On 15 October 2024 Interreg Central Europe will launch its next call for proposals for transnational cooperation ideas for small-scale projects. The objective of the call is to address issues of remote, peripheral and lagging areas, how to make them more attractive to live and work in.
The deadline to submit the proposals is 10 December 2024. A new feature of the selection process is the hearing, where applicants have to deliver a short pitch deck and explain proposals “in their own words”. The hearings will be held in English.
There is no specific list or map of eligible regions to be targeted by projects but in order to qualify for the territorial focus of the call the projects should focus territories with on one or more of the following characteristics:
- Low economic potential;
- Poor access to services of general interest, often affected by demographic change;
- Lack of relational proximity, decline in significance, influence or connectivity.
Targeted areas may be rural but may also include urban areas which are lagging behind in terms of socio-economic development. Their scale and size can vary depending on the project goals, e.g. ranging from local neighbourhoods (e.g. suburbs), city districts, villages and rural communities, small-or medium-sized towns or entire regions that are suffering from peripherality or that lag behind.
The call will be thematically focused and be open for proposals in four programme specific objectives (SOs):
- SO 1.2: Strengthening skills for smart specialisation, industrial transition and entrepreneurship
- SO 2.5: Greening urban mobility
- SO 3.1: Improving transport connections of rural and peripheral regions
- SO 4.1: Strengthening governance for integrated territorial development
Projects shall promote good governance through inclusive and participatory processes, on supporting socio-economic transformation by developing human capital and improving connectivity and governance in the concerned territories.
