Programme Category
Programme Name
Programme Description
The general objective of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (‘Mechanism’ or ‘UCPM’) is to strengthen the cooperation between the Union and the Member States and to facilitate coordination in the field of civil protection in order to improve the effectiveness of systems for preventing, preparing for and responding to natural and man-made disasters.
Identifier Code
Call
Summary
The overall objective of the Union Civil Protection Mechanism (UCPM) is to strengthen the cooperation among Member States in the field of civil protection to facilitate coordination to improve the effectiveness of system for preventing, preparing for, and responding to disasters. Any country in the world overwhelmed by a disaster can call on the UCPM for support. By pooling the civil protection capabilities of the Member States, the UCPM can ensure better protection primarily of people, but also of the natural and cultural environment and of property, thereby contributing to more resilient societies.
The overall objective is to improve civil protection preparedness and response to all kinds of disasters inside the Member States/Participating States of the Mechanism by providing a testing environment and a learning opportunity for all actors involved in civil protection assistance interventions: a full-scale exercise.
Detailed Call Description
The scenario for the exercises should build on risk assessments.
Examples can be, but not exclusively, extreme weather, wildfires, floods, earthquakes, tsunamis, industrial risk, critical infrastructure disruption, marine pollution, epidemic/health risk, CBRN and multi-sectorial emergencies.
In addition to the main theme, cross cutting issues such as gender, age, persons with disabilities, human rights, environmental sustainability, green economic practices, digitalisation, resilience in infrastructure, the protection of cultural heritage, etc. are encouraged to be considered and included as relevant. Civil-military cooperation could also be envisaged in the exercise scenario.
The beneficiaries will design, plan, conduct and self-evaluate one full-scale exercise project in Member States. The minimum requirements that have to be envisaged in a UCPM full-scale exercise project proposal together with practical advice and standard terminology with the aim to facilitate the process of applying for a call for proposal are described in the Technical Guide for UCPM full-scale exercise and are mandatory to be considered eligible for funding. The FSX should not be conducted in the first 12 months of the project period.
The full-scale exercise project must include the following elements and activities:
- Activation of the Mechanism: The UCPM must be activated, whereby all the procedures involved are tested, developed and/or used as learning and exploring opportunity.
- EU Civil Protection Team: A EUCP Team must be deployed at least during the full-scale field exercise and its dimension and composition should be adapted to the features of the exercise (minimum four members).
- Deployment of Modules and/or other response capacities (full team or skeleton teams depending on the scenario and objectives).
- CECIS or CECIS Marine Pollution: The Common Emergency Communication and Information System (CECIS) shall be used, as a minimum, during the request, offer and acceptance of assistance by the Member States. During marine pollution related exercise, CECIS Marine Pollution shall be used.
- National operational structures: The national operational structure of each applicant’s national civil protection or marine pollution competent authority, as necessary depending on the exercise scenario, must take part in the exercise as exercising audience.
- EU Host Nation Support Guidelines: The established cell or liaison officers responsible for HNS in case of emergency shall be involved as exercise audience.
- EU Observers programme: minimum 10 observers trained in the UCPM (minimum MBC, CMI, TEC or equivalent in the new UCPM training programme) will be part of the EU Observers Programme during the full-scale field exercise. The observers must have as a minimum, B1 in English.
- Evaluation: A proper evaluation must be implemented for the whole full-scale exercise project, from the starting date to the end of the project, namely the preparatory actions, the different exercises, and the after-action activities.
- Other activities: This full-scale exercise project must comprise the following activities (unless specified as optional in the Technical Guide for UCPM full-scale exercise): A mandatory full-scale field exercise along with a minimum of one previous exercise in a progressive approach. This previous exercise can be either a table-top, a command post or both.
- Table-top exercise with a minimum duration of 8 hours.
- Command post exercise with a minimum duration of 8 hours.
- Full-scale field exercise with a minimum duration of 36 hours.
- Social Event, following the ENDEX, in which all participants must be invited.
- After-action activities:
- Workshops and seminars.
- Way forwards meeting focusing on the implementation of the lessons identified.
Non-eligible activities: The following activities are not considered as eligible for funding under the Full-scale exercise topic:
- Online platforms: To avoid duplication with the UCPKN online platform, proposed projects should make use of the existing features and tools available on the platform for their project activities. If relevant, outputs and activities should be linked to the UCPKN platform and shall not replicate or foresee the development of similar online platforms. It is possible that several project outputs may be selected to become integrated into the UCPKN online platform.
- Full-scale exercises in Eastern and Southern Neighbourhood countries that can be funded under other UCPM programmes (i.e.: PPRD EAST, IPA CARE).
- Financial support to third parties is not allowed.
Call Total Budget
Financing percentage by EU or other bodies / Level of Subsidy or Loan
The costs will be reimbursed at a maximum funding rate of 90%.
EU contribution: Up to €1.000.000 per project co-financed under all call topics.
The grant awarded may be lower than the amount requested, with a minimum of €500.000.
The grant will be a budget-based mixed actual cost grant (actual costs, with unit cost and flat-rate elements). This means that it will reimburse ONLY certain types of costs (eligible costs) and costs that were actually incurred for your project (NOT the budgeted costs).
For unit costs and flat-rates, you can charge the amounts calculated as explained in the Grant Agreement (see Art. 6 and Annex 2 and 2a).
Thematic Categories
- Justice - Security
- Other Thematic Category
- Public Administration
Eligibility for Participation
- Central Government
- International Organisations
- Legal Entities
- Local Authorities
- NGOs
- Non Profit Organisations
- Other Beneficiaries
- Private Bodies
- State-owned Enterprises
Eligibility For Participation Notes
In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must:
- be legal entities (public or private bodies)
- be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:
- EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)
- UCPM Participating States16: Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Iceland, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Serbia, Türkiye and Ukraine (list of participating countries).
- European Neighbourhood Policy countries and IPA Beneficiaries are not eligible as member of the consortium but, if an agreement with the project’s consortium is reached, they may participate with teams and capacities in the field exercise. There are separate specific EU funding programmes that accommodate the needs of these countries.
Consortium composition
- Proposals must be submitted by a consortium consisting of at least three beneficiaries from a minimum of three different eligible states.
- One applicant will be acting as coordinator. This role should be covered by the host country for the exercise. The coordinator will be responsible for managing the action, submitting reports and deliverables and acting as intermediary for all contacts with the Commission.
- The coordinator should be a civil protection public entity.
- International organisations may participate in the consortium only in addition to the minimum three eligible applicants and cannot act as the coordinator.
- Affiliated entities are not counted towards the minimum consortium requirements.
Reminder:
- Only entities from Member States and International Organisations are eligible.
- International organisations may work in cooperation with entities from EU Member States and UCPM Participating States but cannot act as lead consortium partner nor does their participation count for the “minimum number of entities” abovementioned.
- The proposal needs to show that a meaningful contribution to the project is made by all of the beneficiaries participating in the consortium, which ensure that the minimum eligibility criteria are met, and to demonstrate that activities and results will be developed jointly in partnership. All the proposals, regardless of the composition of the consortium, must demonstrate relevance and added value for the UCPM.
Call Opening Date
Call Closing Date
National Contact Point(s)
Civil Defence, Ministry of Interior Affairs
Kyriakos Hadjigeorgiou
Senior Civil Defence Officer
Telephone: +357 22 403448
Email: khadjigeorgiou@cd.moi.gov.cy
EU Contact Point
For help related to this call, please contact: ECHO-CP-KAPP@ec.europa.eu