation requirements as closely as possible.
At Atlas Marketing Studio we have our own methodology for the preparation and development of proposals for EU-funded promogrammes in the most efficient way possible.
In this way, we have our own system for the management and implementation of EU-funded programmes:
- Integral Marketing & Communication Plan [offline/online].
- Marketing strategy
- Execution of tactics
- Cost-Controlling
- Feedback and Reporting on the performance of the invested budget and ROI
Reach out to us if you have questions or are considering getting funds for your organisation through European funding for the promotion of agricultural products, we will be delighted to help and support you all the way. Email us at hello@atlasmarketingstudio.
