It will be busy weeks for the technicians of the EGTC GO who will have to analyse as many as 239 project proposals received under the first call for the Small Projects Fund GO! 2025, the so-called SPF GO! 2025.

The fund, amounting to about 8 million euros, financed by the Interreg Italy-Slovenija 2021-2027 Programme, to be allocated to small projects and budgets, is closely linked to the title of Nova Gorica and Gorizia European Capital of Culture 2025. Indeed, the EGTC GO was first and foremost the bearer of the candidature for this title and is now responsible, together with the Slovenian public body GO! 2025, for the activities related to it.
The call, the first in a series that will run until 2026, was published on 23 February and remained open for almost two months. During this period, EGTC GO organised three infodays and several technical workshops in order to provide maximum support to the territory. The telephones of the Corso Italia office also rang incessantly in the mornings and afternoons when EGTC GO staff were on call, always ready to answer any doubts raised.

"This was certainly an important first experience for EGTC GO," comments Director Romina Kocina, "which will have its hands full with evaluations throughout the summer. On the other hand, from the numerous meetings in the area in recent months we have understood that there is a lot of attention and interest in seizing all the opportunities to contribute to the European Capital of Culture in 2025".

Evidence of the great interest in the call for proposals is also provided by the website visit statistics: since 23 February, the date of publication of the call for proposals, there have been more than 22,000 hits on the trilingual page of the EGTC GO website with the documentation relating to the call for proposals.

The three mayors of the founding municipalities of the EGTC GO, the mayor of Nova Gorica, Samo Turel, the mayor of Gorizia, Rodolfo Ziberna, and the mayor of Šempeter-Vrtojba, Milan Turk, were also pleased with the result. At the EGTC GO Assembly held on 19 April, they were able to see some provisional numbers from the website statistics and wished the staff good work for the months to come.
The total amount of funds that will go to finance small projects on the territory thanks to this first call amounts to 3 million. The results of the winning projects are expected to be known in late summer.