The opportunities provided by Interreg NEXT CBC Programme Poland-Ukraine 2021-2027 have been discussed at UzhNU

On Wednesday, December 14, 2022, UzhNU held a Travelling Academy, where scientists and students found out about the activities of the Cross-Border Cooperation Programme Poland-Ukraine 2014-2020, as well as about the opportunities provided by the new Interreg NEXT Programme Poland-Ukraine 2021-2027. The purpose of the event was to inform the participants about the peculiarities of the implementation of cross-border projects and help them master basic skills of project preparation. The event was organized by the experts from the Programme representative office in Lviv (PBU).

Myroslava Lendel, vice-rector for academic policy and research, opened the meeting: "It is nice that today's event has brought together many active representatives of our faculties and students, I am sure that it will be useful for everyone. Today we are having a meeting with our colleagues from Lviv, representatives of the CBC Poland-Ukraine Programme, we have been collaborating with for many years.

Then, those present watched a video about the projects implemented within the framework of the Cross-Border Cooperation Programme. The senior expert of the PBU representative office in Lviv, Vasyl Khimyak, spoke in more detail about the Cross-Border Cooperation Programme, which has been providing support to border regions for 17 years. Until 2022, Belarus had also been included in the programme, however this country's participation was terminated due to its support of the russian aggression.

Vasyl Khimyak said that the following programme would be called "Interreg NEXT Poland-Ukraine 2021-2027" and would be designed for joint projects for Poles and Ukrainians from border communities. The total amount of grants will comprise 187.4 million euros. "What is our main goal? Next year will be very active for us, because a new programme will start and new competitions will be announced. The main objective of this event is to focus on the academic community, and that is why it is called the Traveling Academy, we travel to universities in six regions of Western Ukraine, which are on the territory of the CBC Programme. We also rely on students, because they have a fresh vision, new, non-standard ideas, and this is very important when it comes to projects."

Representatives of six western oblasts of Ukraine - Volyn, Rivne, Lviv, Ternopil, Ivano-Frankiv and Zakarpattya - can join the CBC Programme. In Poland, Podlaskie, Lubelskie, Podkarpackie Voivodeship and part of Mazowieckie Voivodeship can join the Programme.

Any non-profit institutions, communities, NGOs can apply for a grant. It is important that the project must be submitted jointly with a Polish partner organization. According to the terms of the cross-border cooperation programme, 90% of the project is financed from EU funds, 10% must be contributed by the grant winners.

Large infrastructure projects are submitted by regional administrations, regular projects receive from 200,000 to 2.5 million euros (the total budget is 130.6 million euros), and micro-projects for the "cooperation" category receive 60-100 thousand euros.

Projects in the PL-UA Programme will be implemented according to five priorities: environment (facilitation of adaptation to climate change, resistance to natural disasters; access to water, sanitation; protection of nature, reduction of pollution), health (access to medical care, palliative, geriatric medicine), tourism, cooperation and borders. The Interreg NEXT Poland-Ukraine 2021-2027 programme has already been approved by the European Commission, grant applications can be submitted in 2023.

The practical part of the meeting was conducted by the senior expert of the PBU representative office in Lviv, Olena Zubrytska. She told what the project should start with, how to build a "problem tree", what to pay attention to, where to emphasize, and what to abandon while developing a project application.

More information about the Interreg NEXT Poland-Ukraine 2021-2027 Programme can be found at pbu2020.eu/en

 

 

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