Assessment and selection procedure

After registration, each application submitted will be subject to an assessment and selection procedure. The application procedure regarding regular projects is expected to take approximately 10 weeks from submission of the application while as small-scale project applications will be assessed within approximately 6-8 weeks from submission of the application.

Admissibility and eligibility checks
In order to be considered for funding from the Programme, each application must pass the admissibility and eligibility criteria. The admissibility and the eligibility check will be made shortly after receival of the application. An application could be rejected at this stage if it does not meet the criteria.

It is possible for the applicants to add information to the application to solve formal and technical issues within a short deadline on a request from the Joint Secretariat. If satisfactory answers are not received, the project will not move on to further assessment of the quality criteria.

Admissibility Check
When the application is received it will be checked for its admissibility. Non admissible applications will be rejected. The checks in this stage are:

1. The application must be submitted in Min ansökan by the deadline of the call. Applicants can find relevant call dates on the website. These are announced on beforehand. No deadlines for small-scale projects.
2. The application must be completed in English, it must be correctly filled in, and all sections must have been completed with consistent information. Before submitting the application in Min ansökan, the applicant is advised to double check that all texts in Min ansökan are in English and that the form is correctly filled in (all fields have been filled in).
3. The signing document regarding the application is signed by the authorized signatory. The authorized signatory is a person holding the right to sign documents on behalf of the Lead partner organisation. In case of projects with both LP EU and LP Norway, a signing document needs to be signed by both partners. The application shall be supplemented with documents to verify who is the authorized signatory holding the right to sign documents on behalf of the Lead partner organisation (-s).

Eligibility Check
If the application is admissible it will be checked for its eligibility. Non eligible applications will be rejected. The checks in this stage are:

1. The project duration and request for funding must be within any limits set up.
2. The co-financing of the project must be clearly specified in the application. Apart from the EU-funding and the IR-funding the co-financing can be either own financing or financing from other external sources. The partners must bear the risk of not receiving applied co-financing from external sources. In those cases, the partners must finance the costs by themselves. When submitting the signing document, the Lead partner certifies, on behalf of all partners, that all partners will commit to the project and bear full responsibility of the co-financing if external funding will not be approved or paid. If a project, during the assessment procedures, finds out that external co-financing will not be approved, there is always a possibility to withdraw the application of funding from Interreg Aurora if partners do not have the resources to finance the lack by themselves. Lead partner shall inform the Joint secretariat as soon as possible on any changes in the co-financing plan and if the application is still valid or if they wish to withdraw.
3. The project must comply with relevant legislation such as eligibility of expenditure rules and state aid.
4. There must be no indication of double funding of activities.
5. There must be no indication of negative impact on social, ecological or economic sustainability.

Selection criteria
Applications that passed through the admissibility and eligibility assessment will be evaluated and ranked based on the selection criteria. Projects need to have a certain score to be proposed for funding. Based on the assessment the Joint Secretariat will prepare proposals for selection.

Scoring
All project applications and project types will be evaluated according to the Mandatory selection criteria and Qualifying selection criteria.

If the application is within sub-area Sápmi, four Additional selection criteria will be used to ensure that the project support the Sápmi values and are carried out with Sámi participation.

Small-scale projects within both sub-areas, will be assessed in proportion to the scope of the project-type and the assessment will be adapted accordingly.

Mandatory selection criteria 0-14 points

Small-scale projects and regular projects within both sub-area Aurora and sub-area Sápmi need to have at least 1 point per criterion and a minimum score of 7 points to be approved for financing.

Qualifying selection criteria 0-8 points

Small-scale projects and regular projects within both sub-area Aurora and sub-area Sápmi can collect extra points for a higher score.

Sub-area Sápmi selection criteria 0-8 points

Small-scale projects and regular projects within sub-area Sápmi need to have at least 1 point on two separate criteria, and a minimum score of 9 points to be approved for financing.

Mandatory selection criteria
At least 7 points are needed to be considered as an approval.

If the assessment is deemed a zero in any of these criteria, the project will be proposed as a rejection.

Qualifying selection criteria
Interreg Aurora has four qualifying selection criteria where the project can collect points to be presented as an extra strong contribution to the programme goals. An application can receive 0-8 points from this section.

Additional selection criteria Sápmi
An application needs to have at least 1 point from two separate criteria to be proposed for approval. If the assessment is deemed lower than the limit, the project will be proposed as a rejection.

* Arbediehtu means, transferring the knowledge, which is linked to the traditional Sami livelihood, within Sami businesses and livelihoods. The central part in this transformation is also the Sami languages and the interaction with nature. Arbediehtu is the core element for the Sami culture, languages and for the Sami businesses.