Answers to FAQ related to the terms of the Open Calls LEGACY II

We will publish here as well as on the FB event HERE, answers to frequently asked questions related to the terms of the Open Calls LEGACY II. We hope the additional details would be helpful to you when planning your activities. Coming soon is also an opportunity for individual online meetings to discuss details and individual issues connected to your projects.

And also check the basic guidelines for beneficiaries - although they refer to the period after winning there are many helpful details which we are sure will assist you in planning better your project application.

If you do not find the answers to your questions - write us legacy@plovdiv2019.eu for the Festivals and Creative Activities and on legacy_plovdiv@plovdiv2019.eu for the Creative Plovdiv Call.

Question 1:

Both of the open calls provision the candidate to plan a public event either in 2021 or in 2022, but not in both consecutive years. If we decide and apply for a public event in 2022, can the project activities start in 2021 and will the costs be eligible?

Answer:
YES, if you choose your public event to be in 2022, you can start the activities in 2021. In order for your expenses to be eligible, the contract between you and the Plovdiv 2019 Foundation must be signed. If your project is for 2022, but you want the costs to be eligible from 2021, the contract should be signed in 2021. The earliest date for signing a contract under the indicative agenda is April 30, 2021. Earliest the prepayment according to the contract, in case your event is planned for 2022, you can receive is not before October 1, 2021.
An event cannot have two main public events in both years, so based on your preparation and partnerships and the terms of the open call - you should prepare your agenda so that it best serves your project.

Question 2:
Two open calls have been announced – ‘Festivals and Creative Activities’ and ‘Creative Plovdiv’ – can one and the same organization apply to both of the open calls?

Answer:
It is important to keep in mind that only creative organizations and artists registered, based and developing their activity in Plovdiv can apply for the open invitation ‘Creative Plovdiv’. The organizations and artists, whose registration and activity are not based in Plovdiv, cannot apply under the open call ‘Creative Plovdiv’.
Under an open call ‘Festivals and Creative Activities’ organizations and artists can apply without restriction of location of registration and activity, in this sense, an applicant that has applied to ‘Creative Plovdiv’ can also apply to ‘Festivals and creative initiatives’, but necessarily with a new different project from the one with which they would have applied to the ‘Creative Plovdiv’.
And have in mind each eligible applicant can apply only once with only one project to the open call, for which it is eligible.

Question 3:
We are a beneficiary who has an approved project under the Legacy I open call and will have our project implementation in 2021. Can we apply with a new edition of the project in 2022?

Answer:
YES, you can apply with a new edition or an entirely new project under the open call Legacy II - obligatory and only for the year 2022 and obligatory with a project that has different content from the approved one under Legacy I.

Question 4:
Both open calls require the applicant to secure a personal contribution to the project but each call and the different categories in it have different rules and regulations – give more details on the matter?

Answer:
YES, the own contribution to both open calls is a mandatory requirement, yet part of it may be a non-financial /in-kind/ contribution.
The ‘Creative Plovdiv’ Call requires a minimum of 30% own contribution from the total project value. The ‘Festivals and Creative Activities’ Call, which is divided into two categories fixes for Category 1 a minimum of 50% contribution of the total project value, and for Category 2: at least 30%.
Of these percentages own contribution, for both open calls, 20% can be non-financial /in-kind/ - with resources of the organization or third parties agreed by it. The non-financial contribution is subject to the following conditions:

• Includes land, real estate, equipment and / or materials, research or professional activities, or free, voluntary work, etc. provided for the purposes of the project
• If provided by a third party (e.g., a government institution, business, etc.) that is not a project partner, this contribution should be presented as a non-financial contribution, provided by the partners, who will use it to carry out the project activities ( e.g., “airline tickets, overnights, advertising space and packages, food, supplies, printed materials, etc.).
• In the case of land and real estate, the value is certified by an independent appraiser or the relevant officially authorized institution.
• In the case of free voluntary work, the value of that work is determined in accordance with the time spent and the standard payment for the type of work involved. The non-financial contribution to the budget is indicated at application, in the form.

Do not forget the condition that for each of the open calls there is a certain maximum limit that you can apply for as funding of Plovdiv 2019 Foundation - for ‘Creative Plovdiv’ this limit is BGN 70,000, for ‘Festivals and Creative Activities’ - for category 1 the limit is BGN 200,000, and for category 2 - BGN 10,000. This is the maximum of funds you can ask for funding from the Plovdiv 2019 Foundation, not the maximum of the entire project you are applying for. The percentage of your own contribution should be added to the funds you seek for funding.

Question 5:
For both of the Open calls - is the project implementation restricted only to the territory of Plovdiv and how we should plan the Stages of the activities, required in the application form?

Answer:
YES - for both of the open calls there is an obligatory requirement that the implementation be only in Plovdiv. Please consider the important aim and goal of the European Capital of Culture Initiative of decentralisation when planning your ideas. Concerning the Stages of the activities which are part of the application form - should present a calendar of the main activities as part of your project - planning, preparation, public events, PR and promotion, and please pay attention specially - reporting of your project as part of the stages of activities. The duration of your contract and project, in case of approval by the jury, is based on the stages described in your application form and should include the reporting you have to submit to Plovdiv 2019 Foundation.

Question 6:
Which expenses of our project may be requested and planned to be covered by Plovdiv 2019 Foundation and since when do we have the right to make expenses which are subject to verification within the project?

Answer:
The most essential thing is to plan your budget as realistic as possible and in compliance with the necessities of your project. A realistic budget is one of the important points in the evaluation methodology. Have obligatory in mind that if you have administrative expenses such as office space rent, consumables, office maintenance, catering, administrative manager and project accountant, etc. they can not and should not be placed as funding by the Plovdiv 2019 Foundation - they should obligatory be placed as foreseen from your own contribution. The same is valid for costs of acquiring tangible and intangible assets, repairs. Do note that you can not claim either for funding from Plovdiv 2019 Foundation nor from your own expenses - interest costs on loans, debt service fees and penalties for late payments, fee costs, losses from currency exchange subject to VAT refund, costs covered by other sources, fines and penalties for court fees processes, costs incurred because of a change that has not been agreed in advance in writing with the Plovdiv 2019 Foundation. Please read in detail the information published in the Beneficiary Guidelines, available HERE.
All costs that are subject to verification can be made and одиеяеех for reporting only after the date of signing the contract - ie. any expense incurred under the project /if such/, but before the date of signing the contract will not be subject to verification - regardless of whether they are from your own contribution or from the amount that would provide the Foundation "Plovdiv 2019". If you still have an expense incurred before the date of signing the contract, it remains out of the budget amounts described in the contract and will not be taken into account when verifying costs and calculating the commitment rates approved in the contract. All expenses that you submit for reporting and verification must be legal, must be made according to the budget form attached to the contract, must be made within disposal of the necessary legal supporting documents - invoices, payment orders, handover protocols and other documents with equivalent probative value and stored in accordance with national law.

Question 7:
We are a cultural operator from Plovdiv and we have a project for 2022 with a budget of approximately 50 000 BGN. Which of the two open calls is more adequate for us?

Response:
The Creative Plovdiv Open Call is deliberately created only for applicants registered and working in Plovdiv and it allows you to apply with the option to receive 70% prepayment of the approved amount of your project. If your total budget is provisionally 50 000 BGN – of them at least 15 000 BGN should be your own contribution /you are allowed to have 20% of this amount as an in-kind contribution/ and a maximum of 35 000 BGN which to request for funding by Plovdiv 2019 Foundation. In this hypothetical division of the budget, for you, although you are also eligible to apply for Category 1 of the “Festivals and Creative Activities' open call, still it would be more adequate to apply to the “Creative Plovdiv’ Call - based on the conditions of prepayments and own contribution and the fact that otherwise, you would be competing together with applicants from Bulgaria and abroad.

Question 8:
 If the project generates a profit, what happens to it, according to the terms of the contract with the Plovdiv 2019 Foundation?

Response:
The revenues generated by the project are reported and can and should be planned in advance, pledged in the budget form as own contribution, used according to the plan and reported by the Beneficiary for financing project activities. You anticipate that your event will take place with paid entry, you plan a realistic price for entry, calculate what attendance you expect, place it in the budget as your own contribution. You make expenses, in compliance with the budget, and after the completion of the project and all costs paid, if there is still a margin - profit /balance of generated revenues/, it is distributed between the Beneficiary and the Foundation in a percentage equal to the percentage between the amount of financial aid and own contribution of the Beneficiary according to the contract. If your project is with 50% support from the Plovdiv 2019 Foundation and 50% of your own contribution, then the eventual profit that remains after the generated income and the necessary expense will be distributed 50% for the Plovdiv 2019 Foundation and 50% for you. Plovdiv 2019 Foundation will invest the received percentage in the next public project with cultural content.

Question 9:
We are a cultural operator, which have had a project submission to previous open calls of Plovdiv 2019 Foundation during the preparation of the title year and the first Legacy programme. Our project has not been selected. Do we have the right to apply now to Legacy II with the same or similar concept and updated project?

Response:
YES, you have the right to apply to Legacy II open calls with a project idea, which have not been selected or had been in the reserves in some of the previous Open Calls of Plovdiv 2019 Foundation. When you do this we recommend you to go through the comments of the jury for your project in the protocol and if you find the notes applicable and helpful have them in mind when you upgrade your project application this time.

Question 10:
I am planning to apply to Festivals and Creative Activities - there are two possible categories in this call - for small projects with up to 10 000 BGN funding and for big projects with up to 200 000 BGN funding, can I apply with two different projects to each of the categories?

Response:
No, you can not apply with two projects for one open call - there are two categories in Festival and Creative Activities, yet the call is one. Nevertheless, If you apply with a project to Category 2, for example, you still can be a partner to an applicant who had chosen Category 1 and vice-versa. All partnerships are a crucial part of the European Capital of Culture Initiative and thus are recommended and foreseen dimension of the projects.

Question 11:
I am self-employed - an individual candidate and not a company or institution. I used to have registration within the BULSTAT /register in the country of residence for self-employed/, currently, I do not have, may I still apply to the open calls by submitting a declaration that in case of selection I will make a registration before signing the contract with Plovdiv 2019?

Response:
Yes, Plovdiv 2019 Foundation makes this exception for individual candidates who would like to apply to the Open calls - that they are allowed on submission of an application to present a declaration that in case of positive selection they will have to register and have an active number within the Bulstat regulator. The declaration should have the following mandatory sentence “In case my project application is approved and we proceed with the signing of a contract I am obliged to make and possess an active Bulstat / /register in the country of residence for self-employed/ prior to the signing of the contract and that without it I can not sign a contract with Plovdiv 2019 Foundation. Please check Q&A 15 too.

Question 12:
According to the requirements of the open calls - the main creative event and aim of the project proposal should be planned for Plovdiv, yet can the preparation activities and their expenses would be eligible if they are planned and take place out of the city?

Response:
Yes, you have the right to make preparations for your project out of Plovdiv. The expenses which are envisioned in the budget, as a legal part of the project and for which you would have correct financial documents are eligible for verification.

Question 13:
When we need to plan the value equivalent of an in-kind contribution should we consider some baseline?

Response:
Indeed there are some basic guidelines especially when you seek to give value to volunteer labour of Bulgarian based partners, and it is the average salary line of the National Statistics Institute – www.nsi.bg/bg/content. When it comes to the value of the usage of space, land, materials - your base should be the average market value. Please consult also the chapter dedicated to in-kind contribution in the Guidelines we have prepared HERE.

Question 14:
Can the application documents be signed with a "qualified electronic signature"?

Response:
Yes. You can submit documents signed by qualified electronic signature. The qualified electronic signature is an electronic signature within the meaning of Art. 3, p. 12 of Regulation (EU) No 910/2014.

Question 15:
I am self-employed - an individual candidate and not a company or institution. Do I have the right to hire employees, artists, equipment, etc. to implement my project or am I obliged to carry out all costs and activities personally?

Response:
You don't just have a right to hire people, equipment, space etc, you only have that right - you, as a candidate natural person registered under Bulstat /register in the country of residence for self-employed/, cannot appoint yourself to perform project activities - you cannot conclude a contract with yourself and pay a fee to yourself, to perform a creative or another task within the project. In this regard, if you want to be the creative executor of your idea - another must be the applicant, and if you want to be the candidate with whom the funding contract is signed, you must hire other people to implement the project.

Question 16:
Each open call has a limit of funding amount - is this the financial limit of the whole project or this is the limit of the sum which the applicant can apply for funding from Plovdiv 2019 Foundation?

Response:

For each of the open calls, there is a quoted maximum limit for funding sought by Plovdiv 2019 Foundation - for "Creative Plovdiv" this limit is BGN 70 000.00, for "Festivals and Creative Activities" - for category 1 the limit is BGN 200 000.00, and for category 2 - BGN 10 000.00. This is the maximum of funds you can ask for funding from the Plovdiv 2019 Foundation, and not the maximum of the entire project for which you are applying. Above the amounts for which you apply for funding from the Foundation, the percentage of your own funding should be added based on the total sum of the whole porject. For example, if you are applying for the "Small Projects" category with a funding limit of up to 70% of the total project and you are applying for the maximum funding limit, this means that the amounts of your project would be:

• BGN 10 000.00 - requested funding from the Plovdiv 2019 Foundation 
• BGN 4 285.71 - your own contribution. Of them, you have the right to present a maximum of 20% (or BGN 857.14) as an in-kind /non-financial/ contribution.