The Aim of the Cyclamen project
The Department of Environment – Ministry of Agriculture, Rural Development and Environment as of December 15th 2015 is the coordinating beneficiary of the project “Cyprus Capacity Building for LIFE – Cyclamen” LIFE14 CAP/CY/000006, aiming at increasing Cyprus’s LIFE Programme performing levels in terms of both numbers and quality of proposals.
The duration of the Cyprus Capacity Building project is 48 months and the EU financial contribution is €951.828, which is 100% funding of the total eligible budget.
The core objective of the project is to empower and capacitate the Cypriot LIFE NCP with personnel, competencies, skills, knowledge, experiences and networking, that will enhance the effectiveness and outreach of its services to applicants, and ultimately increase the performance of Cypriot proposals to the LIFE Programme under both the Environment and the Climate Action Sub-Programmes. For this purpose, experts have been recruited with special service contracts of a limited duration.
The above explained aim will be achieved mainly through the following:
- Trainings on proposal writing, proposal evaluation, as well as on project management
- Trainings on moderation / negotiation skills through the application of modern techniques
- Promotion of LIFE Programme through different activities e.g. Info Days in Cyprus and other Member States
- Exchange of experiences and knowledge with other LIFE NCPs
- Preparation of “Hints & Tips Guide” for proposal writing, securing LIFE funding etc., as well as other informative material such as newsletters / brochures / articles
- Promotion of a Joint LIFE NCP network project
- Promotion of Financial Instruments’ utilisation
- Cooperation and promotion of synergies under specific thematic interests
- Cooperation with national representatives of other networks, as well as institutions that manage EU and national funds
- Formation and monitoring of project impact indicators
- Organisation and participation to workshops, seminars and conferences
Expected Results
The main expected results and outcomes from this “Cyprus Capacity BuiLding for life – CYCLamEn” project may be summarized as follows:
- Realisation of Trainings, Workshops, Seminars and Meetings, which will hone the LIFE NCP’s existing expertise and skills, as well as develop new competencies and dexterities, through the application of modern techniques (e.g. “train-the-trainer”, moderation, negotiation, etc). An integral part of the enhanced “training” scheme for the LIFE NCP will be: “exchange” activities organised with the NCPs of other Member States, so as to foster the exchange of know-how and best practices (handling of queries, pre-screenings of proposals, time management, etc).
- “Rebranding” and “marketing” of the function of the Cypriot LIFE NCP as a structured but flexible national public service, which is “free but not cheap”, and which is offered by up-to-date, well-trained and internationally well-networked personnel, with experience in LIFE proposal writing and management.
- Upgrade of the services offered to the applicants resulting to the increase of Cypriot proposals’ performance to the LIFE Programme under both the Environment and the Climate Action Sub-Programmes.
- Update and expansion of the “clientele” through renewal of the lists of potential applicants and beneficiaries, which will also enhance the networking and dissemination capacity.
- Establishing and maintaining active Networking with European LIFE NCPs.
- Upgrade of the services offered to the applicants through specialised info-days, seminars and/or workshops, which will implement the acquired modern training techniques, and will present content ranging from informative to “hands-on”, practical “how-to” sessions (e.g. “how to write a successful LIFE-IP proposal”, “how to manage a LIFE project”, etc).
- Utilisation of Financial Instruments.
- A 3-layer assisting helpdesk for proposal submission, on-going projects, as well as exploitation of opportunities of projects’ results.
- Facilitation of exchange of experiences and results amongst LIFE Projects.