Archives: February 2010

Continuous vocational training of professionals.
Budget: EUR2.5 million
Deadline: 9 June
Further details

Initial Training support for the networking and mobility of students and trainers
Budget: EUR2 million
Deadline: 30 April
Further details

Cooperation with third countries to support training and access markets
Budget: EUR1 million
Deadline: 31 March
Further details

A call for proposals has been published under the Fundamental Rights and Citizenship programme to fund transnational projects. The call will have a budget of over EUR19.2 million, as it will cover the budgets allocated for 2009 and 2010. Projects will need to focus on one of the following priority areas: i) Protection of the rights of the child; ii) Combating racism, xenophobia and anti-Semitism; iii) Fight against Homophobia: Enhanced/improved understanding and tolerance; iv) Active participation in the democratic life of the Union; v) Training and networking between legal professions and legal practitioners; vi) data protection and privacy rights.

Deadline: 29 April
Further details

The info day for the 2010 calls for proposal under the Marco Polo programme for projects to shift freight transport from the road was held on 10 February. The next call is scheduled to open by mid-March, with a likely closing date at the end of May.

EUR64 million is being made available for:
- Alternatives to road such as short sea shipping, railways and inland waterways;
- Innovations that help overcome technical barriers to intermodal transport;
- Combining Motorways of the Sea actions with other modes of transport;
- Improved logistics reducing the need for transporting goods by road;
- Training and other ‘soft’ factors within the transport business.

Transport services/logistics concepts operating at a European level, offering innovative environmental & social benefits, and presenting credible long-term viable prospects may receive funding. This can include the freight elements of mixed passenger-freight services and Ro-Ro Ferries services. Infrastructure projects, research or study projects are not eligible for support.

Info Day presentations

The Mid-West and South-West Regional Authorities along with University of Limerick have launched a new EU funding initiative linking them with partners in Finland, Italy, Poland, Romania and the United Kingdom. FRESH (Forwarding Regional Environmental Sustainable Hierarchies), approved for funding under Interreg IVC late last year, is set to re-examine the role of sustainability approaches in securing regional growth.

At the core of the project is the concept of Sustainable Value Creation (SVC) based development whereby short-term economic and long-term environmental imperatives are reconciled beyond mere levels of legal compliance. This concern with resource productivity is closely linked to the key themes of the EU Environmental Technologies Action Plan (ETAP) where competitiveness is allied to sustainability in supporting the eco-design of innovative products and services. Through a set of actions to drive demand and improve regional market conditions for green technologies, FRESH aims to create an overall transferrable model to strengthen SVC - thereby significantly renewing regional sustainable and economic development approaches and strategies. This should also embed eco-design within regional innovation systems.

Over the course of the project which runs until the end of 2012, each partner region will test and implement a series of tools for dealing with both competitiveness and sustainability. The Mid-West will concentrate their efforts on Sustainable Urban Living, and how dissemination of good practice in adopting eco-design approaches and developing and using eco-innovation technologies can influence planning and energy policies to achieve sustainable and competitive outcomes in particular settings. The South-West’s focused theme will centre on developing SVC in bio-energy applications in the tourism sector.

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