Mastering financial and contractual management of EU Grants for UN and Pillar-Assessed Organisations

Module 1: Obtain Funding from the European Union

• An introduction to the EU programming and funding system
• The EU management modes: direct/indirect management
• Writing a project proposal to obtain EU funding

 Module 2: Contracting Phase

• The Contribution Agreement and old PAGoDA 2
• Working with partners: roles and responsibilities

Module 3: Financial Management of EU-Funded Projects

• Eligibility of costs: direct/indirect, ineligible costs
• Simplified Cost Options
• Specific guidance for project office costs
• Procurement: main requirements from the EU
• Accounts, archiving, financial checks, verification

Module 4: Management of EU-Funded Projects: Other Rules

• Communication and visibility requirements
• Dealing with changes: procedure for amendments
• Reporting rules and payment procedures
• Monitoring and evaluation, including ROM missions
• Transfer of equipment and supplies at the end of the action

DAY 1 

Module 1: Working with the EU: Two Management Modalities

• Long-term framework agreements
• Two ways to get funding: direct negotiations and calls for proposals
• Differences between EU direct and indirect management

Module 2: Preparation of Project Proposals

• Key elements of the description of the action
• Logframe and the results-chain
• Budget and eligibility of costs
• Communication and Visibility Plan

Module 3: Contracting Process Under Indirect Management and Calls for Proposals

• Contribution Agreement (CA) and annexes
• Special conditions – points of attention
• Main differences in CA under indirect management versus resulting from a call for proposals
• Roles and responsibilities of the organisation and implementing partners

DAY 2 

Module 4: Procurement and Grant Award Principles and Requirements

• Differences between grants and procurement contract
• EU restrictive measures and exclusion criteria
• Primary rules and principles related to procurement
• Awarding grants: procedures to follow

Module 5: Monitoring Results and the Eligibility of Expenditure

• Evaluation and monitoring missions
• ROM missions
• Monitoring the eligibility of expenditure

DAY 3 

Module 6: Dealing with Changes

• General rules regarding changes
• Two types of modifications: unilateral modification and addendum
• Suspension procedures

Module 7: Reporting Rules and Payment Procedures

• Reporting requirements
• Information to be provided in the interim and final report
• Payment procedures

Module 8: Verification of Expenditure

• Who can verify the use of EU funding
• Accounting and financial checks: key rules
• Objectives and methods of the EU verification of expenditure
• Process for verification of expenditure

By subscribing to the Certificate Program, you will have access to each course in the punto.sud learning platform. From here, you can join the live sessions, download the course materials (including PowerPoint presentations, official EU documents, infographics and other useful links and materials), complete the eLearning modules, review the recordings of the live sessions and complete the initial and final test and participate in the active forum. Throughout the whole period, by using the forum you will be able to communicate with the trainers, post questions and share information and best practices with other participants

• Staff of not-for-profit organisations (not suggested for UN agencies and other pillar-assessed organisations’ staff) with limited or no experience with EU development programmes.
• Consultants who are interested in a detailed overview of the EU programming and funding system, the grant application process and grant management.
• University or post-graduate students.

Previous experience or knowledge relating to the access and management of EU funds is not required.

You will need access to a computer or tablet with a microphone and speakers or a headset, as well as an Internet connection. The course will be held over Zoom – no additional software is required.

• Virtual class – for 2 weeks after the end of the last training session
• eLearning – for 30 days after you first access the course

Once you have completed all the training material and passed the exit test, your certificate of attendance for each specific course will be available to download from the learning platform.

Once you have also concluded the learning plan exit test, you will receive the final certificate. The certificates are always available in your profile page with historical data of all punto.sud Academy courses you’ve attended.