It has been a practice for the NPA programme to use the opportunity towards the end of the programme’s implementation to fund preparatory projects aiming at developing project ideas into complete project applications to be submitted at the first call of the future programme.
The themes and priorities of Interreg NPA 2021-2027 have been agreed on 9th June by the shadow Monitoring Committee of the programme, after a public consultation took place to gather feedback from all programme stakeholders. The preparatory projects to be funded by the Bridging call will be addressing the overlapping areas between the NPA 2014-2020 and NPA 2021-2027 and facilitate the transition from the current to the next programme.
A webinar is scheduled on 1st July 2021 at 13:00 CET to present the Terms of Reference. The webinar will be live on YouTube and Facebook, participation via Zoom will also be possible upon registration.
Concept
As with previous bridging calls, the main purpose is to build a project pipeline for future main projects in the forthcoming programme and keep momentum and front-loading the future programme; thus allowing for a strong start. Secondly, to explore in practice the different themes proposed in the new programme which could help design future calls.
Preparatory projects applicants are expected to address their chosen specific objectives, with actions such as feasibility studies, stakeholder mapping and recommendations with the purpose of developing project ideas ideally concluding with the presentation of a main project application in the new programme period 2021-2027.
The Bridging call will be funded by the NPA 2014-2020 and only actions eligible under the current programme can be funded.
Timeline
The call will be open from 16th August until 8th October 2021. It will not be possible to create Bridging call applications in the electronic monitoring system (eMS) before 16th August.
A "How to Apply Seminar" will be hosted online on 9th September.
Eligible project applications will be presented to the Monitoring Committee for a decision on 8th December 2021.
Projects are recommended to run for a period of 6 months between January and August 2022.
Key documents
The Terms of Reference (ToR) present in detail the rationale of the call as well as the requirements and project structure expected. In addition to the ToR a summary of the NPA 2021-2027 themes is provided for orientation, as well as a table showing the correspondence between the NPA 2014-2020 Specific Objectives and the NPA 2021-2027 themes.
All key documents are available for download below.