Funding Guidelines
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- FUNDING
- PRINCIPLES OF ELIGIBILITY FOR GRANTS AND COMPLETION OF THE PROJECT
- FINANCING AND USE OF FUNDS
- REPORTS AND FINAL ACCOUNTS
- PROMOTION AND PUBLIC RELATIONS ACTIVITIES
- COPYRIGHT AND OTHER INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
- PLACE OF PERFORMANCE
- REQUIREMENT OF WRITTEN FORM AND RECEIPT OF NOTICES
- APPLICABLE LAW
- JURISDICTION AND ARBITRAL AGREEMENT
1.1. ERSTE Foundation has started work with three programmes on Social Development, Culture, and Europe, respectively. These programmes deal with the problems of social cohesion, cultural development and the challenges to be met in the course of the European unification process. They are interconnected and form a common platform to promote dialogue and the transfer of knowledge in central and south-eastern Europe. Within its continuously developing work programme, ERSTE Foundation supports legal entities defined under Austrian tax law as non-profit, charitable or church organisations, which were selected in accordance with the legal guidelines of ERSTE Foundation (hereafter also called “beneficiaries” or “project partners”). This funding is hereafter also called “grants”.
1.2. Funding is not subject to a counter-performance but to the implementation of the funded projects in the public interest. These Funding Guidelines therefore deal with the way in which specific projects are funded for charitable purposes, and provide for the substantive and legal relationship between ERSTE Foundation and the project partners in order to ensure the completion of the projects and the appropriate use of the grants.
1.3. Legal entities suitable for funding may not derive from these Funding Guidelines or other documentation of any type published by ERSTE Foundation in whatever manner, any claim to become a beneficiary of ERSTE Foundation or otherwise to receive funding from it.
1.4. Grants shall be subject to compliance by the project partner with these Funding Guidelines and the funding agreements entered into on the basis of these Funding Guidelines.
2. PRINCIPLES OF ELIGIBILITY FOR GRANTS AND COMPLETION OF THE PROJECT
2. 1.The project partner hereby states that it is in possession of all the necessary rights (see item below) required to carry out the project, or will ensure that it is granted all the necessary rights to carry out the project according to the project planning. It further states that it will do everything necessary or appropriate to retain these rights for the whole duration of the project until the end of term of the funding agreement.
2.2. All rights shall mean the licences, permits and concessions, etc., under public law that are needed for the activities of the project partner in general and for the completion of the project in particular. All rights shall further refer to intellectual property rights (e.g. copyrights) required for implementation of the project (including the provisions concerning promotion and public relations activities and intellectual property rights).
2.3. If individual or all the necessary agreements with authors of protected work cannot be concluded despite intense efforts made (especially promotion and public relations activities and intellectual property rights according to the Funding Guidelines), the project partner (or applicant) will, as far as possible, inform ERSTE Foundation in writing, stating the reasons, before the funding agreement is concluded in order to agree the next steps with ERSTE Foundation.
2.4. The project partner further declares that according to its legal basis (statute law, articles of association, deed of foundation, etc.) and its actual conduct of business it directly and exclusively serves non-profit, charitable or church purposes (except for completely subordinate, ancillary purposes), at least for the entire duration of the funding agreement, and that it will use the grants solely for such purposes. Members or associates of a project partner do not receive any profit shares. They receive from the project partner’s funds only those moneys or other non-cash benefits that result directly from the non-profit activity or from ordinary business transactions comparable to those that the project partner would enter into with third parties within its permitted activity
(e.g. customary local payments because of a service agreement or a contract for work). If a member or associate leaves the project partner, only assets that have been made available to the project partner shall be returned, and no other benefits shall be received. If the project partner is dissolved, any liquidation assets shall be used for non-profit, charitable or church purposes.
2.5. The project partner – regardless of any possible joint implementation of the project together with cooperation partners – shall use the grants directly to carry out the funded project. In particular it shall not use grants in order merely to finance implementation of the project by a third party.
2.6. The project partner shall be responsible for the payment of taxes on grants and for paying over any other charges, levies and contributions that become due in connection with the grants and the completion of the project. The project partner shall inform ERSTE Foundation without delay of any circumstances which seem suitable to lead to a modification of the tax treatment of grants or the project partner. Relevant circumstances include especially the issuing or revocation of certificates of entitlement to receive tax-privileged donations and official certificates of public benefit status, changes in the legal form, the address of the actual management and the activities of the project partner, changes to the circumstance whether the project partner has its own staff or premises, as well as changes to the project cost calculation.
2.7. The project shall be carried out by the project partner on its own responsibility. The project partner itself shall ensure compliance with any applicable legal provisions, such as tax law, labour law or social law.
2.8. The project partner shall ensure that the project results do not violate the rights of third parties.
3.1. The funded project shall be financed according to the project financing plan on which the funding agreement is based. The project partner shall inform ERSTE Foundation without delay and in writing of any necessary changes or changes already made to the financing (through agreements with third parties regarding funding or by generating revenues). Such changes shall not be effective without the written consent of ERSTE Foundation, consent being deemed to have been given if ERSTE Foundation does not object within four weeks of being requested to give its consent. ERSTE Foundation shall exercise its rights under this clause in a responsible manner and shall not withhold its consent where changes are reasonable and the completion of the project according to the agreement, especially with regard to quality, is guaranteed.
3.2. The project partner shall use grants in an economical, careful, appropriate and correct way and only to cover costs incurred in implementation of the project in accordance with the project cost calculation on which the funding agreement is based. Any changes to this also require the written consent of ERSTE Foundation according to the principles laid down in paragraph 3.1 above.
3.3. The project partner shall neither transfer (e.g. assign) nor encumber its grant entitlements arising from a funding agreement, except for a collateral assignment or encumbrance in favour of the project partner’s financing banks by way of security for interim financing of a project funded by ERSTE Foundation.
4.1. After completion of the project, the project partner shall within a period of three months transmit to ERSTE Foundation a final activity report on the project and render final accounts documenting the use of the funds provided by ERSTE Foundation under the agreement. The final accounts shall document the total financing and total costs of the project including cost-reducing income and shall be broken down according to the project financing plan and the project cost calculation.
4.2. During the term of a funding agreement and before the completion of the project, the project partner shall submit to ERSTE Foundation a written interim report, in accordance with the respective funding agreement, describing the activities performed thus far in connection with the project and including updated cost calculations.
4.3. If agreed by the funding agreement, the project partner shall set up separate project accounts for the funded project conforming with proper accounting principles.
4.4. If the project partner’s accounts are audited by an independent certified public accountant or auditor, the project partner shall arrange for the auditor or accountant to verify the financial management of the projects funded by ERSTE Foundation within such an audit.
4.5. The project partner shall preserve the originals of all relevant supporting documents and other material for seven years after the expiry of the funding agreement. At the request of ERSTE Foundation, the project partner shall make available the required documentation to ERSTE Foundation without delay. ERSTE Foundation shall return the documents immediately once it does not need them any longer.
4.6. The project partner may not request to inspect ERSTE Foundation’s year-end financial statements, directors’ reports, auditor’s reports and books.
5. PROMOTION AND PUBLIC RELATIONS ACTIVITIES
5.1. It is a matter of central importance for ERSTE Foundation to promote current projects and their results among its existing and potential project partners and vis-à-vis the general public, and to develop the thematic fields under its funding through open communication platforms with project partners, third parties and the general public, especially in central and eastern Europe. It plans to present the projects funded by it and their results through the Internet and other suitable (audiovisual) media, and to make the results of the projects funded by it available to the public via a library (offering also the possibility of loan and reproduction for personal use by users of the library), a media collection and possibly a digital library. For promotion and public relation purposes, ERSTE Foundation may also produce catalogues raisonnés, other catalogues, trailers, reports, exhibition invitations, posters and other advertisements and PR.
5.2. For these promotion and public relations activities, the project partner shall, upon request, make available to ERSTE Foundation also media files meeting the following technical requirements on current projects and their results free of charge:
5.2.1. Pictures
Resolution: 72 dpi; Size: min 320 x 240; Format: JPG, TIFF, GIF
5.2.2. Movies
Max. size: 320 x 240; Format: MPEG (.mpg) – AVI (.avi) – Windows Media (.wmv) – Quicktime (.mov)
5.2.3. Audio
Format: MP3 (.mp3) – Windows Media Audio (.wma)
5.3. The project partner shall make suitable agreements with the authors of copyrighted works or services to ensure their consent with customary derivative works used within the framework of the promotion and public relations activities of ERSTE Foundation. This shall especially include the combination and compilation of media works, and in case of writings, the preparation of titles, headings, summaries and abridgements preserving the meaning, and the standardization of spelling and translations according to prevailing conventions, and in case of visual and audiovisual media, the analogue and digital adaptation of images and sound works within the promotion and public relations work. Details of photographs may be created (except in the case of works of recognized photographic art).
5.4. The project partner shall make reference to ERSTE Foundation as supporter when presenting the project and in all publications relating to it, and shall offer ERSTE Foundation, if it so desires, an opportunity to present itself and its supporting activities in a reasonable and appropriate manner. To this end the project partner shall make available to ERSTE Foundation, at its request, a page in any catalogues or brochures made in connection with the project.
5.5. The project partner shall submit to ERSTE Foundation for its approval catalogues, brochures and other publications presenting the project to the public before placing the print order. ERSTE Foundation shall answer a request for approval submitted by the project partner within two weeks from the date of proven receipt of the printer’s copy. Approval is considered to have been granted if no response is given within two weeks.
5.6. The project partner shall put the logotype of ERSTE Foundation preceded by the note “Supported by funds from” on all printed material related to the project, especially invitations, press information, folders and posters. Should it be impossible for technical reasons to attach the logo, the name of ERSTE Foundation without a graphic representation may be used instead.
5.7. In the case of presentations of the project partner on its website, the project partner shall provide a suitable link to the website of ERSTE Foundation at: http://www.erstestiftung.org. Should ERSTE Foundation request a specific graphic design of this link, for which it can provide suitable media files, the project partner shall comply with such a request as appropriate in the interests of ERSTE Foundation.
5.8. The project partner shall send ERSTE Foundation without delay all press releases and invitations to conferences and other events connected with the project and shall give ERSTE Foundation the possibility of participating in a suitable manner.
5.9. The project partner shall make available to ERSTE Foundation free of charge an agreed number of voucher copies of all publications connected with the project and shall inform ERSTE Foundation in advance of the publishing company and the planned number of copies of publications.
5.10. The project partner shall include ERSTE Foundation in its press mailing list and shall send to ERSTE Foundation within a reasonable period a press review of events connected with the project if it has one.
5.11. ERSTE Foundation may waive the rights granted to it under this paragraph 5 or prohibit the project partner from making reference to ERSTE Foundation in publications.
6. COPYRIGHT AND OTHER INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY RIGHTS
6.1. To ensure that ERSTE Foundation can use the results of the projects, the project partner shall transfer to ERSTE Foundation all appropriate and necessary licences to use works in order to allow ERSTE Foundation to exercise its powers concerning promotion and public relations activities according to paragraph 5 of these Guidelines;
6.2. ERSTE Foundation shall be granted the rights and licences to use works and other licence rights to intellectual property not limited in time and space. They shall therefore not end upon the end of the funding agreement.
6.3. ERSTE Foundation shall be entitled to exercise licences and other rights to use works granted to it together with its cooperation partners, where necessary and appropriate, e.g. publishing houses used for publications, media agencies for films, videos and the Internet.
6.4. ERSTE Foundation may but is not obliged to exercise any and all intellectual property rights granted to it. It has no obligation to exploit rights and licences to use works. It may prohibit additional information in the designation of authorship referring to the support of ERSTE Foundation from being used.
6.5. If the project partner wants to grant to third parties any rights to use works, inventions or services created in the course of a project, it shall reach an agreement about this with ERSTE Foundation. ERSTE Foundation generally has a favourable stance towards publishing project results and shall refuse to give its consent only if essential interests of ERSTE Foundation are threatened or impaired by such publishing.
6.6. In so far as the project partner grants to third parties rights and/or licences to use copyrighted project results it shall require the respective party granted such right and/or licence to refer to or refrain from making reference according to paragraphs 5.4, 5.6., 5.11. and 6.4. of the Funding Guidelines, and further require it to pass on these obligations to its legal successors.
Unless expressly agreed otherwise in writing, the place of performance regarding the obligations of ERSTE Foundation shall be its registered office at the respective time.
8. REQUIREMENT OF WRITTEN FORM AND RECEIPT OF NOTICES
8.1. The written requirement shall also be deemed to be met by notices sent by fax or e-mail, provided that transmission is documented by means of a transmission confirmation.
8.2. Service shall be made to the contacts agreed in the funding agreements, and on the project partner’s side to the project manager in case of doubt, and the agreed address shall be the address given in the funding agreement or the last address made known to the other party to the agreement.
9.1. Austrian substantive law shall apply.
9.2. Intellectual property rights and licences transferred to ERSTE Foundation shall also be deemed to have been granted under any local law governing exploitation (outside Austria) and include all rights of exploitation and defensive rights that the holder of the respective right is given under the local law. An agreed waiver of the entitlement to intellectual property rights by the project partner shall also apply to all kinds of exploitation under the local law as applicable.
10. JURISDICTION AND ARBITRAL AGREEMENT
10.1. For project partners whose registered office and place of their actual management is within the European Union, in Iceland, Norway, Switzerland or Liechtenstein, the courts of Wien Innere Stadt (City of Vienna, Austria) shall have exclusive jurisdiction regarding any and all disputes arising from or in connection with the contractual agreements between ERSTE Foundation and the project partner. As far as permitted, the Wien Innere Stadt courts competent to hear and settle commercial matters shall have jurisdiction.
10.2. If the above provision cannot be applied, any and all disputes from or in connection with the contractual agreements between ERSTE Foundation and the project partner shall be settled exclusively in a binding and final manner pursuant to the Rules of Arbitration and Conciliation of the International Arbitral Centre of the Austrian Federal Economic Chamber in Vienna (Vienna Rules) by an arbitrator appointed pursuant to these rules. Vienna shall be the arbitral venue.