Author: groteski

In its meeting in September 2019, the Joint Monitoring Committee selected 13 project proposals for funding, in total for ca. 8,0 million euros. List of Awards in made available in the pdf-file below.  

Publication list of awards 21102019 SEFRCBC – Call 5, closed 27 March 2019

The Managing Authority (MA) contacts the lead partner of each awarded project during November 2019, to launch the negotiation process for the Grant Contract. If an application is not selected to receive Programme financing, as a consequence of an administrative or technical failure caused during the assessment process, the lead applicant has a right to submit a complaint within 30 calendar days of publication of the list of awards (More information in the Programme Manual part B, chapter 9. Complaint and claim procedures). 

In its meeting on 26.9.2019 the Joint Monitoring Committee of the South-East Finland – Russia CBC 2014-2020 decided to organise sixth open call for proposals to fund more standard developments projects. The deadline for the submission of grant applications is 27.2.2020 at 23:30 o’clock Finnish time. The financial envelope is ca. 5 Meur for the priorities 1, 3 and 4. Priority 2 is no longer available.

Applications with its annexes must be submitted to the PROMAS –system and in original paper copies to the Managing Authority according to the instructions given in the Programme Manual.  

Where a project plan includes an infrastructure component of at least EUR 1 million, the application must include additional documents listed in the Implementing Regulation (EU) No 897/2014, Article 43. 

Support for the preparation of applications 

The Managing Authority (MA) support application preparations by organizing an open information event as part of the programme’s Annual Event on 10.-11.12.2019 in Saint Petersburg. Event programme will be published in November on programme’s website.

In addition to the information event, consultation services are available at the MA’s premises in Lappeenranta and at the programme’s branch office in Saint Petersburg. Requests for the consultation should be made to official(at)sefrcbc.fi in English, whereas, the meetings may be conducted also in Finnish and Russian. Contact us with the following information: 

• Content of the consultation, like the eligibility of project idea/partners, financing plan/budgeting  
• Preferred arrangement of the consultation, like on-line or meeting at programme premises 
• Participating organisation(s) and person(s) from the applicant’s side  

Requests are forwarded to the programme experts, who will contact the applicants to agree on practical arrangements and timing. Consultations will be organized mainly during November 2019-January 2020 and according the content, as 1-2 hours sessions. Questions & Answers –column at the Programme’s website provide also answers to most frequently asked questions.  

Decisions of the funded projects from the sixth round of call shall be made by the JMC in June 2020. Implementation period of the projects may start from September-October 2020 earliest, as a result of the successful grant contract negotiation. 

Eighth meeting of the Joint Monitoring Committee (JMC) took place on 26 September 2019 in St. Petersburg, Russia. In addition to decision of the awards from the 5th call, the committee got an overview on the situation with earlier awarded and ongoing projects and it discussed about the possibilities to allocate the programme’s financial frame to full extent. Decision of one more round of call was made, and the submission deadline for the grant applications was set to 27.2.2020. Priority 2, support to education, research, technological development and innovation, is no longer available. 

(Detailed news of the sixth round of call and information of workshop event is made available after the approval of JMC meeting minutes.)

13 new awards  

Project selection process from the fifth round of call, closed on 27 March 2019, has been finalized and the JMC awarded 13 projects for funding, with total programme support of circa € 8,0 Mio. Official decisions (Executive Order) are send to the lead applicants during October-November, followed by the invitation to start Grant Contract negotiation process with the Managing Authority. Short-list of the selected projects:  

KS1771 | Shore protection, LP Finnish Association for Nature Conservation (FI)   

KS1950 | POETA, LP LUT University (FI)     

KS1913 | AWARE, LP LUT University (FI)    

KS1792 | Suvorov, LP Foundation for Recreation Areas in South Karelia (FI)   

KS1905 | BIM-ICE, LP Saimaa University of Applied Sciences (FI)  

KS1885 | Bringing Together, LP Saint Petersburg Chamber of Commerce and Industry (RU)     

KS1780 | Sprengtporten, LP University of Helsinki (FI)  

KS1907 | Race4Scale, LP South-Eastern Finland University of Applied Sciences (FI)  

KS1903 | INCROBB, LP LUT University (FI)   

KS1831 | 30 Miles RusFin, LP Federal State-Funded Educational Institution of Higher Education “Russian Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration”(RU)    

KS1877 | ImProfEdu, LP City of Kouvola (FI) 

KS1916 | INFOSPHERE, LP Saint Petersburg Electrotechnical University “LETI” (RU) 

KS1798 | EFSOA, LP Branch of Federal State Budgetary Scientific Institution “Federal Scientific AgroEngineering Centre VIM” (RU)  

(Official List of Awards with more detailed information is made available after the approval of JMC meeting minutes.)  

Event press release

2019.09.25 Press release_ECDay Nature as our common treasure_ENG

South-East Finland – Russia CBC programme, with Estonia – Russia CBC, Latvia – Russia CBC and Interreg Baltic Sea Region programmes, celebrate European Cooperation Day on 25 September 2019 with the interactive event “NATURE AS OUR COMMON TREASURE” targeted particularly youth of the programme regions. The event holds keynotes of the programmes’s official stakeholders, joint exhibition of 12 on-going projects that contribute to the clean environment of the regions and discussion session by the school graduates and first-year students of possible synergies to meet common environmental challenges in the future.

Event info

Date: 25 September 2019
Time: at 10:00-15:00
Venue: Information and Education Center of the St. Petersburg Vodokanal
Address: Shpalernaya str., 56, St. Petersburg, Russia

Event supporters 

The Committee for External Relations of Leningrad Region
The Committee for External Relations of Saint Petersburg

 

Managing Authority (MA), assisted by its branch office, organizes consultation days for on-going projects in October aimed at supporting projects’ implementation with the result-based approach. Face-to-face meeting with lead partners and partners provides possibility for the MA to advice and address any issues that may benefit of joint dialog and contributions.  

Projects may consider the need for consultation for example via following questions:  

• Are there open questions or hesitations relating for example to reporting, activities, budget, payments etc. that would benefit of the MA’s guidance?  
• Are there any thoughts relating for example to empowering of activities for more effective results that would benefit of the MA’s prior opinion?  
• Are there any questions relating to partnership or visibility where the consultation could help?  

CONSULTATION DATES AND VENUES  

(1,5 hours per meeting, local time)  

Saint Petersburg 15. and 16. October 2019 (BO premises)
Finland House | South-East Finland – Russia CBC Programme
Bolshaya Konjushennaya str. 8 B 202, 191186 St. Petersburg RUSSIA

Lappeenranta 17. and 18. October 2019 (MA premises)
South-East Finland – Russia CBC Programme
Regional Council of South Karelia | Etelä-Karjalan liitto
Kauppakatu 40 D, 1. floor, 53100 Lappeenranta FINLAND  

HOW TO BOOK AN APPOINTMENT?  

Booking is closed on 8.10.2019. Next consultation days will take place in Spring 2020.

Executive director 
Kotka Maritime Research Association, Finland 

Anna Kiiski is a long-range professional when it comes to the international and cross-border cooperation, particularly in maritime safety and logistics and research of environmental impacts. As of 2005, she has worked with TEMPUS and ENPI CBC co-funded projects at the University of Helsinki (then Palmenia Centre for Research and Continuing Education) as the Environment Planner and in 2013, she joined the Kotka Maritime Research Centre (link) (later Merikotka). 

Today Anna leads Merikotka, which was founded in December 2005 by the initiative of the City of Kotka. All operations are based on academic research of leading Finnish universities and supported by the large consortium of national actors whom core expertise serve maritime related research, development and innovations. As the Executive Director of Kotka Maritime Research Association, an organization behind the Merikotka, Anna’s days are filled with organisational management and keeping up the dialog with the stakeholders and various networks. She is also committed to ensure that work done in the Merikotka is shared within the expert communities and for the wide audience.  

 

These efforts have paid off. Of all the project proposals, which Merikotka has submitted to the different financing instruments in 2018 (such as SRC funding, Horizon 2020, Baltic Sea Region, BONUS, ENI CBC, Central Baltic and ERDF programmes) 50 % has been successful and received grant. A good result does not come without hard work. As an average, one finalized project proposal with numerous contacts and meetings with the stakeholders and partners takes one year. On the other hand, especially Finnish-Russian project initiatives benefit of long-term relations with the partners and joint preparation have found fluent ways.  

The Research Association is an experienced lead partner and has managed many international cross-border cooperation projects, for example WINOIL, TOPCONS and RESCOP during the previous period and recently granted INFUTURE and SIMREC (link to Merikotka projects). What is currently new is that in the CBC project GET READY (link), the Association’s experts have an opportunity to learn what it is to be a partner.  

 

 

Eyes on future 

Based on her own experiences, Anna wish to encourage young students interested on maritime and environment topics and gives good tips for the future professionals. Skill to combine academic work with the sense of understanding social environment and civil society is a valuable asset. For example, in Merikotka the will to embrace interdisciplinary working environment is really the basis in all positions. Cross-border cooperation, particularly with the Russian partners is exciting and interesting and open-minded persons manage well, even without language or cultural knowledge as a starting point. As Anna points out, “Academe meeting business may sometimes create challenges, and young researchers can face also dispute on their work. Learning interaction skills, and even the difficult situations may turn into fruitful experiences”. 

What is also interesting, is that the Merikotka has ambitious plans to widen the scope of maritime sustainability research. Upcoming years strengthen two viewpoints in their core fields of activities; role of human activities and financial/business aspects relating to the maritime safety and logistics and environmental impacts.  

New content needs also new partners, and Merikotka is widening its contacts. Opportunities to carry out high quality work at the European Union’s external border needs also financial resources, and there for the post 2020 period in the South-East Finland – Russia programme area is more that welcomed. Maritime cooperation at the Gulf of Finland benefits most of Finnish – Russian – Estonian cooperation and possibilities for the partner consortiums involving all three countries would guarantee also the best results.  

Editor: Sari Loisa