tenders and grants

partnership

1. INTRODUCTION
Successive European Councils, notably those in Lisbon and Feira (2000), Stockholm (2001) and Barcelona (2002), have acknowledged lifelong learning as a key factor in ensuring economic competitiveness and prosperity, active citizenship, social cohesion and the fulfilment of individual personal aspirations. It is the guiding principle underlying the common objectives of education systems and policy agreed on by the Education Council for the coming decade , and an important contributor to local and regional development throughout the European Union.

Transforming the ‘lifelong learning ’concept into concrete reality, will require the mobilisation of all ‘players ’involved in ascertaining learning needs, opening up learning opportunities for people of all ages, ensuring the quality of education and training provision, and making sure that people are given credit for their knowledge, skills and competencies, wherever and however these may have been acquired. To this end, closer cooperation and partnership must be encouraged between the ‘decision-makers ’and administrative authorities, the many different providers of formal and education and training, organisations with a non-formal learning dimension in the social and cultural field, associations and NGOs, the social partners, and first and foremost the citizens themselves.

Such intensified partnership and networking will be of greatest benefit if it is implemented close to the learners themselves — in the particular social, geographical and economic environments in which Europe's citizens live.

This is why, in its ‘Memorandum on lifelong learning ’issued in the year 2000 , the European Commission placed considerable emphasis on the local and regional dimension of lifelong learning: ‘Regional and local levels of governance have become increasingly influential in recent years in line with intensified demand for decision-making and services “close to the ground ”. The provision of education and training is one of the policy areas destined to be part of this trend —for most people, from childhood through to old age, learning happens locally ’. The memorandum therefore sees mobilising regional and local authorities, but also civil society organisations and associations, in support of lifelong learning as essential, and regards ‘lifelong learning as the driver for local and regional regeneration ’.

Drawn up in the light of the broad and intensive public debate on the memorandum, the Commission's follow-up communication on ‘Making a European area of lifelong learning a reality ’, expresses the view that ‘to promote a culture of learning across Europe, there is a need to develop learning communities, cities and regions and to establish local multifunctional learning centres ’. To this end, it therefore ‘invites the Committee of the Regions, possibly with the involvement of European and national associations of local and regional levels, to promote the implementation of lifelong learning at the local and regional levels, in particular to develop links between local and regional learning centres across Europe through twinning agreements, and the use of ICT with a view to exchanging experience and building bridges between all forms of learning ’and to ‘organise, together with the Commission, a campaign at local and regional level in order to promote and publicise the most effective approaches to lifelong learning ’.

In its Resolution on lifelong learning prepared in response to the communication and at the express request of the Heads of State or Government meeting at the Barcelona European Council, and on which political agreement was reached on 30 May 2002 , the Education Council endorses the importance of the local and regional level in promoting lifelong learning, and identifies this as a priority area for future action.

2. THE ‘R3L ’INITIATIVE
The pilot initiative set out in the present document is a first step to following up the policy priority for the regional and local dimension of lifelong learning, and in particular the Commission's commitment in its lifelong learning Communication referred to above to ‘support through its programmes the establishment of networks between those regions and cities with well-developed lifelong learning strategies, to facilitate the exchange of experience and good practice ’.

Known as the ‘R3L ’(regional networks for lifelong learning) initiative, its purpose is:
—to help further develop good practice on issues relating to the ‘learning region ’, as defined below,
—to encourage a fruitful transnational sharing and exchange of this experience, and
—to promote the development of European networks between learning regions as a means of placing European cooperation in the lifelong learning field on a more durable and sustainable footing.

Within this new initiative, Community support will be provided for projects and networking activities proposed by European networks of learning regions (‘R3L networks ’), each of which will draw together ‘learning regions ’from a number of countries belonging to the European Union and the Economic European Area. Partners from the accession candidate countries may be associated with the networks on an informal basis, provided that their participation is funded by other sources than the Community budget line from which the funds for the R3L initiative as such are drawn.

3. DEFINITIONS
3. 1. ‘Learning region ’
In the context of this initiative, the term ‘learning region ’is used in a broad generic sense referring to a region, city, urban or rural area, regardless of whether its identity is defined in administrative, cultural, geographical, physical or political terms. The learning region must, however, have sufficient size to encompass and mobilise the key players for the purpose of developing lifelong learning as an important factor in promoting regional and local development, social cohesion and the fulfilment of personal potential and aspirations of its citizens.
3. 2. ‘European network ’
Support under the initiative will be provided for projects proposed by ‘European networks of learning regions ’(‘R3L networks ’). To be eligible for support, such European networks:
—must involve ‘learning regions ’(as defined in point 3. 1 above)in at least five of the 18 participating European countries , at least four of which must be Member States of the EU. Within each country, several learning regions may be clustered together to participate jointly in an R3L network, though this is not a requirement (one learning region per country is acceptable). Neighbouring regions on either side of a shared national boundary (‘trans-frontier regions ’)may be involved in the networks on the same basis as any other region; in this case, the part of each country participating in such a region, will be considered a learning region in its own right,
—can be composed of learning regions with similar characteristics and/or needs (e. g. towns/cities/conurbations or parts of these, city-suburb-country links, sparsely populated rural areas, regions in the process of regeneration after industrial decline, peripheral regions in European or national terms, islands, coastal regions, mountain regions, etc. ), and/or learning regions demonstrating differing characteristics . There will be no a priori priority for either of these approaches. It will be up to the applicant to demonstrate the rationale behind the choice of the participating regions, relative to the objectives of the project,
—must consist of a consortium/partnership of organisations in each learning region participating in the partnership, committed as a group to creating/developing a learning region in the sense specified above,
—should involve appropriate public authorities in each of the learning regions participating in the network, though not necessarily as the lead organisation of each participating region,
—should, in those cases where an existing inter-regional network is submitting the project proposal, involve at least two regions which are ‘new ’to the network .

Each European network (‘R3L network ’)must designate an overall coordinating organisation which will have the responsibility for ensuring active and effective coordination of the network's activities, liaising with the European Commission and managing the Community grant. Each of the regions participating in the network must designate a lead organisation in order to ensure effective liaison within the region concerned and with the overall coordinating organisation.

Within each learning region participating in an R3L network, any type of organisation with a demonstrable role to play in furthering lifelong learning and contributing to the learning region will be eligible to take part in the project proposed by the network. These might include those set out below, but it is stressed that this list is purely indicative:
—Local and regional authorities responsible for any aspect of learning as well as related aspects such as vocational guidance and job-search, social services, youth affairs, etc. ,
—General and vocational education and training providers in the public or private sector: kindergartens, schools, higher education institutions, adult education institutions, bodies offering in-service training for education and training staff, providers of general or vocational education or training outside the formal sector, training providers at the level of specific firms or groupings of firms, trade unions or employers'organisations and the educational organisations run by these bodies, chambers of commerce and industry, educational institutions and services sponsored by religious bodies, commercial training providers, bodies offering distance education opportunities, self-organised learner groups,
—Other organisations providing or contributing to learning opportunities of a formal, non-formal or informal nature, such as environmental and consumer protection organisations with an educational dimension; organisations concerned with producing teaching materials; social and cultural organisations (such as libraries, museums, art galleries and organisations concerned with music); sports clubs and other organisations promoting leisure-time activities; parents' associations, organisations concerned with young people or senior citizens, residential homes; hospitals and health-care organisations; equal opportunities bodies; organisations concerned with integrating ethnic minorities, refugees and asylum-seekers; prisons, detention centres and organisations dealing with the social reintegration of offenders.

4. TYPES OF PROJECTS TO BE SUPPORTED AND THEMES TO BE ADDRESSED
Community support will be provided for projects conceived by European networks (‘R3L networks ’)(see point 3.2)which are seeking to improve the performance of their participating regions as ‘learning regions ’and to share experience and disseminate good practice in this regard. Such networks are also seen as a means of establishing a framework for ongoing transnational inter-regional cooperation in Europe in a lifelong learning context.

The projects conducted by the R3L networks supported, will culminate in a major European Conference on regional networking for lifelong learning (the ‘R3L Conference ’), probably to be held in 2004. Each network will be expected to work towards and prepare specific aspects of the conference, in the framework of its workplan. The projects will be monitored and coordinated by the Commission.

4. 1. Themes
Each project will address one or more key aspects of developing and maintaining ‘learning regions ’, by means of a plan of work designed to improve —through sharing experience with partner regions from other European countries —the performance of the ‘learning regions ’ involved in the network. The aspect(s)chosen must be clearly identified and described in the proposal submitted, and the pertinence of the aspect(s)chosen, in terms of the needs of the participating regions, must be clearly demonstrated.

It is expected that the aspects to be addressed by projects may include the —mutually overlapping —clusters of issues set out below, but this is a purely indicative list, intended to provide potential applicants with a clearer picture of the objectives of the R3L initiative:

1. Strategies for developing regional networks for lifelong learning: Ways and means of developing cooperative partnerships between learning providers, tools for auditing learning needs in the region as a whole (‘learning region audit ’), ensuring that the more and less affluent parts of regions can participate fully in the learning region, strengthening links between the public and private sector, improving interaction between formal and non-formal learning (including measures to provide credit for experimential learning), creating integrated or networked local and regional learning centres, use of committees, charters and other forms of leadership development to drive the lifelong learning agenda forward, etc.

2. Lifelong learning and active citizenship in the region: Promoting active involvement in local governance, raising awareness of individual rights and duties as members of society, encouraging social solidarity and inter-generational learning in the local community, harnessing the experience of senior citizens for lifelong learning, protecting the local environment or cultural heritage as a dimension of lifelong learning, etc.

3. Lifelong learning and the promotion of economic growth in the region: ensuring that local labour market and local and regional development are taken into account in education and training programmes and qualifications, improving the employability of people who are out of work, intensifying cooperation between learning establishments and the world of work, analysing the learning needs of local/regional industry, creation of regional skills councils, promoting learning designed to develop a spirit of entrepreneurship in the region, etc.

4. Lifelong learning for the socially inclusive region: schemes to attract hard-to-reach groups back into learning, ‘second chance ’learning, methodologies to boost self-esteem and self-reliance, opening up access routes to learning, innovative campaigns, promotional events and ‘marketing ’ techniques to publicise the advantages and attractions of learning, local and regional learning festivals, use of local media in spreading the lifelong learning message, taking learning opportunities out into people's lives in shopping areas, sports arenas, etc. , integration of people with disabilities through lifelong learning opportunities, gender equality and lifelong learning, learning opportunities as a means of reintegrating offenders into society, family learning schemes, etc.

5. Promoting the multicultural region through lifelong learning: role of education and training in promoting integration, cooperation between learning establishments/NGOs/local authorities/religious groups, lifelong learning provision for migrants/asylum-seekers and refugees, region-wide anti-racism campaigns with a learning dimension, local and regional provision for promoting the learning of languages, etc.

6. ICT and modern media in the learning region: using appropriate technology to link education and training providers, manage lifelong learning systems at local or regional level, improve access to information and guidance on learning opportunities, deliver courses, produce innovative and interactive educational materials, encourage home-school interaction, improve learning and teaching methods, encourage the active personal involvement of the learner, etc.

7. Funding lifelong learning in the region: assessing the resourcing needs of entire regions in an integrated way, innovative funding schemes for lifelong learning at local and regional level, optimising the use of available education and training facilities for the population as a whole, sharing of resources, public-private funding partnerships, personal/individual learning accounts, analysing the effectiveness of European funding instruments for the support of lifelong learning in the region, etc.

8. Support services for lifelong learning in the region: information, guidance and counselling services, general and workplace- related mentoring services, systematic further training of education personnel, partnership between education, training and social services, childcare models to facilitate participation in lifelong learning, etc.

9. Measuring the performance and ensuring the quality of the learning region: regional quality assurance of learning providers, developing indicators and benchmarks for a learning region's progress/performance, learning region charters/labels/codes of good practice, transnational inter- regional assessment of progress and performance (the ‘critical friend ’), etc.

10. Promoting the European and international dimension of the learning region: establishment of inter-regional partnerships as a basis for structured European cooperation and mobility in education and training, systematic exchanges of teaching staff/learners/education managers and decision-makers/counselling and guidance staff and so on, increasing transnational communication between citizens at any age for learning purposes, joint lifelong learning projects, recognition of qualifications obtained in other countries, implementation and exploitation at regional level of the results of projects funded under European programmes such as Socrates, Leonardo da Vinci and Youth, learning regions and town-twinning (innovative integration of schemes for cooperation in education and training within town-twinning schemes).

4. 2. Activities eligible for support within the projects
Provided they contribute to a meaningful exchange of experience and good practice, projects may use any appropriate methods of their own choosing. These might for example include one or more of the following:
—‘action-research ’activities,
—studies, analyses and policy-oriented research,
—conferences and seminars,
—disseminable documentation publicising learning region initiatives,
—reports and surveys,
—audiovisual materials,
—video-conferencing.
In projects addressing Theme 10 (inter-regional schemes for cooperation in learning), the actual mobility costs of teaching staff and learners participating in the cooperation and exchange will be eligible for the purpose of demonstrating the viability and potential of the scheme, provided these costs cannot be covered from other sources, notably Community programmes.

5. SELECTION PROCEDURE AND CRITERIA
The Commission will check the eligibility of proposals (see point 5. 1)and assess those considered eligible against the selection criteria (see point 5. 2)and award criteria (priorities) (see point 5. 3). It may call upon independent experts to assist it in the selection process and reserves the right to request from applicants any additional information, particularly of a budgetary nature, which may be necessary. In appropriate cases, the Commission may invite applicants to amalgamate their proposals.
5. 1. Eligibility criteria
The network must correspond to the specifications set out in point 3. 2 above. The coordinating organisation must have legal status and be located in one of the 18 participating countries. The proposal must be submitted in accordance with point 7 below. It must contain written confirmation from each of the partner institutions involved in the network that it is in agreement with the proposal as submitted.
5. 2. Selection criteria
Proposals will be assessed against the following selection criteria:
—Capacity/potential of the project to:
-generate a fruitful transnational exchange and transfer of experience and good practice, thereby enabling each of the network partners to improve its performance/ progress as a learning region. To this end, proposals should demonstrate that they have assessed the particular needs of the regions participating in the proposed network in this regard,
-contribute to local and regional development and to enhancing innovation capacity in the participating regions,
-improve cooperation, partnership and networking within each of the participating regions, among the organisations involved in any aspect of lifelong learning, thereby demonstrating the added value of the ‘regional ’approach in helping partners to become a true ‘learning community ’,
-reach a substantial number and spread of other regions and communities, also in other European countries (if the project has a strong focus on dissemination of previous results),
-add value/new elements to previous cooperation activities, if the regions involved in the network have already worked together in the past. —Quality of the network partnership:
-demonstration of the particular advantages of the chosen partnership for achieving the project's and the participating regions'objectives, -demonstration of the added value of working in a European partnership to achieve the stated objectives, as distinct from the purely national context; presence within the network of regions from different geographical parts of Europe is encouraged,
-within each of the regions participating in the network: presence of several different types of organisations, and demonstration of the active involvement of appropriate local or regional public authorities (not necessarily as the lead organisation),
-presence of at least two regions ‘new ’to the partnership concerned, if an existing inter-regional network is submitting the project proposal,
-demonstration of the management expertise necessary to conduct the project effectively, particularly in the case of the overall ‘coordinating organisation ’and the lead organisation within each of the participating regions,
-presence if possible of a larger partnership than the minimal requirements set out in point 3. 2.
—Contribution to ‘transversal ’policies of the European Union: capacity of the project to help in a tangible way to:
-promote equality between women and men,
-encourage the integration of disabled persons,
-support sustainable development at regional level,
-combat racism, xenophobia and social exclusion.
—Solidity of the project's management and financial arrangements:
-clear and coherent work plan, and likelihood of attaining the desired goals within the period foreseen (including a feasible and clear timetable with defined interim steps),
-appropriate and clearly defined distribution of tasks across the partnership, and sound structures for project coordination,
-appropriate, well justified and clearly presented budget,
-sound and imaginative monitoring and evaluation arrangements, including the methods envisaged for quality assurance of the project's outcomes and for assessing its impact, in particular at local and regional level,
-capacity/potential to mobilise local and regional co-funding, and if possible to show a potential for sustainability of the network beyond the end of Community funding under the R3L initiative.
—Proposals addressing the European and international dimension of learning regions (Theme 10 under section 4)will be assessed against their capacity/potential to:
-establish an inter-regional network as a basis for placing cooperation between the participating regions in the lifelong learning field on a more durable and sustainable footing,
-develop broad cooperation schemes involving various different types of organisation in each participating region, as distinct from cooperation and exchange involving only one type of organisation (such as schools or universities).

5. 3. Award criteria
There are no a priori priorities in terms of topics to be covered or the nature of the ‘regions ’to be involved. However, when making the final selection among the projects responding to the criteria set out in point 5. 2 above, the Commission will ensure as far as possible that those to be selected for Community support demonstrate collectively:
—a variety of types of regions,
—a broad geographical spread of countries,
—a significant spread of thematic aspects relating to the ‘learning region ’.

6. FINANCIAL SUPPORT
6. 1. The Community's financial contribution
The budget available for the activities to be supported under this Call for proposals is EUR 1, 5 million, drawn from the credits available on Community budget line B3-1000 for the year 2002. It is expected that some 10-15 projects will be supported and that grants will range from around EUR 80 000 to EUR 150 000 per project. However, the amount awarded for each project may vary considerably, depending notably on the type and objectives of project but also on the size and nature of the European network forming the project partnership.

Before taking a final decision on which proposals to support and the grant to be awarded in each case, the Commission will subject the shortlisted proposals to detailed financial examination. Complementary information may be requested from the coordinating organisation or partners, if required. The total amount of funding provided for a project and the relative weight given to the activities for which it is awarded, may differ from those set out in the applicant's initial proposal.

Projects will be supported for a maximum of 18 months and should start from December 2002.

The Community grant is an incentive to carry out an action, and is based on the principle of co-financing, i. e. it complements the applicant's own financial contribution and/or any national, regional or local assistance that has been obtained elsewhere.

The grant will not normally cover more than 60 %of the total cost of each project. However, this may be increased in exceptional cases to a maximum of 75 %, where co-funding is shown to be particular difficult for specific reasons. The grant will be paid in two instalments (80 %soon after signature of the financial agreement, 20 %on approval of final report).

6. 2. Eligible costs
The categories of costs below will be eligible, in so far as they are properly calculated and valued according to market conditions and that they can be identified and verified:
—personnel costs for working on the implementation of the action described in the proposal,
—travel, accommodation and subsistence costs related to the carrying out of the action (meetings, European encounters, mobility for training, etc. ), —publication and dissemination costs,
—equipment costs (in the case of purchase of hardware, only the annual depreciation can be taken into account, in accordance with rules which will be set out in the financial agreement with the grant holder),
—costs of consumables and stationery,
—communication costs,
—contingency provision with a ceiling of 5 %of the total direct costs eligible.
6. 3. Ineligible costs
The following costs will be considered ineligible and should therefore be excluded from the budget set out in the proposal:
—costs incurred by a third party and not reimbursed by the beneficiary organisation,
—contributions in kind,
—expenditure related to infrastructure acquisition (with the exception of the annual depreciation of material purchased),
—expenditure not related to the specific activities of the project (notably, normal running costs of the participating organisations and/or expenditure related to statutory obligations),
—expenditure that is clearly unnecessary or excessive.

7. PROCEDURE AND CLOSING DATE FOR SUBMITTING PROPOSALS
Each proposal must be submitted in one of the 11 official languages of the European Community, by the ‘coordinating organisation ’on behalf of the whole European network participating in the project, using the official application form. This is available at: http://europa.eu.int/comm/education/life/call_en.html or from the postal address indicated below.
The form must be completed in full, and despatched (postmark)at the latest by 15 October 2002 .

Applicants must comply with the specifications set out in the application form, notably as regards the number of copies to be submitted and the additional accompanying documents to be supplied.

In addition, the coordinating (applicant)organisation must enclose with the application, a copy of its statutes or articles of association, except if it is a public or semi-public organisation. This document must be provided in one of the 11 official EU languages.

Proposals should be addressed as follows:
Call for proposals —Learning Regions
European Commission
Directorate-General for Education and Culture
Unit A1 —Lifelong Learning Policy Development
For the attention of Mr A.Smith/Ms S.Somville
B 7 —07/6
B-1049 Brussels
Proposals sent after the closing date or sent in several instalments will not be taken into consideration. Proposals sent via ordinary (non-registered)post, fax or e-mail will not be accepted.

8. INFORMATION ON THE OUTCOME OF APPLICATIONS
The Commission will acknowledge the receipt of proposals as soon as possible after receiving them, and will notify all applicants of the outcome of their application when the selection process has been completed. This notification will probably be despatched in December 2002.