Call for peripheral and lagging areas
The third call closed on 10 December 2024. Read more about the next steps and project selection timeline.
About the call
With this call, we invited organisations from across central Europe to develop transnational cooperation ideas for small-scale projects that “pioneer solutions for peripheral and lagging areas, making them more attractive to live and work in”.
We received 140 project proposals bringing together 703 organisations from all programme countries and beyond. If you applied with us, you can find more details about the next steps and the provisional timeline for project selection below.
If the call came too early for you, there is another opportunity on the horizon already. We are planning to open a capitalisation call in the second half of 2025. Details of the call will be further discussed and decided by the monitoring committee next year.
Provisional timeline
Call launch
15 October 2024
Call closure
10 December 2024
Desk assessment
January – April 2025
Online hearings
April – May 2025
Project selection
September 2025
Selection process
Scroll through the list below and find out about the next steps and an indicative timeline for the selection of second call projects.
Formal checks
After closing the call, we immediately check the submitted project proposals against formal and administrative requirements, such as:
- Submission by the deadline
- Minimum partnership requirements
- Lead applicant requirements
- Language requirements (application filled out in English)
- Completeness and compliance of submitted documents
Project proposals that fail to meet the formal and administrative requirements will be considered non-eligible. Lead partners will be informed about the outcomes of these checks.
December 2024 – January 2025
Desk assessment
After the formal compliance check, we fully assess all remaining applications. Quality assessment in the third call is organised in two phases. A desk assessment of all eligible applications is followed by the online hearings of proposals shortlisted based on quality. In the first phase, we assess the applications against the full set of strategic and operational criteria. Each proposal is assessed by two experts. We also perform a State aid assessment.
January – April 2025
Online hearings
Following the desk assessment, online hearings will take place with shortlisted applicants. Hearings offer the opportunity to further explain their proposals as well as to answer questions resulting from the desk assessment. Invitations will be sent at least 10 working days before the hearing. Lead applicants must submit a “pitch deck” based on the PowerPoint template, included in the application package, at least 2 working days before the hearing.
April – May 2025
Selection and contracting
The funding decision is then taken by the monitoring committee based on the full assessment results. The results are communicated to lead applicants and also published on the website.
If selected, a project proposal might still have to address a number of conditions and recommendations to further improve its quality before entering the contracting phase. Projects are expected to start with their implementation once contracting is concluded.
September 2025
Relevant documents
Application package
The application package for the third call contains the legal framework and detailed information about the call and the projects we aim to fund.
Key documents
General information about rules and requirements to be observed when applying with us can be found in the programme manual and strategic documents such as the Interreg Programme (IP).