Preparation of the application

Application form is available in electronic version, in the form of the so called Application Generator. It should be downloaded from the Internet pages of the Ministry of Economy and Labour, Ministry of Finance or Implementing Authorities. The version of the Application Generator which should be used to submit the application will specified in the announcement of the call for proposals. The form should be completed only in an electronic way. Every question is accompanied by help notes on how to complete the answer. The application form software automatically checks and informs about empty or wrongly filled fields after choosing the “print” command. While completing the form please read carefully the Instructions for filling in an application for project financing. The application has to be completed in Polish. The completed application form should be printed and saved on a floppy disk or CD. It is necessary to keep both a paper and electronic copy of submitted documentation.

The application contains information that will be used on one hand as the criterion for selection of the project for funding and on the other hand constitutes the basis for the agreement concluded between the project provider and a project provider. The application form is divided into the following parts:

1. General information – general information on the project as well as detailed information on the applicant, possible contractors and other institutions involved in project implementation,
   
   
2. Project description – substantial evaluation – on the basis of the answers given to the questions in this part of the application, the merits of the project will be evaluated. Each of the questions in this part contains sub-questions and notes to them as well as the maximum possible points to be obtained for this answer. The sub-questions as well as explanations are included in the Instruction for filling in an application for project financing. Moreover, the criteria for project selection are enumerated in the SOP HRD and IROP Programme Complements,
   
   
3. Ultimate beneficiaries – detailed information related to ultimate beneficiaries of the programme, that is the persons or institutions to whom the activities proposed by the project provider are addressed,
   
   
4. Characteristics of the support – detailed information related to the types of planned activities,
   
   
5. Planned expenditure – compilation of financial information,
   
   
6. Annexes – a compilation of all necessary enclosures, depending on the project provider, included in “Guide for Project Providers”.

What should be taken into account while preparing the application?

The most important issue is the preparation of a coherent project, that is the determination of the logical set of activities leading to the achievement of a concrete, measurable objective in a specified period of time, defining the implementing structure with a clear distribution of responsibilities, planning of the timetable and costs as well as the rules of monitoring and evaluation related to the achievement of the planned results. The project has to refer to a concrete, precisely specified group of ultimate beneficiaries and address the determined needs of this group.

It should be borne in mind that the participation of the same person in trainings of the same range (e.g. multiple participation of the same person in a basic computer legibility course) is unacceptable.

The projects can be implemented together with partners, however, one entity is responsible for the project. There are no limitations as to the kind of entities which can become a partner to the project in the case of projects submitted within SOP HRD. A project provider and its partners should be bound, already at the stage of submitting the application, by a contract (agreement) which clearly specifies rules of the partnership and clearly indicates the leading entity which represents the partnership and responsible for the whole project and settlement of finances for the final beneficiary. The provisions of such a contract are specified in “Guide for Project Providers”
 
While preparing a project, one should remember that in the case of the competition procedure within SOP HRD a minimum value of a project amounts to 15 thousand euro, apart from Measure 1.4, where the minimum value of a project amounts to 25 thousand euro. Moreover, one should remember that in the case of SOP HRD (apart from Measures 1.1, 2.1, 2.2 and 2.4),  project providers are obliged to bring a private contribution amounting to minimum 1% of the project value. Information on the obligatory private contribution will be specified by the final beneficiary in the announcement of the call for proposals.

While preparing the project it is worth to remember that:

• the project has to be compatible with the objectives announced by the call for proposals organizer (final beneficiary),
  
  
• the project has to address the identified (and documented) needs,
  
  
• the project has to be targeted at a precisely defined group of recipients (ultimate beneficiaries),
  
  
• the project should be prepared with participation of all interested partners,
  
  
• the objectives of the project have to be transparent, realistic and specific for a given project,
  
  
• the project has to precisely define types of tasks, schedule of their implementation, responsibilities of contractors and the method of implementation,
  
  
• it is necessary to indicate the realistic expectations as to the project results,
  
  
• the management rules have to be clear and accepted by all the contractors,
  
  
• the costs of the project have to be precisely calculated, on the basis of actual costs – it is not possible to apply for an increase in the means granted during project implementation, at the same time the project costs are one of the elements of its evaluation.
  

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