According to the Guidelines for Applicants, section 2.2.1, an organization may submit or participate in a maximum of 1 (one) proposal under the 1st window, either as Applicant or Partner. An organization cannot participate in more than one proposal in any capacity. If an organization exceeds the allowed number of proposals, all of their proposals will be disqualified and will not proceed to the evaluation process.

Yes, if a proposal is not selected for funding in the 1st window, the Applicant can submit a proposal under the 2nd window. However, according to the Guidelines for Applicants, section 2.2.1, organizations selected for a grant under the 1st window, either as Applicants or Partners, are not eligible to apply for funding under the 2nd window projects.

The Guidlines for Applicants does not define a sustainability period. However, keep in mind that the 1st window aims to strengthen/create partnerships, cooperation mechanisms, intersectoral working procedures that are the foundation of durablee and sustainable approaches, adaptable to dynamic contexts.

Within the 1st window, it is mandatory that all projects include advocacy activities. These projects will ensure that NGOs continue to serve as relevant and effective counterparts to the government, business sector, labor unions, and public institutions in the decisionmaking process for national policies and reforms, thus securing the importance of the dialogue with the NGOs and preventing possible backsliding on the rule of law and democracy. Interventions should lead to sustainable changes such as the development of new/improved policies/legislation, the implementation of existing policies/legislation (e.g. by addressing underfunding or resistance to implementation), and positive shifts in public attitudes and practices.

The Concept Notes selected will be in accordance with the financial allocation available for each Thematic Area. Thus, only selected Concept Notes will enter the second stage of development of Full Proposals for financing. Only in exceptional circumstances can the process be stopped and Concept Notes will not be developed into Full Proposals and therefore not funded.

Within Thematic Area 2, it is mandatory that each project be approached on a single type of intervention according to the description. It is important to keep in mind that you can only submit a Concept Note (regardless of whether you are an Applicant or a Partner).

According to the information contained in the Guidelines for Applicants, Part B, Thematic Area 4 covers assistance to victims of violence (trafficking in human beings, gender-based violence, violence against children, etc.) and exemplifies contexts/types of violence that can be addressed. Within a project, different contexts/types of violence can be addressed together or separately, or other contexts/types of violence can be included depending on the intended impact, respectively the extent or degree of specificity of the intended impact. At the same time, two types of interventions are established, but a project can integrate, in its complexity, one or both of the described types. It is important to note that in the 1st Window, an organization can submit only one Concept Note, as an Applicant or Partner.

For the 2nd Window, two main areas are planned to be supported: 1) Civic involvement and advocacy – Advocacy actions and initiatives to increase citizen involvement and 2) Social inclusion and actions to empower vulnerable groups – Projects to support vulnerable groups. More details will be available on the Programme website www.romaniaelvetia.ro and in the Guidelines for Applicants for 2nd Window – small grants to be launched in autumn of 2025.

According to the Guidelines for Applicants, section 2.2, all projects supported in 1st Window must include communication campaigns (advocacy, awareness, information, etc.) and Capacity Bulding activities and commit to concrete results for them. In addition to advocacy and awareness activities, and to partnerships, projects may include other relevant, complementary or supporting activities. A weight is not defined or specified for the activities included in a project, neither in terms of duration, nor in terms of the number of people involved, results or in terms of allocated resources. The activities must be coherent, correlated with each other and contribute to the achievement of the corresponding Outcomes, outputs and indicators, as they are defined in the Guidelines for Applicants.

Projects supported under the 1st Window must address and strengthen the role of NGOs in relation to the development of new/improved policies/legislation, the implementation of existing policies/legislation (e.g. by addressing underfunding or resistance to implementation) and positive shifts in public attitudes and practices, in their field of activity and/or to create an improved environment for civic engagement. In this context, the expected results aim at initiating or participating in consultations with local, regional or national authorities, participating in the development/improvement of laws, policies and other public measures relevant to the field of activity and through civic involvement.

Partnerships with Swiss organizations are not mandatory, however they are encouraged and valued if they enhance cooperation and networking among NGOs.
Moreover, according to the grid used in the technical and financial evaluation, which can be found in the Guidelines for Applicants, section 3.1.2, a maximum of 3 points can be obtained if the project is proposed in partnership with a Swiss organization and thereby contributing to the overall strengthening of civil society in Romania.

Under the 1st window, the partnership is limited to other non-governmental and non-profit organization(s) in Romania and/or Switzerland. Partnership with public institutions is not eligible. However, the involvement of public institutions as Collaborators is encouraged, without them having an allocated budget within the project.

An organization that is part of a legally constituted federation, as a member thereof, may be a Partner in a project submitted by that federation if the federation’s statute does not have a restriction in this regard, and the organization meets, individually, the eligibility criteria for Partners found in section 2.1.2 of the Guideline for Applicants.

Partnerships with organizations in Switzerland are not mandatory, but are encouraged and appreciated if they contribute to improving cooperation and networking between NGOs.
Moreover, according to the grid used in the technical and financial evaluation stage, which can be found in the Guidlines for Applicants, in section 3.1.2, a maximum of 3 points can be obtained if the project is proposed in partnership with a Swiss organization and implicitly leads to strengthening the Swiss-Romanian cooperation.

At the moment we do not have a list of NGOs in Switzerland, but in order to help you with information, please send us an email with a more specific request and we will pass it on to the Consortium Partner, KEK-CDC, trying to get some useful information for you.

In the event that there is no person within the organization with experience in carrying out procurements, these services may be subcontracted to a company/self-employed person.

The position of financial manager is not mandatory for the Partner. The decision to include such a position in the budget must take into account the complexity of the project and the amount that the Partner will manage.

Within the Programme there will be available a procurement procedure that respects both national and European legislation.

In this case it refers to the VAT that can be recovered from the state budget through the VAT statement by the organization that received funding.

According to the information contained in the Guidelines for Applicants section 2.3.3, indirect costs are those eligible costs that cannot be directly attributed to the project. Indirect costs may include: part of the office costs – utilities, rent, mainatenance, part of the administrative costs – telephone, internet, partial salary costs of the administrative staff – accountant, secretary, driver, etc.

Budgetary reallocations may be made through notifications or amendments. The conditions under which the notifications or amendments to the Grant contract will be drawn up will be specified after the application process.

According to the information contained in the Guidelines for Applicants, section 2.2.3, the Capacity Building activities have reserved a budget of up to 10% of the total project budget which will be highlighted in the Concept Note, under the section ”The grant amount requested”. Thus, the total amount requested will also include the amount reserved for CB activities. The specific activities and related costs will be established/detailed at the stage of the development of the Full Proposal.

According to the information contained in the Guidelines for Applicants sections 2.2 and 2.3.4, re-granting activities are not eligible and re-granting to third parties falls under the category of ineligible costs. Therefore, the awarding of micro-grants for members of a federation, in a project submitted by a federation, is not eligible.

In establishing the project team, the complexity of the implementation of a large-scale project must be taken into account, and, depending on the complexity of the activities, the team necessary to ensure a good performance of the project must be established. It is recommended to establish a project team that includes a project manager, a financial manager, a communication manager. It is also advisable to provide a procurement expert, regardless of whether he will be employed or whether the respective services will be subcontracted, in order to carry out procurement in accordance with the rules of the Programme and the legislation in force.

Within the Programme, no maximum percentage of the total project budget has been established for salaries and/or direct administrative costs. However, indirect costs, which cover part of the administrative costs of a project, cannot exceed 10% of the total direct costs of the project.

1. The Programmme does not set a specific amount or percentage for audit services. Therefore, market prospecting is recommended before budgeting for these costs. 2. In the case of projects lasting 24 months, according to the reporting schedule published in the Guidelines for Applicants, section 5.1, we recommend that you budget for a minimum of three audit reports. In the situation where it is estimated that the first installment will be requested prior to the submission of the annual report for year 1, then it is recommended to budget for 4 audit reports.

Within the Programme, there are no minimum or maximum costs for either employees or experts. When drawing up the budget, the salary policy of the organization will be taken into account.

During the project implementation, budget changes will be regulated by the Grant Contract and will be possible in justified cases, depending on the identified needs. Thus, some changes can be made by notification, and others by addendums. We recommend that the budget be drawn up based on necessary, realistic costs that respect the principles of economy, efficiency and effectiveness.

The costs for consulting activities for the implementation of the project will be included in the Subcontracting budget chapter and will be budgeted only if they are strictly necessary. It will be considered that the project manager can act within a project exclusively on the basis of an employment contract, and the Applicant must be directly responsible for the development and management of the project, without acting as an intermediary.

According to the information in the Guidelines for Applicants, section 5.3, external audits are mandatory and related costs are eligible and must be included in the project budget. In the case of partnerships with an organization in Switzerland, the audit is mandatory if it manages a budget of more than CHF 100,000 of the project budget. In case of partnerships, audit costs can be included in the budget of each Partner or of the Applicant.

Within the Programme there is no limitation on the amount of the grant that goes to the Swiss Partner. This must be directly correlated with the involvement in the development of the project activities.

Communication costs, depending on their type, will be included in the Project Team budget chapter (if staff costs are provided) and/or in the Subcontracting budget chapter (if service provision costs are provided).