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Concept note for the BSCSIF Cooperation Program

1) What is BSCSIF?

International Fund for Cooperation and Partnership of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea is a non-governmental organization established by individuals from ten countries – Romania, Republic of Azerbaijan, Republic of Bulgaria, Republic of Georgia, Republic of Kazakhstan, Republic of Kyrgyzstan, Republic of Moldova, Russian Federation, Republic of Turkey, and Ukraine. This endeavour was inspired by a common idea of the President of Romania, H.E. Traian Basescu, and the President of Azerbaijan, H.E. Ilham Aliyev. The Fund was launched in Bucharest, on March 4th, 2009.

Common values, common interests and common problems requesting to be addressed pointed out the necessity for extending cooperation in these regions and created the premises for defining and implementing sustainable strategies in this wide area, which has a strategic role to play for strengthening the ties between Asia and Europe.

In order to help people belonging to this regions to enhance the cooperation between their countries and to facilitate the cooperation with international organizations, highly esteemed representatives of civil society, scientific researchers, academics, and diplomats decided to establish an organism that would be an alternative to the rigidity of the official high level relations and to pledge for people-to-people contacts and the dialogue between experts in various fields of activity.

This initiative is unique due to the complementary approach of Black Sea and Caspian Sea regions and the attempt to harmonize the interests of these neighbouring countries and to identify common goals and common means for an integrated development.

2) The BSCSIF Cooperation Program (CP)

CP Objective

The main objective of the BSCSIF CP is development of international cooperation and partnership in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea Regions.

CP Thematic fields

The CP will be launched in several Calls, each of them on a different thematic field.

The thematic field of each call will be based on the analysis of priorities and needs of the countries from the extended Black Sea and Caspian Sea regions.

The thematic fields for CP CALLS could cover:

Economic Cooperation focused on:

• Innovation business development in the countries of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea regions;
• Consolidation of partnership relations among business groups’ members from the countries of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea regions.

Democracy focused on:

• Democratization process development in the states of the Black Sea and Caspian Sea regions;
• Implementation of the institutional reforms necessary for the communities' progress and the democratization.

Human Rights focused on:

• Human rights and liberties, liberty of the press and the expression;
• Development of political, economic and cultural citizens’ rights.

Migration focused on:

• Common trends of brain drain circulation in the Black Sea and Caspian Sea Regions;
• Using brain drain for the development of the BSCS regions.

Security focused on:

• Cooperation in security field;
• Nuclear disarming and interdiction of chemical and bacteriological weapons;
• Fight against terrorism, drug dependence, organized crime, traffic of persons and of other negative phenomena.

Knowledge Triangle: Science - Education - Innovation focused on:

• Developing a knowledge-based economy;
• Strengthening research in higher education;
• From science to business: ways of partnership development.

Cultural Heritage focused on:

• Promoting of tolerance and understanding, mutual respect for the cultural patrimony, traditions, habits, religion and other values of peoples;
• Restore the transport channel on the road of "The Great Silk Road".

Environment focused on:

• Water resources monitoring and sustainable management;
• Air pollution control and prevention;
• Ecological agriculture and technologies;
• Waste management and treatment.

Health focused on:

• Healthy way of life within the communities in this area;
• Impact of pollutants on human health and environment.

Energy focused on:

• Development of the environmental friendly energy technologies;
• Energy savings and energy efficiency;
• Transnational ways of energy transportation and exploitation; advantage and problems.

The respective national funding programme would be taken into account.

Management of the CP implementation

The BSCSIF Board of Directors (BD) is the highest decision-making body as regards CP development and management.

The Group of Funding Parties (GFP) are institutions able to allocate financial support either from existing or newly developed national programs for the implementation of Calls under the CP. They could be public organizations/institutions, government and non-government organizations, commercial organizations/structures from the BSCS regions. Nevertheless, institutions from countries other than the BSCS regions interested in joining the CP can also participate by addressing a request to the BSCS BD.  Each institution, member of GFP, will nominate a representative to participate in coordination and decision-making meetings along with members of the BD.

The operational management and implementation of the CP Calls will be carried out by the Cooperation Program Secretariat (CPS) engaging the working staff of the BSCSIF.

The development and management of the CP Calls will include the following steps:

1.             Design and development of CP Policies and Procedures (BD)

2.             Identification of thematic fields (BD)

3.             Design of Invitation Letter and Letter of Intent (CPS) and their approval (BD)

4.             Design  of a Multilateral Agreement (CPS)  and its approval (BD and GFP)

5.             Design of the Guide for Applicants, Call Announcement and Evaluation Guidelines (CPS)

6.             Call launch (CPS, GFP and BD)

7.             Proposals submission (on-line submission system, help-line for applicants) and eligibility check (CPS)

8.             Proposals evaluation (database of evaluators, on-line evaluation system, help-line for evaluators) (CPS)

9.             Panel review discussions and funding recommendations (BD and GFP)

10.        Project Consortium Agreement (CPS and project beneficiaries)

11.        Monitoring of projects implementation based on indicators agreed with the GFP

General eligibility requirements

The project may include dedicated measures to enhance mobility, exchanges and access to medium /large scale infrastructures.

Project consortia should consist of at least three parties out of which at least one from an EU country and by one from a non-EU Black Sea and Caspian Sea countries. Project Coordinator responsibilities might be taken by any of the project consortium members that already had experience in managing international multilateral projects.

The project duration is limited to 2 years.

The submitted project proposals must be in line with the terms and conditions stated in the Guide for Applicants.

Application procedure and evaluation

The application procedure will be in one stage.

The Project Coordinator must submit the proposal on-line, in English, via a centralized web-based call management system. The "Guide for Applicants” and the “Evaluation Guidelines” will be available on the BSCSIF website.

Proposal evaluation will be performed by international independent peer reviewers selected using the BSCSIF Experts Database.  Two-three experts will be nominated per proposal with a balance between EU and non-EU Black Sea and Caspian Sea countries.

Decisions and funding recommendations will be made jointly by the members of the BD and the representatives of the GFP.  Funding recommendations will be officially sent to the Funding Parties authorities for approval.

Funding mechanism

The Funding Parties will contribute to a “Virtual Common Budget” based on the following documentation:

1.      Letter of Intent signed and sealed, stating the amount of contribution and the type of program (existing or newly announced); and

2. GFP Multilateral Agreement;

3. Project Consortium Agreement.

Each Funding Party will allocate funds to support its national teams in compliance with national regulations and requirements.

BSCSIF 1^st Call CP Calendar

BSCSIF Benefits

As result of the CP development, BSCSIF benefits could be the following:

• Existence of a well-defined instrument in the form of Cooperation Program on which base, annual Calls could be launched on pre-determined thematic fields according to the BSCSIF Statute.

• Attraction of national resources and growth of interest on the side of national authorities and other stakeholders in the BSCSIF activities to enhance international cooperation and partnership among the countries from the Black Sea and Caspian Sea regions.

BSCSIF image is the high quality managerial service provider facilitating the implementation of activities of various funding authorities, structures and organizations in the BS&CS region.

FILE TYPE	PROJECT TITLE
	Black Sea Drainage Basin
	BSCSIF - ECOS
	BSCSIF Journal
	Caspian Sea Drainage basin