The Minister of Health as the Operator for Programme
PL13 Reducing social inequalities in health financed by the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2009-2014 and Polish state budget announces the restricted call for proposals for the amount of PLN 64 944 036 i.e. 15 423 206 EUR[1]
1. Eligible project thematic areas for co-financing within the restricted call
In the restricted call for proposals for pilots-projects one can apply for financing the implementation of community-based health promotion or disease prevention pilot projects consisting of:
- prophylaxis programmes and/or,
- educational actions on health topics,
The projects shall be prepared in accordance with the provided health needs assessment model (Annex 1 to the announcement) and health promotion / disease prevention programme model (Annex 2 to the announcement).
2. Types of entities that are eligible to apply for co-financing
Eligible applicants are local government units (poviats) in Poland, indicated in Annex 3 to the announcement. Eligible are poviats with the highest standardized mortality rates (SMRs) in a three-year period 2009-2011, identified in the following categories: all causes of death; malignant neoplasm; cardiovascular disease; respiratory system disease; digestive system disease and external causes of death.
It means that the application must be signed and submitted only by legal representatives of poviats indicated in Annex 3 according to the provisions stipulated in art 48 of the Act from 5th June 1998 on Poviat Local Government and in case of towns on the rights of poviat -stipulated in art 46 of the Act from 8th March 1990 on Municipal Local Government.
Each of entities indicated in Annex 3 to the announcement may submit only one application.
In case more than one application has been submitted by an applicant, the Programme Operator requires the applicant to indicate, within given deadline, only one application to be assessed. The remaining applications will be withdrawn by the applicant. Otherwise all applications sent by the applicant will be rejected.
3. State aid
As a rule poviats as local governments run healthcare activities in a non-commercial type. Pilot projects will be implemented on the basis of health promotion and/or health prophylaxis models. Thus support for poviats for above mentioned programmes implementation will not constitute forbidden state aid, as defined in Article 107 paragraph 1 of the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union.
4. Partnership projects
Projects under the restricted call may be implemented in partnerships. No extra points will be awarded to partnership projects at the stage of the proposals assessment, however the Programme Operator encourages to implement projects in partnership with institutions as well from Poland as from Norway.
Eligible project partners from Norway are primarily municipalities/county authorities as well as NGOs, educational (universities and colleges) and research institutions operating in healthcare area.
Eligible, national partners from Poland, are poviats indicated in Annex 3 to the announcement. Each entitled entity may be a partner in unlimited number of applications.
5. The amount of financial means for the co-financing of the projects
The total allocation available within NFM grants and Polish state budget is PLN 64 944 036 i.e. EUR 15 423 206.
National contribution is financed by the Programme Operator what means that there is no need for providing the contribution of the eligible costs co-financing by a project promoter.
6. Grant rate (amount of co-financing)
Grant rate (financing level) for all Project Promoters - 100% of the total project eligible costs.
The minimum project value (total project eligible costs) is PLN 1 263 240 i.e. EUR 300 000
The maximum project value (total project eligible costs) is PLN 4 210 800 i.e. EUR
1 000 000
Grant amounts will be paid in PLN.
7. Special rules on eligibility of expenditures
All activities planned in the Project shall stay in line with the Regulations on the implementation of the NFM 2009-2014.
Expenditures eligible under the project have been set forth in Art. 7.3 of the Regulation on the implementation of the NFM 2009-2014, but there is the following exception from art. 7.3 i.e purchase of land or real estate.
In general, there are the following positions that could be described as eligible expenses:
- the cost of staff assigned to the project,
- travel and subsistence allowances for staff taking part in the project,
- depreciation. Only the portion of the depreciation corresponding to the duration of the project and the rate of actual use for the purposes of the project may be taken into account by the Programme Operator as eligible costs,
- costs of consumables and supplies,
- costs entailed by other contracts awarded by a Project Promoter for the purposes of carrying out the project, with assumption that awarding complies with the applicable rules on public procurement and Regulation (especially costs of educational and prophylaxis programmes, including medical procedures),
- costs arising directly from requirements imposed by the project contract for each project (e.g. dissemination of information, specific evaluation of the action, audits, translations, reproduction), including the costs of any financial services (especially the cost of financial guarantees).
Detailed rules on eligibility of expenditures have been described in User Guide - Rules for the preparation of the application and applying within Programme PL13 Reducing social inequalities in health, Annex 6 to the announcement.
In case of including indirect costs in the project, the Project Promoters may choose between two options of reimbursement:
- in line with Article 7.4.1.a of the Regulation- expenditures are identified and reimbursed on the basis of actual indirect costs incurred by the Project Promoters and partners that have an analytical accounting system to identify their indirect costs;
or
- in line with Article 7.4.1. b of the above mentioned Regulation - as a flat rate of up to 20% of the total direct eligible costs, excluding direct eligible costs for subcontracting and the costs of resources made available by third parties which are not used on the premises of the Project Promoter. Reimbursement of expenditures shall be based on the report made by an independent and certified auditor certifying that the flat-rate overheads represent a fair apportionment of the overall overheads.
The applicant is obliged to indicate the chosen option for reimbursement of indirect costs in the application form.
Within a project the following activities will be eligible:
1. activities;
2. project management;
3. information and publicity activities;
4. the reserve for unforeseen expenditures.
Limits within the project budget:
- The maximum amount of management costs is 10% of the total project eligible costs;
- The maximum value of reserve within the project budget is 5% of the total project eligible costs. The financial means can be spent on unforeseen expenditures, according to Art. 6.7.3 k) of the Regulation.
The project budget should contain financial means that allow to meet the Information and publicity requirements, available at www.zdrowie.gov.pl;
Expenditures mentioned in Art. 7.6 of the Regulation, as well as:
- purchase of land or real estate;
- not related to the project purposes;
- incurred before and after the date of eligibility
shall not be regarded as eligible.
Projects under the Programme cannot generate income.
There is no possibility of commercial use of the project.
The final date of eligibility is 30. Apr. 2016.
8. Selection procedures and criteria
Two-step assessment consist of the verification of formal and content related criteria. Nothing but the projects that meet all formal criteria will be a subject of the content related appraisal.The restricted call and selection criteria reflect the principles of anti-discrimination and tolerance.
Formal evaluation will be carried out by the Formal Assessment Team (ZOF) that will check whether the project meets the given criterion or not (0/1 assessment).
Content related appraisal will be performed by the Content Related Assessment Team (ZOM-T). Experts (ZOM-T) score the project according to the selection criteria mentioned in the content related evaluation chart.
In case of health criteria, the fulfilling of the accessibility criteria is a condition necessary to verify remaining health-related criteria as well as finance and management criteria. It means that obtaining a negative assessment (0) within any of the above criteria exclude the application from the content-related assessment.
Then the ZOM-T experts scores each criterion in criteria charts.
Basing on the awarded score a ranking list will be elaborated.
Percentage threshold required for the project to be put on the ranking list is 22 points
(out of max. 36 points) to be awarded for health criteria and 14 points (out of max. 23 points) to be awarded for finance and management criteria. Moreover, in case of awarding 0 points for criteria 3 or 7 in the health-related appraisal chart, given application shall be rejected.
Furthermore in case of awarding 0 points for criterion 8 in the finance and management appraisal chart, given application shall be rejected.
Dissemination of project outcomes and commencing convergent actions after project implementation, results in obtaining additional points (maximum 4) during content-related assessment (criterion 5 Multiplier effects in the project - finance and management assessment).
Detailed criteria are the following:
I Formal criteria
a)Criteria towards which any corrections or document supplementation cannot be made:
1. Is the application submitted to the proper institution before the given deadline?
2. Is the correct application form for PL13 Programme used included one original hard copy?
3. Does the applicant belong to the group of eligible poviats indicated in the restricted call announcement?
4. In case of partnership projects: does the partner belong to the group of eligible partners ?
5. Does the total amount of eligible expenses indicated in cell "total amount of eligible expenses" of the application form comply with the financial limit indicated in the restricted call announcement?
6. Does the amount of management costs indicated in cell "total amount of management cost" of the application form comply with the financial limit indicated in the restricted call announcement?
7. Does the project completion date comply with the date of eligibility indicated in the restricted call announcement?
b) Other criteria towards which corrections or document supplementation can be made (according to the guidelines elaborated by the Minister of Regional Development On the procedure of projects selection under EEA FM and NFM 2009-2014).
8. Is the application form signed by a person authorized to represent the applicant and dated with adequate date according to the application form manual?
9. Does the application include all attachments required by the application form manual?
10. Is the electronic version of the documents (CD/DVD) consistent with the hard copy and recorded in formats indicated in the restricted call announcement?
11. Is the application, i.e. the application form and all attachments excluding a project summary as well as documents signed by a Donor-country partner prepared in Polish?[2]
12. Are the following documents prepared in English?
- project summary,
- statement on eligibility of VAT of the Norwegian partner (if concerns),
- statement on eligibility of the project partner from Norway (if concerns),
- letter of intent/partnership agreement concluded with the Norwegian partner (if concerns)[3]
13. Are all cells in the application form filled in as it is requested by the application form manual?
14. Does the amount of financial reserve comply with the limit indicated in the restricted call announcement?
15. Are the attachments dated with adequate date according to the application form manual and signed with a signature/paraph with personal seal by a person authorized to represent the applicant?
16. Are all true copies certified by a person authorized to represent the applicant?
17. Does the project include at least one of the two given outcome indicators; community-based health promotion programmes and community-based disease prevention programmes?
18. Does the information included in the application form (i.e. financial limits, indicator values and project duration) comply with the information included in the attachments?
II Content related criteria referring the health-related issues
A) Accessibility criteria
1. Has the health needs assessment, included in the application, been conducted according to the health needs assessment model attached to the restricted call announcement ?
2. Has the disease prevention and/or health promotion programme, included in the application, been prepared according to the model concerning disease prevention and/or health promotion programme attached to the restricted call announcement?
Only projects that meet accessibility criteria shall be verified in terms of the remaining content-related criteria. Points for accessibility criteria are not included within the number of points that can be obtained within the content-related criteria referring the health-related issues.
B) Remaining criteria referring the health-related issues
1. Presentation of the diagnosed problem in health needs assessment in the poviat area
2. Target group
3. Coherence of the proposed disease prevention and/or health promotion programme with the outcome of the health needs assessment
4. Tools for implementation of particular activities
5. Complexity of the project
6. Impact on realization of priorities included in European, national and regional strategic documents
7. Impact on horizontal issues and legislative conformity on the European and national level
In case of receiving 0 points in criterion 3 or 7, the application shall be rejected from the content-related assessment.
III. Content related criteria referring finance and management issues
1. Measurability of indicators
2. Risk analysis
3. Project schedule
4. Feasibility of project in time
5. Multiplier effects in project
6. Rationality and necessity of project expenditures
7. Correctness of planned expenses
8. Eligible expenses
9. Correctness of the budget
10. Functionality of project management mechanisms
11. Monitoring and evaluation of the project
12. Substantive potential of the project team
13. Experience of the applicant as regards the realization of the projects financed from external foreign sources
14. Information and promotion
In case of receiving 0 points in criterion 8 the application shall be rejected from the content-related assessment.
Formal and content related evaluation charts with detailed criteria have been attached to the announcement as annexes 7 and 8.
9. Information on appeal measures available to applicants
Applicants may turn to appeal procedure against the decision on rejecting the application at the stage of formal and content-related appraisal. The appeal procedure consists of two instances. The Programme Operator is an appeal body of the first instance. The National Focal Point is an appeal body of the second instance.
There is no appeal procedure against the decision of the National Focal Point.
There is also no appeal procedure against the decision of the Programme Operator and Selection Committee in reference to the ranking list.
The details on the appeal procedure are included in Guidelines elaborated by the Minister of Regional Development On the procedure of projects selection under EEA FM and NFM 2009-2014 and the User Guide.
10. Ranking list
After the final date for appealing within content-related assessment, the Programme Operator estimates the value of financial reserve to be used after the completion of appealing procedure.
The Selection Committee receives a ranking list to be reviewed. The Committee may in justifiable cases modify it.
The list of projects recommended by the Committee is submitted to the Programme Operator.
The PO checks if the process of projects' recommendation was carried out according to the Regulation on the implementation of the NFM 2009-2014, as well as the rules and objectives of Programme PL13.
After this verification the results of the call are send to be approved by the Minister/Deputy Minister of Health. Subsequently the Minister/Deputy Minister of Health issues
the Committee's decision on granting the selected projects. When the applicant accepts all conditions mentioned in the decision the project contract is to be signed.
In case of Projects that are restored as a result of appeal, the procedure is consistent with described above i.e. the Selection Committee reviews the ranking list and PO submits the list to the Minister/Deputy Minister for approval.
11. Reserve list
Applications scored above the required threshold, not granted with the assistance due to limited allocation of the open call, will be placed by the Programme Operator on a reserve list.
In case additional funds become available, for example by giving up on assistance by other Project Promoter or due to transfer between Programmes, the Programme Operator signs contracts with applicants according to their ranks on the reserve list.
12. Payment system
Payments from the NFM and state budget towards the Project Promoters are in the form of advance payments with the exception for a final payment which will be in the form of reimbursement. Total advance payments cannot exceed 90% of the grant amount.
First advance payment, up to 10% of the grant, shall be paid when the project contract is signed. Further payments will be transferred under the condition that the Programme Operator finds proper use of funds previously paid in advance to the Project Promoter. Verification covers the legitimacy of expenditures and financial matters. The payments of subsequent instalments are made subject to approved payment claims and depend on the settlement of at least 70 percent of the already received advance payment. This requirement may be cancelled by PO in justified cases. The final payment i.e. 10% of the grant will be paid when the project completion report is approved.
Within the payment system, the Project Promoters submit to the Programme Operator the following documents:
- Interim reports (Payment claims :reporting periods: January - April; May - August; September - December)
- Final Report
Project Promoters submit the payment claim no later than 10 working days after the given reporting period.
All expenses related to the project should be evidenced by copies of: accounting documents, payment confirmations, agreements with contractors and confirmations of delivery/performed services attached to payment claim forms.
In case of projects implemented in the partnership with entities from Beneficiary State or Norway, the Project Promoter attaches to the payment claim - copies of: accounting documents, payment confirmations, agreements with contractors and confirmations of delivery/performed services referring the expenses of a partner. Alternatively reports by an independent and certified auditor certifying that the claimed costs are incurred in accordance with the Regulation, the national law and accounting practices of the project partner's country, shall be seen as sufficient proof of costs incurred by Project partner.
13. Sustainability of the project results
Project funds are, among other things, aimed at increasing the scope and distribution range of effective measures that will continue after the project has been implemented. The project shall therefore describe how the results achieved in the course of the project will be used and how it will have a long-term positive effect and will continue after the project is finished. Projects that clearly indicate ways to disseminate project results and ensure sustainability of measures after the project has been implemented will be awarded with additional points (maximum 4) during content related assessment (criterion 5 - multiplier effects in the project - finance and management assessment).
14. Date, place and way of submitting the applications for project co-financing
The call for proposals takes place from 31 March 2014 till 02 June 2014 till 16:15.
Application must be submitted in one hard copy, signed by an applicant's legal representative together with 1 copy of its electronic version recorded on a CD/DVD. Data carrier filled application form and annexes should be attached to hard copy.
Files recorded on the CD/DVD must be in formats possible to be open in MS Office Pack/Adobe Reader according to the following
- Application form must be in MS Excel format (.xlsm) and as a scan to be viewed by Acrobat Reader (.PDF)
REMARK Scans of the other documents must be done when documents are signed/marked with initials and stamped by an authorized person.
- Elaborations on health needs assessment and health promotion/prophylaxis programme must be delivered in two ways
- As a scan (Scans must be done when documents are signed/marked with initials and stamped by an authorized person),and
- As an MS Office readable file (signature or initials with stamp are not required in electronic version of elaborations)
The application must be submitted on a form to be found at the PO's website www.zdrowie.gov.pl, fold: MF EOG i NMF 2009-2014 à PL13 konkurs 1/2014 à Dokumenty
Then, the application form together with all attachments must be delivered in an envelope or a parcel, through the post, dispatch-rider or personally. When it comes to the post or dispatch-riders the deadline for application submission refers to a post stamp/day of dispatch with restriction that actual delivery must come no later than 10 working days from the deadline for submission of applications. While calculating, please remember that only working days should be taken into consideration i.e. days from Monday to Friday (8:15-16:15) with exclusion for public holidays.
Place for the submission of documents:
Ministerstwo Zdrowia
Departament Funduszy Europejskich
ul. Długa 38/40 pok. 109 (sekretariat)
00-238 Warszawa
A parcel/an envelope with complete application has to be closed and marked with the following:
- Application for funds within PL13
- Number of call: NMF/PL13/2014,
- Title of the project:
- Full applicant's name and address,
- Full legal name (Ministerstwo Zdrowia - Departament Funduszy Europejskich) and address of the Programme Operator (ul. Długa 38/40, 00-238 Warszawa).
The application should be included in a file binder or a file with a label containing the abovementioned information.
15. Documents
The application form should be developed in line with following documents, which are the attachments to the call for proposal announcement.
Application documents
1) Health needs assessment model
2) Health promotion and/or prophylaxis model
3) List of eligible applicants (poviats) and description of methodology used to choose them
5) Application form manual with templates of documents,
7) Formal appraisal evaluation chart
8) Content related appraisal evaluation charts
9) Memorandum of Understanding on the implementation of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2009-2014;
10) Regulation on implementation of the Norwegian Financial Mechanism 2009-2014,
12) Other guidelines of the Minister of Regional Development included on the website: www.eog.gov.pl.
16. Contact details in case additional information is needed
The tasks resulting from the function of the Programme Operator served by the Minister of Health are carried out by the European Funds Department.
Address:
ul Długa 38/40
00-238 Warszawa
For additional information please contact our info-line that operates on working days 10:00-14:00.
Tel. number: 22 530 01 66 or via e-mail: eog@mz.gov.pl
According to art. 35 § 1 of The Code of Administrative Procedure all questions shall be answered immediately (in principle within 21 working days but in justifiable cases this period may be extended).
All information essential to apply is available on the Operator's website www.zdrowie.gov.pl, fold: MF EOG i NMF 2009-2014 (fundusze norweskie i eog) à PL13 konkurs 1/2014.
[1] on the basis of the exchange rate set as the average of the official monthly exchange rate published in the C series of the Official Journal of the European Union for the six month period up until one month preceding the announcement of the call, that is EUR 1 = PLN 4,2108
[2] Letter of intent/partnership agreement concluded with partner from Norway must be prepared in two equivalent language versions i.e. Polish and English.
[3] See footnote 2
POPRZEDNIĄ
NASTĘPNĄ
NIEŚCISŁOŚĆ
Ministerstwo Zdrowia
Ilość fotografii: 7
