EU Funding – North West Regional Workshop

At a recent workshop on European Funding available to non-profit organisation, Emma Murtagh from The Wheel outlined some of the funds available, the capacity required of groups to apply to funds and gave a detailed view of the Town Twinning Fund – not to be confused with the Town Twinning you see on town and village signs across the country. The following article provides a very brief summary of the items raised and the presentations and documents related to the workshop – with full notes – are attached.Read more…

EU Funding – North West Regional Workshop

EU Funding supports projects that range from infrastructural to individual. Depending on the fund, they are applied for by governments, businesses, NGOs and groups. The general feedback when talking to people is that the process is complicated and that it’s difficult to know what’s out there.

On August 9th last a workshop on EU funding was held at the Glasshouse Hotel, Sligo. This workshop was aimed at community groups and jointly hosted by European Information Direct Centre (EDIC) Sligo in cooperation with Leitrim and Sligo PPNs.

Emma Murtagh is European Programmes Officer with The Wheel and it;s her job to deliver advice and training about acquiring and managing EU funded projects.

In Brief

1. European Remembrance;
2. Democratic Engagement and Civic Participation.

There are two rounds of applications for the fund each year with closing dates normally at the beginning of March and September. Current round closes on Sept 3rd at 11 am Irish Time. Let us know if your group is applying.

Applications for some of the funds are detailed and require European Partners. It was acknowledged that not all groups would have capacity to apply for some of the funds. If you are seeking partners, it is useful to register for a partner search and/or contact The Wheel, which acts as the National Contact Point in Ireland. If you don’t already know your proposed partner, A Town Twinning event can be a useful way to meet and get to know prosective partners and find out if you’re compatible.

Town Twinning – Europe for Citizens

This programme could rightly be named Citizens Exchange as it provides for visits of a minimum of 25 – 125 people to an event at a rate of €200 per person. Once an application has been approved, the grant is provided after the event and is linked to the number of people rather than how the funds were spent.

A few important considerations:

• the group applying has to be a legal entity – you may need another body to apply on your behalf;
• a letter of support/acknowledgement is required from the local authority;
• funds are paid after the event so you need to have capacity to cover the up front costs;
• the event must tie into the themes of Europe For Citizens.

Events can include sports, cultural, debates, arts, language events. They might focus on a specific group – such as youth or senior citizens – or they can be wide open to everyone.

As part of the workshop, Emma provided templates for thinking about EU funding. We split into groups to brainstorm what types of activities and events might come under the fund and how they fit into the themes. We also looked at the potential impacts of the events and how we might measure them. If you are considering applying for EU funding, you should go through these exercises. They provide a great background for considering and completing the application.

All the documents from the day are provided here.

Many thanks to Ultan McNasser from EDIC, Sligo and Sarah Wetherald, Sligo PPN for their work and cooperation. Also to Emma, The Wheel.

If you would like more information about Europe for Citizens and other EU funding,  you can contact Emma by phone at 01 454 8727 or by email: emma@wheel.ie.