Grant Guidelines—Small, Standard and Strategic Grants

These guide­lines are meant to help with the prepa­ra­tion and sub­mit­ting of appli­ca­tion forms, as well as pro­cess­ing of approved grant projects (Small Grants, Standard Grants and the Visegrad Strategic Program). The doc­u­ment has the fol­low­ing structure:

1. PROJECT PREPARATION
2. APPLICATION FORM/PROJECT PROPOSAL
3. PROJECT SELECTION
4. CONTRACTUAL TERMS
5. PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION
6. REPORTING AND DISBURSEMENT

1. PROJECT PREPARATION

1.1 Applicant

Any legal entity or nat­ural per­son world­wide is eli­gi­ble for fund­ing, pro­vided that the given project bin­pro­posal deals with top­ics rel­e­vant to the Visegrad region and pro­motes coop­er­a­tion among project part­ners in the region. Preferences are given to appli­cants from non-governmental and non-profit orga­ni­za­tions, munic­i­pal­i­ties and local gov­ern­ments, pub­lic schools and uni­ver­si­ties, research and sci­en­tific bod­ies and pub­lic insti­tu­tions in gen­eral with the excep­tion of orga­ni­za­tions directly funded from a state budget—e.g. min­istries, cul­tural insti­tutes (Instytut Polski, České cen­trum, etc.).

1.2 Project partners

It is com­pul­sory to secure par­tic­i­pa­tion of sub­jects from at least three V4 coun­tries (an orga­nizer and at least two project part­ners); with the excep­tion of Cross-Border Cooperation where coop­er­a­tion of two coun­tries is suf­fi­cient (orga­nizer and a sin­gle project part­ner) and the Visegrad Strategic Program where all four V4 coun­tries must be rep­re­sented). Applicants are, how­ever, strongly encour­aged to involve project part­ners from all four Visegrad coun­tries. If coop­er­a­tion does not—or cannot—include all four par­ties, appli­cants are requested to give rea­sons. Similarly as with appli­cants, orga­ni­za­tions directly funded from state bud­get can­not be con­sid­ered valid project partners—e.g., min­istries, cul­tural insti­tutes (e.g. Slovenský inštitút, Magyar kul­turális intézet, etc.).

1.3 Project topic or the so-called “Visegrad feature”

There are no pref­er­ences as of con­tent of a given project. Each project topic shall, how­ever, con­tain a rea­son­able Visegrad fea­ture, i.e., the project must deal with the Visegrad Group coun­tries or with Central Europe and its peo­ples. Priority is given to projects that cre­ate com­mon added value rather to projects which sim­ply just involve part­ners from sev­eral countries.

1.4 Re-applying

Applicants may re-apply for grant sup­port at any point only if all their pre­vi­ous grant projects financed by the Fund have been fin­ished (i.e., their final reports have been duly approved by the Fund). The Visegrad Strategic Program is the only excep­tion; Strategic Grants can be imple­mented simul­ta­ne­ously with Small or Standard Grants.

1.5 Consulting the Fund

Applicants can freely con­sult the staff of the Fund in writ­ing (e-mail), by tele­phone or in per­son. Visitors to the Fund are kindly requested to make an appoint­ment. Unannounced vis­its or con­sul­ta­tions within 10 work­ing days of the given dead­line are dis­cour­aged.

1.6 FAQ I

• Can a pri­vate com­pany be an appli­cant?
  Any legal entity or nat­ural per­son can apply; pri­or­ity is, how­ever, given to pub­lic and non-profit institutions.
• Can I apply if I am not from the V4 region?
  Applicants from non-V4 coun­tries are eli­gi­ble no less than V4 appli­cants: their projects must, how­ever, have a clear “Visegrad fea­ture” (see para­graph 1.3) and involve part­ners from at least three V4 coun­tries (see para­graph 1.2). Applicants are, how­ever, strongly advised to involve project part­ners from all V4 countries.
• If I orga­nize a music fes­ti­val and invite bands and musi­cians from the V4 region—is it enough?
  It is always advised to strive for more than merely col­lect­ing artists from four coun­tries, who then per­form one by one. An added value is always wel­comed, let it be in the form of a joint per­for­mance (e.g., a jam ses­sion), or a sep­a­rate stage (e.g. a “Visegrad” stage within a big­ger festival).
• When can my project start?
  Theoretically, a project can start once it has been approved and the con­tract has been signed between the grantee and the Fund. Only those costs that occurred dur­ing a given con­trac­tual period are legit­i­mate and can be cov­ered by the Fund. This means that appli­cant should care­fully con­sider (1) the eval­u­a­tion period of projects (see para­graph 3.1) and (2) the nec­es­sary time for com­ple­tion of other con­trac­tual terms, such as project web­site, bank account, etc. (see para­graph 4).

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2. APPLICATION FORM/PROJECT PROPOSAL

2.1 Deadlines

English is the offi­cial lan­guage of the Visegrad coop­er­a­tion, as well as of the International Visegrad Fund—application forms, as well as all offi­cial cor­re­spon­dence with the Fund can be accepted only if in English.

The fol­low­ing are annual dead­lines for sub­mis­sion of Small Grants: 1 March, 1 June, 1 September and 1 December. The fol­low­ing are annual dead­lines for sub­mis­sion of Standard Grants: 15 March and 15 September (unless stip­u­lated oth­er­wise on the web­site and in the on-line appli­ca­tion sys­tem). The Visegrad Strategic Program has a sin­gle annual dead­line (30 March in 2012). Electronic appli­ca­tion forms shall be sub­mit­ted by 12:00 CET (noon) on given dead­line date. Hard-copy ver­sions (print­outs) with rel­e­vant accom­pa­ny­ing doc­u­men­ta­tion shall be either sent by reg­is­tered post on the same day at the lat­est or deliv­ered to the Fund per­son­ally by 16:30 CET.

2.2 Project categories

There are six cat­e­gories into which projects are divided. Applicants them­selves shall decide which cat­e­gory best fits the con­tent of their project. The fol­low­ing are the six cat­e­gories with exam­ple of con­crete project topics:

• cul­tural coop­er­a­tion (film and the­ater fes­ti­vals, exhi­bi­tions, publications)
• edu­ca­tion (sem­i­nars, edu­ca­tion workshops)
• sci­en­tific exchange and research (aca­d­e­mic work­shops, conferences)
• youth exchanges (sum­mer camps, school exchanges)
• cross-border coop­er­a­tion (site-specific, locally or region­ally rel­e­vant projects)—applicants and project part­ners can­not have their seats fur­ther than 80 km from given bor­der (projects in this cat­e­gory can involve two or three countries—see para­graph 2.9)
• pro­mo­tion of tourism (tourist por­tals or brochures, pro­mo­tion of con­crete sites)

2.3 On-line appli­ca­tion system

Application forms are avail­able through an on-line sys­tem at http://applications.visegradfund.org/. The sys­tem usu­ally opens 30 days prior to given dead­line. Applicants need to reg­is­ter with an exist­ing e-mail address to start a new appli­ca­tion form. Each form is then pass­word pro­tected and can there­fore be saved and edited later. Every appli­ca­tion form has its unique 8-digit num­ber (appli­ca­tion ID)—applicants shall use this num­ber when­ever com­mu­ni­cat­ing agenda related to the project.

2.4 Hard-copy ver­sion and accom­pa­ny­ing documentation

A hard-copy ver­sion of an appli­ca­tion form can be printed out from the sys­tem only once the on-line appli­ca­tion form has been sub­mit­ted. The fol­low­ing doc­u­ments must also be deliv­ered to the Fund in a sin­gle pack­age with the orig­i­nal appli­ca­tion form (sep­a­rately deliv­ered doc­u­ments can­not be considered):

• orig­i­nal let­ters of intent (see para­graph 2.5)
• copies of ID or reg­is­tra­tion doc­u­ments of the appli­cant and project part­ners (see para­graph 2.6)
• copies of con­fir­ma­tions about co-financing (copies or scans of doc­u­ments prov­ing other con­firmed finan­cial con­tri­bu­tions to the project from other donors or sponsors)

2.5 Letters of intent

Letters of intent are an impor­tant part of the application—they doc­u­ment the project part­ners and describe their con­crete role in it. There is no tem­plate for such letters—the statu­tory rep­re­sen­ta­tive of the part­ner orga­ni­za­tion (or the nat­ural per­son) should for­mally declare their inten­tion to actively par­tic­i­pate in the project and briefly describe their role in it. They can also describe their expe­ri­ence with the appli­cant from their pre­vi­ous coop­er­a­tion. The let­ters must:

• be orig­i­nal doc­u­ments—copies or scans can­not be accepted
• be printed on an offi­cial let­ter­head paper (where applic­a­ble)
• be writ­ten in English
• refer to the project by its offi­cial name (as reg­is­tered in the appli­ca­tion form)
• signed by the project partner’s statu­tory rep­re­sen­ta­tive (or by nat­ural per­son if the project part­ner is not a legal entity)
• deliv­ered to the Fund as part of the appli­ca­tion form (sep­a­rate sub­mis­sion can­not be considered)
• dated no ear­lier than 3 months prior to a given deadline

2.6 Identification documents

Copies of iden­ti­fi­ca­tion doc­u­ments shall con­firm to the Fund the legal sta­tus of the appli­cant and of the project part­ners. The ID doc­u­ments of V4 appli­cants are accepted in the orig­i­nal lan­guages; non-V4 appli­cants attach an English trans­la­tion of such doc­u­ments (unof­fi­cial trans­la­tions are acceptable).

If the appli­cant or project part­ner is an orga­ni­za­tion (legal entity), the ID doc­u­ment must have the form of an abstract (print­out, scan or copy) from rel­e­vant reg­istry which is not older than 3 months (see below). The abstract must con­tain the fol­low­ing data:

• name of the organization
• seat of the organization
• ID num­ber—tax number/registration num­ber (e.g. IČO, DIČ, adószám, NIP, REGON, etc.)
• legal form
• name of the statu­tory rep­re­sen­ta­tive (can be a sep­a­rate doc­u­ment, e.g. a nom­i­na­tion decree)

Such doc­u­ments have the form of an abstract from rel­e­vant reg­istry (national sta­tis­ti­cal office, dis­trict court, inte­rior min­istry, etc.) and can­not be older than 3 months—see the fol­low­ing links:

• http://registry.czso.cz/irsw/
• http://portal.ksh.hu/ (http://portal.ksh.hu/pls/portal/vb.teaor_main.gszr_main1)
• http://www.stat.gov.pl/regon/ or http://krs.ms.gov.pl
• http://www.statistics.sk/pls/wregis/dotaz

If the appli­cant or project part­ner is not an orga­ni­za­tion (nat­ural per­sons), they doc­u­ment their sta­tus with a copy of a valid ID card (e.g. passport).

2.7 Budget

A well-planned bud­get shall be sim­ple and real­is­tic. The bud­get should include approx­i­ma­tions of project’s future expen­di­tures in EUR (€) based on aver­age prices in the region. Applicants shall use the aver­age exchange rates avail­able at the given national bank.

When plan­ning the bud­get, it is impor­tant to adhere to the fol­low­ing list of eli­gi­ble cost cat­e­gories (i.e., costs that can be cov­ered by the Fund):

1. Printing and pub­lish­ing, deliv­ery of the printed/published materials
2. Rent of premises and related tech­ni­cal services
3. Fees for artists
4. Fees for experts
5. Accommodation and board
6. Transportation costs
7. Translations and interpreting costs
8. Awards and prizes
9. Office sup­plies and pro­mo­tional material
10. Public rela­tions costs (adver­tising, promotion)
11. Website design and update
12. Overhead costs—max. 5% of the granted sum (see point 12 in para­graph 6.4)

The fol­low­ing costs can­not be covered:

1. cap­i­tal investments
2. applicant’s own indi­rect costs (e.g. util­i­ties, tele­phone bills)
3. inter­nal costs (rent of one’s own premises, accom­mo­da­tion in one’s own premises, one’s own work)
4. salaries or finan­cial remu­ner­a­tion of employ­ees (or any expenses related employ­ment based on the labor code, includ­ing allowances and part-time work, per-diems, etc.)

2.8 Calendar—project phases and list of events

The cal­en­dar shall include as many details as avail­able to the appli­cant at the time. Project phases refer to dis­tinct phases or peri­ods from the start of the project (prepa­ra­tion) to the imple­men­ta­tion and set­tle­ment and con­clu­sion. If a project gets approved, the list of events becomes a cru­cial tool for the grantee to keep the Fund up-to-date with all project activ­i­ties, be it pub­lic events or closed ses­sions (please see para­graph 5.1 for more details).

2.9 FAQ II

• Applicants from which coun­tries can par­tic­i­pate in the cross-border projects?
  The fol­low­ing two-country com­bi­na­tions are pos­si­ble: Czech-Polish, Czech-Slovak, Hungarian-Slovak and Polish-Slovak; and the fol­low­ing three-country projects are pos­si­ble: Czech-Polish-German, Czech-Slovak-Austrian, Polish-Slovak-Ukrainian, Hungarian-Slovak-Austrian and Hungarian-Slovak-Ukrainian.
• Which types of projects fit in the cross-border coop­er­a­tion cat­e­gory?
  They must involve project part­ners from the bor­der areas and must be locally or region­ally spe­cific (e.g. map­ping endan­gered species in the Tatras could be an exam­ple of a Polish-Slovak project).

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3. PROJECT SELECTION

3.1 Evaluation period

Evaluation period lasts up to 40 work­ing days (ca. 2 months) after given dead­line in the case of Small Grants and up to 50 work­ing days (ca. 2½ months) in the cases of Standard and Strategic Grants. Applicants shall take this into account when plan­ning project events, as no project can be sched­uled to start before its prospec­tive approval.

3.2 Selection criteria

Every project is care­fully reviewed on its own as well as in the con­text of other projects within a given dead­line (espe­cially among projects with sim­i­lar topic). Preference is given to those projects which develop civil soci­ety, pro­mote coop­er­a­tion across bor­ders and cul­tures and, last but not least, have Visegrad added value (see 1.3).

3.3 Approval/Rejection

Selection com­mit­tee is called for each dead­line by the Fund’s Executive Director. The Executive Director makes his/her rec­om­men­da­tions based on the dis­cus­sion within the Committee and passes the rec­om­men­da­tions to the Council of Ambassadors (the Council con­sists of ambas­sadors accred­ited in a coun­try in chair of the Fund and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of a given for­eign min­istry). The Council decides on the 40^th or 50^th work­ing day (see para­graph 3.1) at the lat­est when the final results are also pub­lished on the Fund’s web­site. Decisions made by the Council are final and shall present no grounds for any form of appeal, nor do they require any detailed reasoning.

3.4 Announcement of results

A list approved projects within a dead­line is pub­lished on the web­site of the Fund on the day of the approval by the Council of Ambassadors. All applicants—whose projects were approved or rejected—are also informed by e-mail.

3.5 FAQ III

• Who picks the projects?
  Selection com­mit­tee is called for each dead­line by the Fund’s Executive Director. The com­mit­tee com­prises mem­bers of the Fund’s sec­re­tariat. The Executive Director makes his/her rec­om­men­da­tions to the Council of Ambassadors (the Council con­sists of ambas­sadors accred­ited in a coun­try in chair of the Fund and rep­re­sen­ta­tives of a given for­eign min­istry). The Council decides on the 50^th work­ing day (or 40^th in case of Small Grants) at the lat­est when the final results are also pub­lished on the Fund’s web­site (see para­graph 3.4).

• What is the pro­por­tion between approved and dis­missed projects? What are my chances?
  There is no direct answer to this ques­tion as each dead­line and pro­gram is dif­fer­ent. Generally about one third of appli­cants receive support.

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4. CONTRACTUAL TERMS

The con­tract between the grantee and the Fund is con­cluded once the grantee has ful­filled the fol­low­ing con­di­tions: (1) set­ting up a sep­a­rate bank account which will serve the pur­poses of the project; (2) set­ting up a project web­site (see para­graph 4.2); and (3) accep­tance of the con­tract draft by the grantee.

4.1 Bank account

Every grantee shall set up a sep­a­rate bank account (or a sub-account) for the pur­poses of the project and inform the Fund of the fact. Such bank account can be an already exist­ing account—all oper­a­tions con­ducted on the account dur­ing the con­trac­tual period must be, how­ever, related only to the project. The bank account must be avail­able within 20 work­ing days (ca. 1 month) after the approval of a project.

4.2 Project website

Project web­site must be set up and made avail­able within 20 work­ing days (ca. 1 month) after the approval of a project and must be active for at least the whole con­trac­tual period. Each project web­site must have its own address. Alternatively such web­site can have the form of a sub-site within an exist­ing web­site, or a web­site on a social net­work­ing site. Each project web­site must con­tain the logo of the Fund with a direct link to the Fund’s web­site (www.visegradfund.org), as well as direct links to the web­sites of all project partners.

4.3 Contractual period

The max­i­mum time frame for each Small Grant project is 6 months, for Standard Grant project 12 months and for Strategic Grants the time frame is between 12 and 36 months. After the imple­men­ta­tion period of a project (i.e., the period dur­ing which the project as such takes place) there are addi­tional 20 work­ing days (ca. 1 month) dur­ing which the grantee shall final­ize and sub­mit the final report. Each project is suc­cess­fully con­cluded only after the Fund’s approval of a given final report—within 30 addi­tional work­ing days (ca. 1½ month).

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5. PROJECT IMPLEMENTATION

Once approved each grantee shall remain in con­tact with the Fund through the on-line sys­tem. All offi­cial cor­re­spon­dence (ques­tions, com­ments, requests for pro­lon­ga­tions of up to 60 work­ing days) must be con­ducted through the sys­tem: e-mail cor­re­spon­dence or tele­phony is pos­si­ble but can­not be con­sid­ered in case of dis­putes. All con­trac­tual changes (i.e., pro­lon­ga­tions longer than 60 work­ing days, changes of project part­ners, etc.) must be requested in writing—i.e., on let­ter­head paper with the sig­na­ture of the statu­tory representative.

5.1 Calendar of events

The list of events is a cru­cial tool for com­mu­ni­cat­ing progress of a project between the grantee and the Fund. It is nec­es­sary to keep all events up-to-date since the cal­en­dar serves the pur­pose of project eval­u­a­tion and extends the pub­lic rela­tions of an event as the entries get pub­lished on the Fund’s website.

Exact dates and times of events need to be in the list of events, as well as venues where events take place (indi­cat­ing street and city is the minim5um requirement).

5.2 Press releases

Grantees are obliged to pre­pare at least one press release per project. Press releases shall be sub­mit­ted in the on-line sys­tem at least 3 days prior to given event and dis­sem­i­nated to the media (as planned in the “Planned PR activ­i­ties” sec­tion of the appli­ca­tion form). Press releases serve the Fund for the pur­poses of project eval­u­a­tion and enable media and pub­lic over­sight over projects.

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6. REPORTING AND DISBURSEMENT

6.1 Project disbursement—Tranches

Grants are dis­bursed in two or three tranches. The num­ber and vol­ume of tranches is decided dur­ing the eval­u­a­tion process and spec­i­fied in the con­tract. The rule is that Small Grants are paid in two tranches while Standard or Strategic Grants in two or three tranches.

The first tranche is trans­ferred to the grantee within 15 work­ing days after  the deliv­ery of the signed con­tract to the Fund. Subsequent tranches are dis­bursed upon the deliv­ery and approval of com­plete and duly pre­pared interim/final reports and finan­cial set­tle­ments. Before sub­mit­ting these reports—i.e., before claim­ing the sec­ond tranche—grantees are  requested to have uti­lized approx­i­mately 4/5 (or 80%) of the first tranche.

The last tranche makes usu­ally about 20% of the grant’s total sum. The sum of the last tranche must be first cov­ered from the grantee’s resources and gets reim­bursed only after the approval of the final report and the finan­cial settlement.

6.2 Interim and final reports

The interim and final reports are to be deliv­ered to the Fund by the dead­lines stip­u­lated in the con­tract. Both interim and final reports con­sist of (1) the report and (2) the finan­cial set­tle­ment. Please note that the report must always be accom­pa­nied by the finan­cial settlement—they must be sent together (both signed by statu­tory representative). Processing of the reports by the Fund may take up to 30 work­ing days.

6.3 Financial settlement—General require­ments for all costs

Financial set­tle­ment con­sists of an overview of expen­di­tures within a project accom­pa­nied by (1) copies of rel­e­vant finan­cial doc­u­ments (invoices, receipts, bills, con­tracts), (2) print­out of the com­plete bank state­ment or all petty-cash vouch­ers (for cash pay­ments) and any other addi­tional doc­u­ments (as stip­u­lated in para­graph 6.4). Grantees are kindly requested to num­ber all finan­cial doc­u­ments (invoices, bills, etc.) with cor­re­spond­ing num­bers used in the Financial set­tle­ment table. It is also rec­om­mended to sort finan­cial doc­u­ments chronologically.

6.4 Financial set­tle­ment—Additional require­ments for spe­cific types of costs

All costs claimed for reim­burse­ment must be doc­u­mented by cor­re­spond­ing finan­cial doc­u­ment (invoice, receipt, bill, con­tract); below please find spe­cific require­ments for each cost cat­e­gory which are addi­tional to the gen­eral require­ments in para­graph 6.3:

1. Printing and publishing/Delivery of printed mate­ri­als:
   sam­ples of the printed mate­ri­als con­tain­ing the Fund’s logo (books, mag­a­zines, posters, bul­letins, etc.);
2. Rent of premises and related tech­ni­cal services/Entrance fees:
   copies of invoices where avail­able; in case of entrance fees the entrance tick­ets as such will suf­fice;
3. Fees for artists/Copyrights:
   contracts/invoices regard­ing the ser­vice or pur­chase; con­tracts can­not be based on Labor Code;
4. Accommodation and board:
   list of par­tic­i­pants and detailed invoice with the fol­low­ing infor­ma­tion: the pro­vided board, prices (costs per unit, e.g. 1 lunch, 1 person/night) and dates;
5. Transportation costs:
   trans­porta­tion costs reim­burse­ment sheet (avail­able on the Fund’s web­site); copy of inter­nal trans­porta­tion costs doc­u­ment (where avail­able); copy of vehi­cle reg­is­tra­tion doc­u­ments; invoices or copies of tick­ets and/or orig­i­nal board­ing passes (where available);
6. Fees for experts (pro­fes­sional con­trib­u­tors):
   contracts/invoices regard­ing the ser­vice not ruled by Labor Code;
7. Translation and inter­pret­ing costs:
   contracts/invoices; sam­ples of trans­lated texts (print­outs or dig­i­tal copies);
8. Awards and prizes:
   brief report on the award-giving (list of awarded per­sons includ­ing their names, sig­na­tures and dates);
9. Office supplies/Consumption and pro­mo­tional mate­ri­als:
   sam­ples of each item with the Fund’s logo (T-shirts, bags, CDs/DVDs, USB sticks and other gad­gets, etc.);
10. Advertising and pro­mo­tion:
    sam­ples of the adver­tise­ments in the print media, dig­i­tal copies of audio­vi­sual adver­tise­ments or on-line ban­ners, pho­tos of billboards;
11. Website design and update:
    full web­site link (URL);
12. Overhead costs (max. 5% of the granted sum):
    Grantees do not need to account for the “over­heads”, but must record these costs in their account­ing sys­tem. The “over­heads” must be trace­able and ver­i­fi­able in case of finan­cial audit. Also, over­head pay­ments must be car­ried through the project bank account (trans­ferred to other accounts or with­drawn).
    

6.5 Frequent mistakes

The fol­low­ing are fre­quently made mis­takes in the finan­cial set­tle­ment (FS):

• miss­ing com­pul­sory doc­u­ments (i.e., FS table, Final report, copies of invoices, etc.)
• miss­ing pay­ment doc­u­men­ta­tion, i.e., a print­out of bank state­ment (non-cash pay­ments) or petty-cash voucher (cash payments)
• FS table and/or Final/Interim reports not signed by the grantee’s statu­tory representative
• sub­mit­ting FS with all project costs (not nec­es­sary), not only those cov­ered by the Fund
• sub­mit­ting FS with bank order/-s instead of bank statement/-s
• late sub­mis­sion of FS
• sub­mit­ting incom­plete doc­u­ments (miss­ing addi­tional required doc­u­ments, such as the list of par­tic­i­pants, sam­ples of trans­lated texts, orig­i­nal travel tick­ets or board­ing passes, etc.)—see para­graph 6.4
• improp­erly filled finan­cial table
• request­ing reim­burse­ments of more than 70% of total project costs
• request­ing reim­burse­ments of non-eligible costs
• request­ing reim­burse­ments of goods for long-term use (e.g. books, etc.)
• request­ing reim­burse­ments of brutto amounts while being a VAT payer
• sub­mit­ting unac­cept­able finan­cial doc­u­ments (inter­nal invoices, con­tracts ruled by the Labor Code, etc.)
• sub­mit­ting invoices or con­tracts with insuf­fi­cient descrip­tion of the deliv­ered goods or services
• miss­ing logo of the Fund in the print or other pro­mo­tional materials
• wrong pay­ment dates (pay­ment dates must cor­re­spond to the pay­ment confirmations)
• wrong EUR exchange rate (the exchange rate must adhere to that of the respec­tive national bank on the day of FS preparation)
• exceed­ing the 10% or 20% cash limit

6.6 Project conclusion

Project is deemed con­cluded only when two con­di­tions are fulfilled—(1) approval of the final report and (2) dis­burse­ment of the last tranche. Project is con­cluded only once the final report (i.e. its nar­ra­tive part and the finan­cial set­tle­ment) is approved by the Fund and the last tranche is trans­fered onto the grantee’s bank account.

6.7 FAQ IV

• Which types of costs can­not be cov­ered from a grant?
  The grant can­not be used to cover the fol­low­ing costs (for a list of eli­gi­ble cost cat­e­gories please see para­graph 2.7): cap­i­tal investments, internal costs (e.g. rent­ing one’s own premises), VAT refunds, or one’s own inter­nal indi­rect costs or run­ning costs (e.g. util­ity bills, project coor­di­na­tion or account­ing) exceed­ing 5% of the granted sum (the over­head costs).
• What are over­head costs?
  Overhead costs refer to any indi­rect or oper­at­ing costs linked to the project (e.g. project coor­di­na­tion, one’s own work on the project or other run­ning expenses)—the Fund’s limit per grant is 5% of the granted sum. Overhead costs do not need to be doc­u­mented through invoices, receipts or bills; these costs should only be described in the finan­cial settlement.
• Are cash oper­a­tions allowed?
  Bank trans­ac­tions (wire trans­fers) are rec­om­mended, where pos­si­ble. Cash oper­a­tions are pos­si­ble but are lim­ited to 20% in the case of Small Grants and 10% in the cases of Standard or Strategic Grants.
• Which cur­rency shall I use when fill­ing out the FS table?
  Use the cur­rency of the project bank account.
• Which EUR exchange rate shall I use?
  Use the mid­dle exchange rate of the respec­tive national bank on the date of FS prepa­ra­tion. You may find the exchange rates on the web­sites of the banks: www.cnb.cz, www.mnb.hu, www.nbp.pl and www.nbs.sk.
• What do I do if I don’t use the whole advance pay­ment (the first tranche) by the end of the given project phase? Can I obtain fur­ther install­ments?
  You should spend around 80% of the first tranche before prepar­ing the interim report and claim­ing fur­ther funds (see para­graph 6.1).
  
• Are costs of non-V4 par­tic­i­pants refund­able?
  Yes, non-V4 par­tic­i­pants can have their costs refunded in up to 40% of each cost item.
• Does the finan­cial set­tle­ment have to include all project costs or only those cov­ered by the Fund?
  FS shall con­tain only those costs that are (to be) cov­ered by the Fund.
• Do we claim for reim­burse­ment only 70% of every sin­gle cost?
  No, the 70% limit applies to the sum of all project costs, i.e., the Fund can cover up to 100% of all your accom­mo­da­tion costs, etc., but in sum max. 70% of total project costs. As a rule, the less invoices or other finan­cial doc­u­ments one sub­mits, the eas­ier the settlement.
• Can we claim for reim­burse­ments the costs of prepa­ra­tion of the appli­ca­tion form, its trans­la­tion into English and the project account­ing?
  No, such costs are your inter­nal costs and can­not be refunded. You may, how­ever, use the over­head costs to cover such expenses.
  
• Can food vouch­ers be reim­bursed?
  No, food vouch­ers, as well as per-diems are non-eligible costs. The only way to cover board or cater­ing is through a sep­a­rate invoice.
• Whom can we con­sider an “expert” to cover their fees?
  Expert is a per­son who con­tributes to the project with his/her pro­fes­sional work (research, study, lec­ture, etc.). Contracts with experts can­not be ruled by Labor Code but only by other leg­is­la­ture, e.g. Commercial or Civic Code. This means that salaries of the grantee’s employ­ees or his or her own work can­not be con­sid­ered expert work and refunded.
• Which invoices are inter­nal?
  Internal invoices are invoices issued by units within an orga­ni­za­tion (e.g. by fac­ul­ties or depart­ments within a sin­gle university)—but only those orga­ni­za­tions that oper­ate under the same ID num­ber. The Fund can­not refund any such costs, i.e., rent of one’s own premises, accom­mo­da­tion in one’s own hotel, etc.
• Can we claim for reim­burse­ment fuel con­sumed when using pri­vate car for busi­ness pur­poses?
  The Fund does not reim­burse bills for fuel as such. But when using pri­vate car for busi­ness pur­poses you can cal­cu­late the trans­porta­tion costs accord­ing to valid leg­is­la­ture in your coun­try (based on aver­age dis­tances and aver­age con­sump­tion for the given car). Use of offi­cial, com­pany cars can­not be refunded.

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