The North Sea Programme has just been approved!

• The Monitoring Committee will have its first meeting on the 14/15 of January 2002 in Cambridge, UK.

• The first call for applications will be announced in the week after with a closing date on the 1^st March 2002.

• The first Steering Committee, responsible for approving and rejecting project applications, is proposed for Monday 22^nd April 2002 in Copenhagen, Denmark.

• A new Newsletter is planned to be published twice a year.

The new programme for transnational spatial development projects in the North Sea Region including all of Denmark and parts of Sweden, Germany, the Netherlands, the Flemish Region, the United Kingdom and Norway. With an enlarged budget of 133 million Euro and the possibility of minor infrastructure projects the IIIB programme will build on the success of the Interreg IIC North Sea Programme.

The programme will be administered by the North Sea Programme secretariat which will have an international staff of 10 people and is based in Viborg, Denmark.

More information on the programme click here !

Application pack - a draft material can be ordered           clicking here !

The Monitoring Committee will decide on the final version of the application pack. (This is the reason why you cannot fill in the forms yet , but you will receive the final version of the application pack as soon as it is ready.)

Please remember that, if you wish to send in an application, you are required to send it in both in a physical document (with signatures and letters of commitment) and in a digital form.

Programme Complement

The draft of the Programme Complement is now available here !

It contains information on the following subjects:

• for the project applicant the most relevant information can be found in chapter 3 on final beneficiaries,
•  chapter 4 describing the project selection criteria
• chapter 5 providing information on the activities, outputs and impacts of the Measures of the programme
• chapter 6 providing background information on the indicators required
• Particularly relevant for the administrative bodies involved in the implementation of the programme are chapter 7 which gives an overview of the publicity and communications strategy
• chapter 8 on the computerised exchange of data between the programme bodies and the European Commission and
• chapter 9 giving the financial split of the Programme budget on Measure level.

The final version of the Programme Complement will become available right after the first Monitoring Committee meeting.

Update of the project ideas

The first step in the development of an Interreg IIIB project is the formulation of a project idea. In the first round of project ideas –starting in November 2000- the Secretariat received more than 360 project ideas. They have been published on the website of the programme. The project ideas which were submitted before June 2001 have been published in the project idea book which was used at the Directoria in Aalborg in June 2001.

It is now time to update these project ideas for a number of reasons.

1.     Many plans have changed:  some plans have developed in a different direction, some plans have been dropped, some projects are now ready for submission for the first Steering Committee.

2.     A new project idea book will be made for the next Directoria in Norwich in June 2002. This project idea book should only contain project ideas that are still relevant.

3.     Some of the project ideas submitted in the first round clearly would not qualify as an Interreg IIIB project, for example because they solely deal with a very local problem without any planned real transnational co-operation. In other cases the theme of the project idea was not compatible with the strategy and the themes in the programme.

If you submitted a project idea in the first round, you are kindly asked to reconsider the form you submitted back then and see if it is still relevant for partner search.

Directoria 2002 and other events

After the success of the 2001 Directoria in Aalborg, the Secretariat and the 7 countries involved in the programme wish to continue the positive experiences and hold a next partner search event in 2002. It will be held on June the 19^th 2002 in Norwich, England. More than previous years the emphasis will be on project development and partner search. There are limited places, so please book early and come prepared to work on your project and transnational partnership.

Interreg IIC Project book available

”The Projects” book is a compendium of the projects that were funded by the Interreg IIC North Sea Programme. The book reflects the effort put into the projects and the enthusiasm shown by the participants. The book provides information on the aim, activities and results of each individual project. This can be of use for people who wish to find out more about these projects, but also for those interested in building on the experience of a IIC project and for people who will participate in a North Sea Programme project for the first time.

For organisations and people interested in setting up a project in the new IIIB programme this book will serve as a useful source of inspiration providing a wealth of practical experiences and project information.

”The Projects” book can be ordered free of charge here   or

at the North Sea Region Programme homepage: http://www.interregnorthsea.org/serv/pub1.htm 

North Sea Programme

Interreg secretariat

Skottenborg 26

DK-8800  Viborg

Denmark

phone: + 45 8727 1999

fax: + 45 8662 6862

e-mail: crbbj@vibamt.dk

http://www.interregnorthsea.org