European project management

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Subtitle: 
How to prepare successful EU structural fund applications
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Aims and scope: 

This course aims to prepare students for the management of European structural fund project applications. After the end of this course, students should be theoretically prepared for the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and European Social Fund (ESF) application process. They should know the general principles of EU regional policy, be able to find a proper operational program, know how to use programming documents, and how to prepare a logic analysis, a project plan, and a budget. At the end of the course, students should be fully prepared to fill in a project application form.

Topics: 

1. Introduction to EU regional policy, European funds and regional development programming. 2. Administrative structure of European Funds Management and possibilities of co-financing the projects – 2007-2013 perspective vs. 2014-2020 perspective. 3. What is a project; why we use project cycle management – approach presentation, phases description. 4. What are the evaluation criteria for optimal project. 5. When a project is feasible: technical, financial, economic and institutional aspects. 6. Do we have to do stakeholder consultation. 7. How to do problem tree. 8. How to convert problem tree into purpose tree, what way should we go. 9. What is intervention logic. 10. How to do logic analyse, what for do we have to do log-frame, are there evaluation criteria in the log-frame. 11. How to prepare the project Gantt chart. 12. How to prepare budget of the project. 13 When an expenditure is eligible. 14. How the project is assessed. 15. Student consultation and test.

Indicative reading: 

Essential reading: European Commission, Project Cycle Management Guidelines, EuropeAid Co-operation Office General Affairs Evaluation, March 2004; European Commission, The New Programming Period 2007-2013: Guidance On The Methodology For Carrying Out Cost-Benefit Analysis, Working Document No. 4, 08/2006; European Commission, Guide to Cost-Benefit Analysis of investment projects. Structural Funds, Cohesion Fund and Instrument for Pre-Accession. Final Report, Submitted by TRT Trasporti e Territorio and CSIL Centre for Industrial Studies 16/06/2008. Further reading: European Commission, DG Regional Policy, 2003, EVALSED: Evaluation of socio-economic development – The guide (http://www.evalsed.info); Nancy N., Alpha Teach Yourself Project Management in 24 Hours, Alpha Books, 2001; Heerkens G.R., Project Management, Mcgraw-Hill Publ.Comp., 2007.

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