COVID-19: possible call for additional activities in 2021

During its last meeting in December, our monitoring committee discussed the possibility to launch a call for additional activities in the first semester of 2021.

The aim is to provide new opportunities to our approved projects to exchange experiences on the way the COVID-19 crisis impacts the issue they address and to further improve their regional development policies to better face the current challenges.

This opportunity may be particularly relevant to the 1st and 2nd call projects because they had finalized their phase 1 when the COVID-19 crisis started.

Who could apply?

The call would be restricted to our 258  approved projects (including the closed ones).

• For 1st and 2nd call projects, it would be possible to apply for additional funding to support up to one additional year of exchange of experience activities to address the COVID-19 crisis.
• 3rd and 4th call projects would have the possibility to apply for additional funding in case the measures already taken in 2020 would not be sufficient to address the crisis.

How would it work?

The call is envisaged under the following form: 

• Short terms of reference would provide all necessary features of the call including the deadline by which interested projects should apply
• The request for additional funding would not require a specific application form and will be managed through a request for change procedure. Interested projects will be accompanied by the joint secretariat to ensure as much as possible that the submitted requests are relevant.
• Additional activities could be related to traditional exchange of experience activities but can also include in justified cases pilot actions.
• The partnership should stay the same as much as possible. Any changes to the partnership would need to be justified (e.g. partner’s withdrawal, integration of an additional organisation due to pilot actions).
• The policy instruments addressed could be updated by the project depending on each regional context. In particular, the next generation of Structural Funds programmes could be addressed.
• The maximum recommended ERDF budget of the request is estimated to EUR 500,000 per project.

What's next?

The details are currently under development and our monitoring committee will take a final decision at the latest in March.

Our objective is to organise the call before summer so that the additional activities could start in the second semester of 2021. We will publish further information on our website. 

More ways we can support you

We can help support European regional policymakers with their COVID-19 recoveries. Visit our dedicated COVID-19 page to find:

• Good practices from all across Europe that can help you mitigate the pandemic's effects

• Online thematic activities to inspire you and help you find solutions to common challenges

• Tailored support from our Policy Learning Platform experts

• Related news and events published by us, our projects and other institutions