Interreg V-A “Italy-Croatia” 2014-2020

The Italy-Croatia CBC Programme’s overall objective is to increase the prosperity and the blue growth potential of the area. Major assets for the program are: the central location of the sea basin, the maritime character of historical trade relations, the joint value of natural areas and cultural heritage, the shared importance of economy branches exploiting the rich natural sea-based resources.

Four priority axes are identified:

·      Axes 1 - Blue Innovation; aiming at enhancing the framework conditions for innovation in the relevant sectors of the blue economy within the cooperation area.

·      Axes 2 - Safety and resilience; aiming at improving the climate change monitoring and planning of adaptation measures and increasing the safety of the Programme area from natural and man-made disaster.

·      Axes 3 - Environment and culture heritage; using cultural heritage as leverage for sustainable development, contributing to protect and restore biodiversity, contributing to protect and restore biodiversity,
                     improving the environmental quality conditions of the sea and coastal area.

·      Axes 4 - Maritime transport; aiming at improving the quality, safety and environmental sustainability of marine and coastal transport services and nodes by promoting multimodality in the programme area.

MSP and ICM are seen as relevant tools for ecosystem and biodiversity conservation. Synergies with EUSAIR strategy are strongly recommended.

Two calls for proposal have been / are open: they support the selected applications with around 78.200.000 € of ERDF which represents 41,3% of the overall EU budget allocated to 4 Programme Priority Axes. The two calls concern:

·      a call for standard projects with a total eligible budget in a range from € 500,000.00 to €3,000,000 of ERDF is open between 21st April and 4 July 2017

·      a call for standard+ projects with a total eligible budget in a range from € 500,000.00 to €1,000,000 of ERDF, aiming at capitalizing the achievements of the previous programming period by mean of pilot and  
       testing solutions, was open from 27th March to 10th May 2017.

Standard projects  originate from the acknowledgement of a problem or a need and a testing of a potential solution. They should be developed on the basis of an innovative project concept, although capitalisation of previous programming periods’ projects and results is certainly encouraged.

Standard+ projects are operations stemming from existing cooperation potentials of the area – capitalising the achievements of the previous programming period - by means of piloting, testing or implementing in the CB area solutions developed in a larger scale context and in the framework of a 2007 – 2013 ETC Programmes in which Italian and Croatian partners already worked together (Adriatic IPA CBC, SEE and MED).