Summary of Info days

The programme organized information days in every region and county of the eligible area related to the 1^st Call for proposals. Altogether 14 events were organized with more than 700 interested potential applicants.

6 info days in Slovakia, 8 in Hungary took place with the cooperation of the self-governing regions and county governments, who are also voting members of the Monitoring Committee, as well as other external partners who has extended professional network in the field of cross-border cooperation. The contribution of the co-organizers was invaluable as they can directly reach out to the local stakeholders, who represent the real needs of the given area.

Approximately the same number of people visited the info days in Slovakia as in Hungary, a little more 350 people in each country. The Slovak events were a bit more crowded due to the lower number of events (60 people), while in Hungary the average number of participants in the info days was about 45 people. The most active Slovak regions were Nitra and Košice, while in Hungary Nógrád county showed the most interest in the present Call for proposals.

Each info day had three sections: Introduction of the Call for proposals, Introduction of the application form and finally a Questions and answers session.

In the Introduction of the Call for proposals the colleagues of the Joint Secretariat presented detailed information about the new programme, its logical structure, the priority axes open for the applications, the application procedure and those issues that are essential to submit an adequate proposal.

In the Introduction of the application form section the colleagues presented the application form sheet by sheet. Apart from the technical information they presented the most important guidelines for the preparation of the budget as well as the content related know-how. All assessment criteria were introduced along with the application form.

The third section, the Questions and Answers was an interactive part of the information day, where the audience could raise those questions that were not answered by the presentations. Many of them very specific and some of them requested more clarification related to the already existing documents. The most frequently asked questions were collected by the JS and published on the website, at the FAQ section.

Based on the results of the feedback forms about the events the Application form and Q&A sections were highly appreciated. However, many new potential applicants were satisfied with the general introduction part, as well, because it helped them to get deeper insight into this cross-border cooperation programme.

All is all we consider that the info days were successful, and reached a significant number of potential applicants. However, the deadline of the application is a few weeks more ahead. Until then the members of the JS keep answering the phones and the emails, and are open for personal consultations. If you need any help or have any questions please do not hesitate to contact us.