GORIZIA - A total of 134 project proposals were received by the EGTC GO for the SPF call, which closed today at 1 p.m. The second call for the Small Projects Fund - Small Projects Fund GO! 2025, which is funded by the Interreg VI-A Italy-Slovenia 2021-2027 Program, aims at preparing the cross-border area for the European Capital of Culture Nova Gorica-Gorizia 2025. The total amount available is 1.5 million euros (1,455,674.50 euros to be precise), the single projects can receive between 30,000 and 150,000 euros and must have a maximum duration of 18 months. The call was addressing associations, businesses, organizations, educational institutions and universities, public and private entities. In 2023, when the first call closed, 239 proposals were received by the EGTC GO; after the evaluation, 44 projects were funded. Initially only 27 of them won the call, then, with the additional funding from the FVG Region 17 more projects were activated.

Romina Kocina, Director of the EGTC GO comments: "As we have already experienced with the first call, we have registered a great interest from society and the whole territory for the themes chosen as guidelines for the project proposals. The high number of applications received shows that the EGTC GO understands the needs of the territory and this gives us motivation for the future,". Project proposals for the second call had to focus on at least one of the following themes: active inclusion and participation of children and youth (under 30), green mobility, social and environmental sustainability, enhancing and strengthening the culture of multilingualism, promoting well-being and social cohesion in sports and physical activity that must be accessible to all.

The call was open to the above-mentioned entities from the Friuli-Venezia Giulia Region and the Province of Venice in Italy, and from five Slovenian regions - Osrednjeslovenska, Primorsko-Notranjska, Gorenjska, Obalno-Kraška, and Goriška. As in the first call, for project proposals between €30,000 and €50,000, only one partner is needed, who in any case must ensure the cross-border impact of the activity; to receive more than €50,000, projects must have two partners, one Italian and one Slovenian.

EGTC GO technicians will now deal with the administrative procedure following the submission of project proposals. The first stage consists in checking if the requirements have been fullfilled: projects that are eligible will move on to the second stage of qualitative evaluation, where a score will be assigned, so that the ranking list will be formed. This will be published in the dedicated section of the EGTC GO website in the coming months.