2. pants

Selection of

sub projects

2.1 Institutional set-up:

The SIF Council, which is

appointed and approved by the Cabinet of Ministers, shall act as

the Steering Committee for the operation and is responsible for

administrative, financial and technical implementation of the

Fund. The SIF Council takes decisions with regard to approval or

rejection of each proposal. The Evaluation Committee, appointed

by the SIF Council, will carry out the quality assessment of

applications for grants. The Evaluation Committee consists of 5

voting members selected on the basis of open competition,

including the NGO community, and a non-voting chairman

representing the Intermediary. The Evaluation Committee reports

to the SIF Council. The Director of SIF has the signatory powers

of the Fund and functions as the executer of State budget

allocated for Fund. The grant contract with the end-recipient

shall be signed by the Director of SIF.

2.2 Selection process and

procedures:

The availability of grants from

the Fund shall be announced in an open call. Applications shall

be submitted to the Intermediary, which shall conduct the

administrative and eligibility check of applications and

sub-projects. The eligible applications shall be forwarded the

Evaluation Committee for quality and financial assessment.

External assessors may be involved in the appraisal of the

sub-projects. The Evaluation Committee shall provide a ranked

list of projects for approval by the SIF Council.

The Intermediary shall inform

applicants whose applications are rejected about the reasons for

the rejection. Applicant whose application is rejected due to

non-compliance with administrative or eligibility criteria can

request the Intermediary to review its decision. The applicant

shall submit such a request within 10 days from being notified

about the rejection and shall provide reasons for why the

decision should be overturned.

2.3 Selection criteria:

All applications are subject to

administrative and eligibility checks described in all three

activity support measures (annex 2, 3 & 4 to the

application). Separate selection criteria for quality assessment

have been developed for each measure reflecting the main

objectives (sub criteria are developed under each main

criterion):

Measure 1:

A set of evaluation criteria are

developed covering the following subjects (sub criteria are

developed under each main criteria); applicant's previous

activities; annual work program; activity long-term program.

Measure 2:

A set of evaluation criteria are

developed covering the following subjects (sub criteria are

developed under each main criteria); necessity for capacity

building; long-term action plan; relevance and nature of

sub-projects; applicants' implementation capacity.

Measure 3:

A set of evaluation criteria are

developed covering the following subjects (sub criteria are

developed under each main criteria); budget and

cost-effectiveness; relevance; methodology; sustainability;

financial and operational capacity.

Scoring (for all measures):

The evaluation criteria are

divided into sections and subsections. Each subsection must be

given a score between 1 and 5 in accordance with the following

guidelines:

1=very poor; 2=poor; 3=adequate; 4=good; 5=very good. The

applications with the highest scores shall be given priority when

grants are awarded. The maximum score is 100.

2.4 Open calls and availability of

funds (including number of calls, duration of calls, and

estimated size):

Measure 1:

Total indicative amount that is

available for measure 1 is 40% of total grant amount, that is

2,106,268 EUR. The Intermediary shall organise four calls for

measure 1. The first call shall be opened as soon as possible

after the Grant Agreement enters into force. The second call

shall be opened no later than 1 October 2007, the third no later

than 1 October 2008, and the last one no later than 1 October