Education and Training

Operational procedures and

reporting

Civil Society Coordinators' Meeting

Cristina CAMAIANI, Project Adviser

Education and Training

Presentation overview

Legal documents – the Framework Partnership Agreement and the Specific Grant Agreement

Actors

Monitoring

Amendments

Reporting

Renewal of the Specific Grant Agreements in 2016 & 2017

Education and Training

Legal Documents:

the Framework Partnership Agreement

Mono-beneficiary: "Partner in the FPA" Subject of the partnership: long-term cooperation to: contribute to the objectives of the Programme and implement the Strategic Plan (Art I.1.1)

Duration of the partnership: 3 years (Art I.2)

Conclusion of Specific Agreements: To award a specific grant to carry out the annual work

programme, specific annual agreements will be proposed to the partners (Art I.1.3)

Education and Training

Legal Documents:

the Framework Partnership Agreement

Annexes:

I. The strategic plan described in the application

II. General Conditions:

Part A - Legal and Administrative provisions

Part B – Financial provisions

III. Model Specific Grant Agreement

IV.V.VI Activity report, financial statement & supporting

documents available on:

http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-plus/beneficiaries-space_en

Education and Training

Legal Documents:

the Specific Grant Agreement

Subject: for the implementation of the annual work programme (Art 1)

Eligibility period: from 01/01/2015 until 31/12/2015 (Art 2)

(No extension of the eligibility period is allowed for OG: Art II.12)

Max amount and form of the grant (based on Unit costs) (Art 3)

Reporting periods, payments and supporting documents (Art 4)

(A final activity report, including the final financial statement & Declaration of

Honour, with all supporting documents should be submitted within 2 months

following the end of eligibility period: 29/02/2016)

Annexes:

Annex I: Annual Work Programme of the beneficiary (ref: application)

Annex II: Estimated budget (ref: application)

Education and Training

Main Actors

"The Beneficiary" (Specific Grant Agreement) =

"The Partner" (Framework Partnership Agreement)

EACEA

European Commission (DG EAC)

Education and Training

The legal representative:

• Signs all legal documents (grant agreement, amendment requests, reports, etc.)

• Is accountable for financial management • Signs contracts / agreements with other organisations Contact person

• Manages daily communication from and to the Agency

• Is responsible for the implementation of the WP

• Manages the work programme and members' work

• Monitors the budget, controls the costs and the justifying documents

"The Beneficiary"

Education and Training

EACEA

•Responsible for general management of the programmes, including:

• Calls, selection, contracts, monitoring & payments

Project adviser:

- Performs continuous monitoring of the beneficiary, including participation and involvement to events, conferences & seminars

- acts as helpdesk during the grant lifetime

- Responsible for assessment of final reports' operational parts

Financial officer:

- Acts as helpdesk concerning financial matters

- Responsible for assessment of final reports' financial parts

Commission and EACEA - Partners with complementary roles

Policy Programme implementation

- DG EAC

• Policy documents • Programme definition • Call Priorities • Committees • Impact analysis

• Management of centralised actions

• Whole project life-cycle • Results & feedback

• ~450 staff • Based in Brussels

Management of decentralised actions via National Agencies

Education and Training

Projects Life Cycle

Education and Training

Monitoring visits: positive findings

Expert’s recommendations at selection stage followed

Clear management structure and division of tasks

Good internal/external communication

Web page as a dynamic tool for dissemination and promotion

Highly engaged target groups and stakeholders

Education and Training

Monitoring visits: negative findings

Delays in work plan

Poor dissemination plan-weak implementation of dissemination strategy

No compliance with publicity obligations and visibility clause (Art. 7.2 of the Specific Grant Agreement and II.7 of the

Framework Partnership Agreement)

No internal quality control / evaluation mechanisms

Education and Training

Amendments Some flexibility may be necessary as a reaction to a situation or as an initiative to add value to the work programme implementation

Submission of the request:

Who? Beneficiary – request duly signed by the Legal Representative

How? Requests should be duly justified - Modifications should be detailed

When? Modifications should be introduced before they take place and at least one month before the end of the eligibility period (30/11/2015).

(Art. II.12 of the FPA)

Where? To the Agency – the relevant Unit responsible for the action, mentioned in the Specific Grant Agreement (Art. I.3. of the FPA)

Education and Training

Amendments

Changes via the Participation Portal

http://ec.europa.eu/education/participants/portal/desktop/en/organisations/register.html

a) Change of the legal status of the beneficiary

b) Change of legal name of the beneficiary organisation (but still the same organisation)

c) Change of address of the beneficiary

The Agency should be informed by e-mail when one of the 3 above mentioned modification is made via the Participation Portal.

The Agency will ensure that the change(s) introduced is in line with the eligibility and selection criteria of the Call, originally applied.

After this verification, the Agency will confirm by letter that the change(s) was introduced in the Participant Portal by the beneficiary and that has been accepted

Education and Training

Amendments Changes via exchange of letters

a) Change of the legal representative

b) Change of contact person

For changes of legal representative and contact person it is sufficient:

A scanned letter, signed by the legal representative with all the contact details of the new legal representative or contact person, together with an official document confirming the capability of the new legal representative (e.g. statutes and minutes of the Board) should be sent by email only to the Agency.

The Agency will confirm that the change(s) has been accepted.

c) Change of bank account

d) Change to the work programme

For changes of bank account and work programme, a specific amendment form should be sent with the scanned letter and the requested annexes.

The amendment form and guidelines will be available on:

http://eacea.ec.europa.eu/erasmus-plus/beneficiaries-space_en

Education and Training

Reporting: Purpose of the reports For the beneficiary: Measure the state of progress of planned activities Adopt solutions to improve certain aspects Improve the visibility of the organisation in the wider community Reinforce the dissemination strategy For the Agency: Overall evaluation on the activities' outcomes, their impact and European

added value Decision on the final payment Identification of good practices or of organisations needing following up in

the future Feedback to the Commission for policy-making

Education and Training

Phases in processing the reports

•Submission to the Agency: report must reach the Agency

not later than the date mentioned in the grant agreement (Art. 4

of SPA & Art II.23.2) (29/02/2016) signed by the Legal

Representative, with all requested documentation provided

•Analysis of the Report

•Request for supplementary information on content or

financial matters if necessary

•Decision on final payment and feedback on the report to

the beneficiary including recommendations from the Agency, no

later than 60 days after submission of the report (excluding

suspension for additional information)

Education and Training

Structure of the final report

Operational part

A. PUBLIC PART

Relevance to objectives & strategic plan

Work programme, activities & outcomes

Dissemination and exploitation results

Impact

Operational part

B. CONFIDENTIAL PART

Implementation of the work programme

Overall Management of the WP:

Staff

Statutory activities

Internal Communication

Information about the evolution of the organisation

other information Financial Statement

Declaration of Honour by the Beneficiary

Education and Training

Final Reports

Relevance to objectives & strategic plan

• How activities implemented are relevant to the objectives of the Call and to your strategic plan?

Work Programme, Activities & Outcomes:

• Which were the activities performed, results reached and members' involvement?

• Has the work programme been implemented according to the original WP included in the application?

• Have variations been explained & duly justified?

Education and Training

Final Reports

Dissemination and exploitation results:

• How results have been processed to your stakeholders (dissemination) & used by policy makers, at local, regional, national and European level (exploitation)?

Impact:

• Which indicators were identified by your organisation to measure impact?

• Which was the internal monitoring strategy put in place?

Education and Training

Final Reports

Operating management of the organisation:

• Information about the staff involved in the work programme implementation and the statutory meetings organised.

• How was organised the networking with the member organisations? Has the coordination been effective in decision making and problem solving?

• How effective was the internal communication strategy?

• Any significant changes in the evolution of your organisation?

Education and Training

Common strengths and weaknesses

Weaknesses:

1. Inconsistency between the work programme realised and the WP presented in the application, significant

deviations not justified;

2. Impact too vague;

3. Dissemination activities not well targeted

Strengths:

1. Correct and consistent implementation of the work programme;

2. Participants/stakeholders used according to their competences with clear added value;

3. Specific and tangible impact indicators;

4. Well developed and targeted web-site

Education and Training

Renewal of the Specific Grant Agreements in 2016

Invitations to submit proposals for 2016, with Specific Guidelines, will be sent to the beneficiaries in autumn 2015.

Beneficiaries will have to fill in an eform (very similar to the 2015 application form) with a detailed work programme for 2016 in line with the strategic plan 2015-2017.

Max grant amount which can be requested for 2016 is the max grant awarded in 2015.

Applications will be assessed by the Agency and the Commission and an Award Decision will be taken.

Specific Grant Agreement will be proposed to the beneficiaries for 2016, (at the beginning of 2016)

For 2017, the same procedure applies.

Education and Training

Erasmus pages

Education and Training

THANK YOU!

Contact mailbox for Civil Society Operating Grants:

EACEA-CIVIL-EDU@ec.europa.eu