DIRECTORATE-GENERAL HUMANITARIAN AID AND CIVIL PROTECTION
B.1 Emergency Response
UNION CIVIL PROTECTION MECHANISM
CALL FOR PROPOSALS
UNION CIVIL PROTECTION MECHANISM EXERCISES
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grant application guide
2015 edition
This guide includes detailed information on the Call for Proposals for Civil Protection Mechanism Exercises and advice on how to prepare applications
TABLE OF CONTENT
1. Introduction – Background 6
2. Objective(s) and Priorities 7
3. Timetable 8
4. Budget Available 8
5. Exercise Concept under this Call 10
6. Selection Of Proposals 13
7. Admissibility Requirements 13
8. Eligibility Criteria 14
8.1 Eligible applicants 14
8.2 Eligible activities 17
9. Exclusion Criteria 18
9.1 Exclusion from participation: 18
9.2 Exclusion from award 19
9.3 Supporting documents 19
10 Selection Criteria 19
10.1 Financial capacity 19
10.2 Operational capacity 21
11. Award Criteria 22
11.1 Award procedure 26
12. Legal Commitments 28
13. Financial Provisions 28
13.1 General Principles 28
13.2 Funding forms of grants 29
14. Publicity 33
14.1 By the beneficiaries 33
14.2 By the Commission 33
15. Data Protection 34
16. Procedure for the Submission of Proposals 34
16. 1 Applicants shall submit proposals 35
17. Obligatory Documents to be Attached to the Application 36
18. Specific Requirements for Public Entities 39
19. Specific Recommendations for each Application Form 41
20. Part 1: Forms A and T 41
22. Forms F 50
23. How to Prepare and Draft a Proposal? 58
24. Checklist for Submitting Grant Applications 60
PREFACE
Welcome to the guide for submitting proposals for exercise projects in the framework of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism Exercises (Action 2.6 of the Work Programme 2015 – in this guide referred to as WP 2015).
This document has been designed to be a guide for applicants. It serves as a reference document to provide clarifications and answers to questions you may have when preparing your application. Please read it carefully.
In addition to this guide, you are strongly encouraged to consult the European Commission's ECHO website: http://ec.europa.eu/echo/en/funding-evaluations/financing-civil-protection/calls-for-proposal
The website is updated regularly and the date of the latest update is indicated on the web-page.
If you cannot find the answer to your question in this guide, do not hesitate to send your questions in writing (preferably by e-mail) to the Emergency Response Unit (DG ECHO B.1) of the Commission at
Please contact the Commission only after having tried to find the information in this guide, its annexes and the included references. Asking for clarifications has no impact on the final award decision.
As for the 2014 Call for Proposals, Union Civil Protection Mechanism Exercises can be financed from two separate budget items also in the Call for Proposals for Union Civil Protection Mechanism Exercises 2015 (hereinafter referred to as the 2015 call).
Exercise projects financed through budget item 23 03 01 01(internal budget line) should involve at least two participating states of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism other than the state organising and hosting the exercise, committing to dispatch intervention teams, civil protection modules, and/or technical assistance and support teams through the ERCC. Dispatching intervention teams is not necessary for table top exercises.
Exercise projects financed through budget item 23 03 01 02 (external budget line) should involve at least one European Neighbourhood Policy Country[1] or one Enlargement Country[2] not participating in the Mechanism and at least one additional country (eligible third country or participating state) together with the participating state which is the coordinator. The aim of these exercises will be to maximize the exchange of knowledge and experience on the EU Mechanism with the third countries.
Applicants thus have to indicate whether they apply for funding from the internal budget line or external budget line. The applicants shall pay particular attention to the countries eligible to be financed under each budget line. The eligibility criteria will be explained in greater detail below.
Before submitting the application, please do not forget to consult the checklist, which can be found in chapters 17 and 24. Consider also that it will take time to fill in the forms and that all the necessary documents need to be gathered to complete the application. Please start filling in the forms promptly in order to comply with the deadline for the submissions of proposals, as set out in part 3. This guide is divided into six parts:
Chapters 1 to 4 are the introductory part providing an overview of the objectives and priorities of this Call for proposals, detailing the timelines and the budget possibilities.
Chapter 5 explains the concept of exercise projects, eligible for funding.
Chapters 6 to 18 outline the process and the requirements to be complied with for a proposal to be selected and for the grant to be awarded.
Chapters 19 to 22 explain how each of the forms attached to this guide should be filled out.
Chapters 23 and 24 give further practical advice on how to prepare a proposal, and a checklist to be consulted prior to submitting the application.
This guide is updated annually to make it as user-friendly as possible. You are more than welcome to share your comments and suggestions on how to further improve the guide by sending an email to
Emergency Response Unit
DG HUMANITARIAN AID and CIVIL PROTECTION
EUROPEAN COMMISSION
PART I
1. Introduction – Background
Decision No 1313/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council of 17 December 2013 on a Union Civil Protection Mechanism[3] (hereinafter the Decision) establishes a Union Civil Protection Mechanism, hereafter the Mechanism. The general purpose is to provide, on request, support in the event of major emergencies and to facilitate improved coordination of assistance intervention. The Mechanism should facilitate the response to protect primarily people but also the environment and property, including cultural heritage, in the event of natural and man-made disasters, acts of terrorism and technological, radiological or environmental accidents, including accidental marine pollution, occurring inside or outside the European Union, taking into account the special needs of the isolated, outermost and other regions or islands of the European Union.
In Article 13(1) of the above Decision the Commission is tasked to set up and manage a programme of exercises.
The Commission Implementing Decision of 16.10.2014 laying down rules for the implementation of Decision No 1313/2013/EU of the European Parliament and of the Council on a Union Civil Protection Mechanism and repealing Decisions 2004/277/EC, Euratom and 2007/606/EC, Euratom (C(2014)7489 final)[4] (hereinafter the Implementing Decision) in Chapter 9 defines the exercise programme, its strategic framework and priorities.
The target group, which in line with Chapter 9, Article 32(3) (a) of the Implementing Decision includes the response capacity of Member States, in particular with regard to teams and other assets provided in assistance interventions under the Union Mechanism.
The aims of the exercise programme defined in Chapter 9, Article 32(3)) are reproduced below:
"The exercise programme shall in particular aim at:
(a) improving the response capacity of Member States, in particular with regard to teams and other assets provided in assistance interventions under the Union Mechanism;
(b) improving and verifying the procedures and establishing a common approach for the coordination of assistance interventions under the Union Mechanism and reducing the response time in major disasters;
(c) enhancing cooperation between the civil protection services of Member States and the Commission;
(d) identifying and sharing lessons learnt;
(e) testing the implementation of lessons learnt."
2. Objective(s) and Priorities
The adopted WP 2015 can be found on this Call’s website. http://ec.europa.eu/echo/en/funding-evaluations/financing-civil-protection/calls-for-proposal/2015-prevention-and-preparedness
This Call for Proposals for exercises refers to Action 2.6 of the WP 2015 aimed at improving preparedness.
The objectives are:
To improve civil protection preparedness and response to all kinds of disasters, including marine pollution[5], chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear disasters, as well as combined disasters and disasters simultaneously affecting a number of countries (inside or outside the Participating States of the Mechanism) by providing a testing environment of established and/or new operational concepts and procedures of the Mechanism and a learning opportunity for all actors involved in civil protection assistance interventions under the Civil Protection Mechanism.
The expected results are:
Improving the response capacity of Member States, in particular with regard to teams and other assets provided in civil protection assistance interventions.
Improving and verifying the procedures and establishing a common approach for the coordination of civil protection assistance interventions and reducing the response time in major disasters
Enhancing cooperation between the civil protection and marine pollution services of the Participating States, the Commission and other relevant actors.
Identifying and sharing lessons learned.
Testing the implementation of lessons learned
The following types of activities are expected:
Plan, conduct and evaluate exercises with scenarios simulating the situation and conditions of all types of disasters for the activation of the Mechanism, including marine pollution, chemical, biological, radiological, nuclear disasters, as well as combined disasters and disasters affecting simultaneously a number of countries (inside or outside the Participating States of the Mechanism). The plans for the exercises should also take into account the results of evaluations of previous exercises as well as lessons learned from civil protection actions.
The exercises can be full scale exercises, command post exercises with limited deployment, and table top exercises. A combination of two or three of these exercise concepts is considered as strength.
The involvement of Participating States is ensured through the ERCC, according to established procedures (e.g. use of CECIS, and activation of the mechanism) and deployment of exercise participants as defined in Art. 32 of Commission Implementing Decision 2014/762/EU i.e. intervention teams (including modules), teams of assessment and/or coordination experts (EUCP team), national key contact point staff, other intervention support resources and officials of the EU Institutions, including humanitarian aid experts (if required by the scenario).
Priority issues to be addressed by the exercise projects shall be:
· Host Nation Support;
· Deployment of assets and teams of the European Emergency Response Capacity ;
· Testing ERCC procedures;
· Information exchange between affected country and Participating States ;
· Crisis communication;
· Use of Mechanism's transport and logistic procedures;
3. Timetable
Stages / Date and time orindicative period
a) / Publication of the call / 23/03/2015
b) / Deadline for submitting applications / 24/06/2015
c) / Evaluation period / July-October 2015
d) / Information to applicants / 30/11/2015
e) / Signature of grant agreement / Before 31/12/2015
f) / Starting date of the project / 01/01/2016-30/06/2016
4. Budget Available
The total budget earmarked for the co-financing of exercise projects is EUR 3 800 000. EUR 2 800 000 have been reserved for exercises involving only Participating States and EUR 1 000 000 for exercises with the involvement of one or more enlargement countries which are not Participating States to the Mechanism or countries under the European Neighbourhood Policy (for more information see the WP 2015).
The EU contribution per exercise project[6] is limited to a maximum of EUR 1 000 000.
The maximum EU co-funding rate (percentage applied on the eligible costs according to the budget of the exercise project) in the framework of this Call is up to 85% of the total eligible costs per proposal. Given the complementary nature of EU grants, at least 15% of the total exercise project cost must be funded by other sources.
The applicant is encouraged to look for other possible local, national or international, private and public (non EU) co-financing.
The Commission reserves the right not to grant all the funds available and to award a grant lower than the amount applied for.
PART II
5. Exercise Concept under this Call
The exercise can be a table-top, command-post or full scale exercises (TTX, CPX or FSX). A combination of two or three of these types of exercises is possible.
· A TTX is designed to put real crisis managers in a situation to use existing plans and procedures to take decisions according to a proposed scenario. A TTX can also be used to develop plans and procedures were there are none. Being a discussion mode exercise, it does not require any deployment but rather gathers the exercising participants in one single location under the guidance and control of experienced staff.
· A CPX is designed to put command structures in a real situation, focusing on the tasks and responsibilities they are to perform while the deployment forces are simulated. The tasks may include requesting the deployment of a EUCP Team and possibly key staff of operational assets together with command and communication staff and tools. The exercising participants work from their offices or command posts.
· A FSX is designed to replicate one or several phases of an emergency with the commitment of all the public bodies and authorities that would be committed in a real emergency. All the functions (operation, command, logistics, communication, public information, etc.) required in an emergency are replicated and played in a coordinated way.
The scenario may take into account one, several or all of the following phases: pre-alert, alert and request for assistance, deployment, engagement, disengagement.
The scenario of the exercise depicts a disaster that overwhelms the response capacity of the affected state.
The international dimension of the exercise is ensured by the participation of at least three different countries, as outlined in the WP for 2015.
This participation requires the involvement of the national civil protection operational point of contact and for FSX the deployment of civil protection intervention team(s).
Minimum requirements for the exercises are that:
· The procedures of the Mechanism are activated.
· A team of minimum 5 experts plus one ERCC Liaison Officer (ERCC LO), tasked to facilitate the coordination of the international assistance, assess needs or provide the affected State with specific expertise, is deployed during the conduct of the exercise. The cost of this deployment needs to be covered by the exercise project, not including the cost related to the ERCC LO (which is covered by the European Commission).
· One observer for each Participating State is invited to the exercise. The cost of the observer programme needs to be covered by the exercise project.