The 2nd Call for Proposals focussed on two specific objectives under the Priority Axis 2 “Sustainable Region” which is suited to promote the main landmarks of the ADRION Programme area as well as to support the conservation of its cultural heritage sites and natural elements (i.e. Adriatic, Ionian and Aegean Seas, Alps, islands, Danube plain). In details, the two specific objectives (SO) aimed to:

SO 2.1 Promote the sustainable valorization and preservation of natural and cultural heritage as growth assets in the Adriatic-Ionian area.

SO 2.2 Enhance the capacity in transnationally tackling environmental vulnerability, fragmentation, and the safeguarding of ecosystem services in the Adriatic-Ionian area.

The specific objective 2.1, dedicated to the valorisation of natural and cultural heritage, received most of the applications, 125 out of 186. This trend highlights the interest of all Partner States in the sustainable use of natural and cultural resources, especially through tourism, as a way to increase growth within the Programme area. On the other side, 61 project proposals were submitted under the specific objective 2.2 dedicated to tackle environmental vulnerability and risks. The SO 2.2 seeks to reduce the impact of climate change and the high exposure to natural hazards (i.e. floods, earthquakes, droughts) by promoting low emissions activities and improving the protection of maritime and terrestrial biodiversity and habitats.
You can see below the number of project proposals submitted and the share of each topic.

STRONG PARTICIPATION BY MANY STAKEHOLDERS BASED IN THE PROGRAMME AREA

Preliminary data show the participation of a wide number of organisations, proving great interest for the topics covered by this second call. Overall, 1.805 applicants are involved in the project proposals (considering all data entries) and it is assumed that ca 1.300 institutions/stakeholders participated to the call.
As per call’s rules, only EU Members States of the Programme area, namely Croatia, Greece, Italy and Slovenia could apply as lead partner. Most of the applications were submitted by Italy as Lead Partner, followed by Greece. As far as IPA Partner States are concerned, Albania is the most represented country- involving 210 partners, followed by Serbia (147 partners).
Here below you can see how active each Partner States was during the call.

LOCATION OF LEAD APPLICANTS

LOCATION OF LEAD AND PROJECT PARTNERS

                                     
THE FULL SPECTRUM OF ALL PROGRAMME’S TARGET GROUPS REPRESENTED

Among all the applicants, the biggest share of the participants consists of public institutions, among which local public authorities and higher education and research institutes are the most represented type of organisations. Regional authorities have also applied significantly. On the other hand, approximately one third of the applicants comes from the private sector which includes mainly SMEs, associations and NGOs, enterprises and business support organisations. According to the eligible rules of the call, partnerships had to include minimum 6 organisations from at least 4 different EU Partner and 2 different IPA Partner States of the Programme.

In addition, project proposals could include “Associated Partners” which are not necessarily based in the Programme area and are involved with an observer or associated status without financially contributing to the project. In this call, 594 organisations are present as Associated Partners coming from 18 countries.

AVAILABLE FUNDS FOR THE SELECTED PROJECTS

The overall call budget is of ca. MEUR 34,3, out of which MEUR 29,2 ERDF fund and MEUR 5,1 of IPA II fund. The total requests received by the applicants exceeds largely the funds at Programme disposal, as the overall financial requests reached MEUR 312.304.876,79, nine times higher the available resources.

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

The Adrion Programme launched the opening of the 2nd Call for Proposals on 26 March 2018 through two main events held in Tirana on 11th April, gathering 250 stakeholders, and in Zagreb on 25 April, getting together 200 people. A total of 11 Info Days took place in each Partner States organized by National Contact Points. Interested parties had also the opportunity to search for partners through dedicated online forums.
The topics selected for this 2nd Call for Proposals mirrored the results of a gap-analysis jointly carried out by the ADRION Managing Authority and Joint Secretariat, following the outcomes of the Programme 1st Call for Proposals. Since the analysis reported the presence of thematic areas weakly or not at all covered by the approved projects, the 2nd Call targeted those topics not enough developed under the previous funded operations, as well as topics selected by the EUSAIR Thematic Groups.
The submitted applications will undergo eligibility checks and full quality assessment in the next months, further to that the best transnational projects will be approved for funding by the Monitoring Committee and start to implement their activities.

Original Article with more information