Environmental Fund – First call for projects

12 September 2014

Introduction

For each megawatt-hour sold as EKOenergy hydropower, a contribution of minimum €0,10 (ten eurocents) is paid into the EKOenergy Environmental Fund. The money of the EKOenergy Environmental Fund is used to finance measures that mitigate the adverse environmental effects of hydropower installations. During its history, the Fund has donated €600,000 to projects related to fish passes, fish pass research and river restorations. You can find more information about the previously funded projects here.

For this round, we are looking for projects in the countries where EKOenergy has been produced and where EKOenergy has been sold in 2013 and 2014. Most of the money will go to projects in Norway and Finland. We also accept small project proposals from Romania, Latvia and Iceland.

The amount to be granted is maximum €50,000. The project has to start in 2015, preferably in the first half of 2015.

Deadline for submission is 09 November 2014.

Contact: infosmall ekoenergy symbolekoenergy.org

Our evaluation criteria

  • Experience, solvency and reliability of the organisation (20%)
  • Quality and efficiency of the project (20%): effectiveness, efficiency, relevance, impact and visibility, ownership, gender diversity
  • Long term viability, sustainability and replicability of the project (20%)
  • Contacts with local stakeholders, solid local counterpart (20%)
  • Complementary goals with EKOenergy (20%): Share the goals of the coalition and specialise in promotion of river restoration and fish migration.

Send us your projectIllustration_River_restoration_EVS_Volunteers_Murronjoki_Finland

Submit your project proposal as a pdf of maximum 5 pages. The first proposal has to be in English, Finnish or Swedish. The EKOenergy Secretariat shortlists 5-10 best projects. The shortlisted projects will be sent to an external jury for evaluation. At this phase all proposals must be translated into English.

Annexes can be in any language, and can be longer than 5 pages. Send all documents to infosmall ekoenergy symbolekoenergy.org.

The proposal has to contain the following information:

1. About yourself

  • Which organisation will be in charge of the implementation of the project?
  • Communication: preferably an organisation with a solid external communications strategy
  • Experience: preferably having at least 5 years of previous experience of similar projects
  • Having a transparent and audited book keeping

2. About the project(s)  

  • What projects would your organisation be able to set up in Finland or Norway with €50,000 or less? Which projects would you be able to implement in Iceland, Latvia or Romania with €5,000 or less?
  • What are the positive environmental impacts of these projects in terms of mitigating negative impacts of hydropower production?

Please briefly refer to the following aspects

  • Relevance of the project in terms of EU and national river basin management plans, especially as measures that improve the ecological state of rivers and riparian zones
  • External communication strategy of project work and its results
  • How will the project be followed up after finalisation?

Other information and guidelines

  • Information you send us will be shared with evaluators and with the members of the network (34 NGOs of different European countries)
  • If you e-mail us, and you don’t get a confirmation mail within 48 hours, please resend your mail.
  • Please indicate clearly whom we should contact if we need additional information.
  • With regard to auditing and reporting (once the project is finalised): The exact procedure will depend on the granted amount, and will be specified in the contract between EKOenergy and the selected organisation(s).