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Culture Bridges: 5 Common Mistakes In Project Applications

Culture Bridges programme manager Iryna Prokofieva shares her views on the most common reasons for failed Culture Bridges grant applications.

Applications' non-compliance with the set technical criteria. From experience we know that a project can be masterfully written but it will still fail because of some minor technical mistakes. For instance, an application is in the wrong language, the timeframe is out of line, or there's no partner organisation where it is a requirement. Unfortunately, we are forced to disqualify such applications.

The lack of downloaded documents. With grants for cooperation projects, we ask for a minimal supporting document package: one registration certificate in any format to certify the legal status of each partner organisation – it can be the same form for each of the two organisations. So, the certificate of registration in any format and in any language. CVs for both project coordinators (one from each of the two partner organisations) and the project budget in a format set by the programme. There were times we would get applications without budget. Well, it's even difficult to comment...

The wrong start or end date of a project. For every call we have a set of limitations: the earliest date the project can be launched and the latest final date the project should be closed. Because of the applicants' negligence the mentioned in the application start day could be, let's say, March 28, while according to the grant requirements it cannot be earlier than April 1. It is such a shame to disqualify a project because of such a hasty mistake.

Non-compliance with the project length limitations set for a certain grant type. In case of a national cooperation grant the project should be 3-6 months long, while with international cooperation the timeline is 3-12 months. Some applications ignored these requirements.

The wrong language of an application. Mobility and national cooperation grant applications are accepted in three languages – Ukrainian, Russian and English. However, international cooperation grant applications can be only in English.

Find more about Culture Bridges programme at http://culturebridges.eu/

The launch of the 3rd call (all types of grants): 14 May 2018

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