EEA Grants Polish seed money fund to be launched in mid-December

A contract between the Financial Mechanism Office and the ECORYS Polska consultancy for the administration of a €2 million seed money fund was signed on 27 November, paving the way for assistance to the development of promising project ideas by Polish actors and their partners from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway.

The seed money fund will provide easily accessible grants from between €5,000-20,000 for applicants aiming to develop proposals for the next calls for proposals planned in Poland. Additionally, the seed money fund will provide grants between €5,000-10,000 to prepare projects to be submitted to the planned fund for non-governmental organisations that will be established in Poland under the financial mechanisms.

ECORYS Polska plans to launch the seed money fund on 15 December 2006, with continuous assessment of applications. The Polish seed money fund is limited to supporting partnership project ideas that are jointly developed by actors from Poland and those originating in the donor countries: Iceland, Liechtenstein or Norway.

ECORYS Polska will develop a separate application form and a short user guide for potential applicants, and aims to assess incoming applications within 10 working days and have a grant agreement in place within 15 working days. Full details about the Polish seed money fund will be available shortly at the ECORYS Polska website www.ecorys.pl.