Within the scope of the “Local Integrated Development” (LID) project, which is primarily funded by the European Union (EU) and implemented by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) in Bosnia and Herzegovina, the „Public call for participation in the COSME training of trainers (ToT) programme“ has been announced.

This public call will provide an opportunity to representatives of development agencies, business development support organizations, business advisory support organizations to participate in a specialist training programme for preparation of applications for EU-COSME programme and provision of advisory support to BiH SMEs interested in submitting applications for EU-COSME programme and/or other EU funds.

COSME is the EU programme for the Competitiveness of Enterprises and Small and Medium-sized Enterprises (SMEs). It runs from 2014 to 2020 with a planned budget of €2.3bn. COSME will support:

·         better access to finance for SMEs;

·         access to markets for SMEs;

·         more favorable conditions for business creation and growth;

·         entrepreneurship.

The main goals of this public call are the following:

·         To strengthen capacities of development agencies, business development support organizations and business advisory support organizations in the context of preparing applications for EU COSME programme and provision of advisory support to BiH SMEs during the preparation of applications for EU COSME programme and/or other EU funds;

·         To raise awareness of the importance of EU funds for the development of the BiH private sector and development opportunities offered within those funds.

Under this call, eligible applicants will be engaged in the specialist two-day training for trainers (ToT) programme. The training programme will be specifically tailored to the needs of the target group, focusing on the technical aspects and the COSME application preparation process, with the participation of relevant guest lecturers and practical work on the real COSME call. The provisional training timeframe is the second half of July 2018.

All applications, including supporting documentation (in PDF format), should be submitted electronically via e-mail registry.ba@undp.org with an e-mail subject „Project LID: Application for participation in training of trainers (ToT) COSME programme“.

The deadline for submission of applications is 10 July 2018 until 17:00 hrs., CET. Applications received after the expiry of the deadline will not be considered.

During the public call duration, all additional inquiries can be submitted via e-mail registry.ba@undp.org, with clearly stated reference of the public call in the e-mail subject.