REA (CHAFEA) Life cycle of EU agri-food promotion programmes

In developing and implementing a project as beneficial and ambitious as the CHAFEA/REA promotion programmes, a life cycle or implementation cycle begins, involving a range of stakeholders, each with their own responsibilities.

Before continuing and in case you want to know more about the REA (CHAFEA) promotion programmes for agricultural products, check

previous publications on the matter

Here you can check how the whole process for REA’s promotion programmes are born, developed and executed:

The Annual Work Plan

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 promotion programmes are defined.

The Call for proposals

Once the annual plan has been regularised and established, the Call for proposals period is opened by REA, the European Commission’s Research Executive Agency. Each year a call for proposals is launched, both for single and multi 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, REA (CHAFEA) starts the Evaluation Phase of the submitted proposals. 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 REA (CHAFEA) 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 the 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-financing for the approved programmes.

The Grant Agreement preparation

This concludes the process of preparation, submission, evaluation and approval of the promotion programmes. 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 methodology and assistance in REA (CHAFEA) promotion programmes

As can be seen, the preparation and presentation of the life cycle of REA (CHAFEA) programme for the promotion of agricultural products is an elaborate and complex process.

It is therefore advisable to have professional help in order to present a project proposal that meets the Commission’s evaluation requirements as closely as possible.

At Atlas Marketing Studio we have our own methodology for the preparation and development of these proposals in the most efficient way possible.

In this way, we have our own system for the management and implementation of European Programmes or with Multilateral Agencies for international partners through:

• 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