Info days on EU programmes held in 11 cities of Serbia, organized by the project "Support to Participation in EU Programmes", aroused great interest. More than 450 participants attended 2 one-day workshops. Through simple, general presentations, but more importantly, through interaction with experts in various fields, they received basic information about:
- EU programmes available in Serbia
- Opportunities and conditions for participation in the programmes
- Matchmaking platforms for participation in EU programmes
- Open calls
- Future programming cycle beginning in 2021, etc.
The aim of the informative workshops was that as many interested, potential participants in EU programmes as possible find out about the existence of the programmes and the opportunities they provide. Therefore, representatives of local self-governments, civil society organizations, scientific and educational institutions, representatives of the economy, especially from the SME sector and entrepreneurship, as well as students, attended the Info Days.
During two months workshops were held in
Subotica, Novi Sad, Belgrade (two), Pancevo, Pozarevac, Zajecar, Kragujevac,
Cacak, Nis, Leskovac and Vranje. In cooperation with USAID, the Serbian
Development Agency and regional development agencies, as well as with the
support of national contact points for the Creative Europe and Europe
for Citizens programs.
As the second cycle of the program in which
Serbia participates is nearing its end and the third is already beginning in
2021, Serbia's goal is to increase the quality and number of projects, as well
as the amount of funds absorbed from EU programmes. The budget of Serbia
allocates money for participation in these programmes, and therefore it is
necessary that the funds we receive from the programmes be greater than the
money invested. In order to achieve this, it is necessary to raise the number
of projects from Serbia, to improve institutional capacities, as well as capacities
of potential project applicants, in order to apply for an adequate program and
to prepare quality project.
The project will help a number of potential
applicants to develop and write project proposals and apply for participation
in an EU programme. To this end, we have been organizing a Training for the
preparation and implementation of projects for EU programmes for three months,
which includes three modules and is held in Novi Sad, Belgrade and Niš.