The European Union has announces a call for proposals for the SWITCH-Asia - Promoting Sustainable Consumption and Production.

Objectives and Priority Issuess

The global objective of this call for proposals is to support the development of a green, low-carbon, resource-efficient and more circular economy, and to contribute to economic prosperity and poverty reduction in Asia.

The specific objectives of this call for proposals are:

• to develop and adopt less polluting and more resource-efficient and circular products, processes and services by MSMEs allowing their integration to global greener value and supply chains and,
• to promote more sustainable consumption patterns in Asia.

In line with the priorities of the European Green Deal and notably with the Circular Economy Action Plan, the Farm to Fork Strategy and the EU Biodiversity Strategy 2030, the priorities of this call for proposals are:

• Priority 1: « Support MSMEs in reducing the environmental impact of their industrial production, improving resource efficiency and adopting circular economy practices »
• Priority 2: « Engaging with consumers on sustainable consumption and production practices »

Funding Information

The overall indicative amount made available under this call for proposals is EUR 32.600.000. The contracting authority reserves the right not to award all available funds.

Size of grants

Any grant requested under this call for proposals must fall between the following minimum and maximum amounts: 

• minimum amount: EUR 1.000.000
• maximum amount: EUR 2.500.000

Eligibility Criteria

Lead applicant(s)

In order to be eligible for a grant, the lead applicant must:

• be a legal person, and
• be non-profit-making, or
• be a business and for-profit organisation (e.g. Micro-Small-and-Medium-Sized Enterprises/MSMEs, retailers, chambers of commerce, industrial clusters or associations), national and regional clean production centres, universities, research centres, centres for technology transfer, consumer organisations, development organisations, trade federations and labour organisations, or
• be a specific type of organisation such as: non-governmental organisation, public sector operator. International organisations (as defined by Article 156 of the EU Financial Regulation) are not eligible under this call for proposals, and
• be established in a Member State of the European Union (Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Republic of Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden) and United Kingdom
• be established in one of the following Asian countries: Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, China, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), Indonesia, India, Lao PDR, Maldives, Mongolia, Myanmar, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Vietnam, or
• be established in member countries of the OECD, in case of contracts exclusively implemented in a Least Developed Country or a Highly Indebted Country as included in the list of ODA recipients, or
• be established in a Member State of the European Economic Area (Iceland, Lichtenstein, Norway), or
• be established in countries from the Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance (IPA II) ( Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, Montenegro, Serbia, Turkey, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia), and
• be directly responsible for the preparation and management of the action with the coapplicant(s) and affiliated entity(ies), not acting as an intermediary.

Co-applicant(s)

• Co-applicants participate in designing and implementing the action, and the costs they incur are eligible in the same way as those incurred by the lead applicant.
• Co-applicants must satisfy the eligibility criteria as applicable to the lead applicant himself. Coapplicants must sign the mandate form.
• If awarded the grant contract, the co-applicant(s) (if any) will become beneficiary(ies) in the action (together with the coordinator)

Affiliated entity(ies)

• The lead applicant and its co-applicant(s) may act with affiliated entity(ies).
• Only the following entities may be considered as affiliated entities to the lead applicant and/or to coapplicant(s):
  • Only entities having a structural link with the applicants (i.e. the lead applicant or a co-applicant), in particular a legal or capital link.
  • This structural link encompasses mainly two notions:
    • Control, as defined in Directive 2013/34/EU on the annual financial statements, consolidated financial statements and related reports of certain types of undertakings:
      • Entities affiliated to an applicant may hence be:
        • Entities directly or indirectly controlled by the applicant (daughter companies or first-tier subsidiaries). They may also be entities controlled by an entity controlled by the applicant (granddaughter companies or second-tier subsidiaries) and the same applies to further tiers of control;
        • Entities directly or indirectly controlling the applicant (parent companies). Likewise, they may be entities controlling an entity controlling the applicant;
        • Entities under the same direct or indirect control as the applicant (sister companies).
    • Membership, i.e. the applicant is legally defined as a e.g. network, federation, association in which the proposed affiliated entities also participate or the applicant participates in the same entity (e.g. network, federation, association,…) as the proposed affiliated entities

For more information, visit EuropeAid and download the guidelines.