Information

Tender reference number	ENV.E.4/SER/2012/0015
Title	Technical assistance for the monitoring of LIFE projects (action grants and operating grants), communication about the LIFE programme and other linked activities.
Description	The contractor is required to assist the Commission with the implementation of the LIFE programme during all phases of the project management. This will include, amongst other activities, the monitoring of all open projects (approximately 850 projects) co-financed by the LIFE programme under all LIFE Regulations, support for monitoring of environmental NGOs under the LIFE+ operating grants and communication activities. A single full-time expert should monitor approximately 16–20 projects. For communication activities 12 people are foreseen.All correspondence from the projects should be evaluated using standard model forms prepared by the Commission. This includes progress reports, reports linked to payment requests for additional clauses. Projects must also be visited annually. The contractor should ensure expertise in all 3 parts of the programme. Expertise for LIFE 'Nature' includes notably knowledge of nature conservation management, the 'Birds' and 'Habitat' Directives and nature conservation at local level. Expertise for LIFE 'Environment' includes notably knowledge in the areas of climate change, water, air, soil, urban environment, noise, chemicals, environment and health, waste and natural resources, forest, innovation and strategic approaches. Expertise for LIFE 'Information' includes notably knowledge in the areas as in LIFE 'Nature', LIFE 'Environment' and forest fire prevention. More information about the LIFE programme can be found on the website http://ec.europa.eu/environment/life/index.htm Assistance in communication activities will be requested and expertise is required for the creation and management of publications, multimedia information sources and events. The contract will include the following activities:1. technical and administrative assistance for tasks related to monitoring of the implementation of projects under the LIFE+ action grants;2. support for monitoring of environmental NGOs under the LIFE+ operating grants;3. communication activities: technical and administrative assistance related to communication activities at EU level concerning the LIFE+ programme, their action grants and NGOs' operating grants.Objectives:Ad 1) Action grants:The Commission is seeking technical and administrative assistance for tasks related to implementation of projects under the LIFE+ and LIFE III programmes. The objective of this contract is to assist the Commission in this work. The contractor shall assist the Commission by following and assessing the project's progress at the technical and financial levels and ensure its coherence with the incurred costs. They shall act strictly as an advisory body to the Commission and shall not be involved in the management of the financial resources. The contractor shall be independent from the projects. As an advisory body of the Commission, they shall review the projects and provide technical and financial assessments of the reports submitted to the Commission, as well as providing technical and financial guidance to the projects. The contractor shall not be authorised to take any decision on behalf of the Commission.Ad 2) Operating grants:The broad objective of this contract is to provide independent, external expertise to assist Environment DG in the monitoring of the beneficiaries of NGO grants under LIFE, and the assessment of their individual and collective performance and achievements, through: — detailed review and assessment of financial and technical reports for the beneficiaries,— monitoring visits (audits) to a selection of 8 beneficiaries.The NGO monitoring has the following purposes:— to provide the Commission with information in view of the approval of final reports and calculation of final payments,— to provide the Commission with detailed information on selected beneficiaries' compliance with the provisions of the Grant Agreement, the quality of their financial, managerial and administrative systems as well as the quality of the activities carried...
Contract type	Services
Procedure type	Open procedure
Status	Closed
Published on TED
Award method	N/A

Milestones

TED publication date	25/04/2012 00:00
Time limit for receipt of requests for documents or accessing documents	N/A
Question deadline	25/05/2012 23:59 UTC+02:00
Answer deadline	29/05/2012 00:00 UTC+02:00
Time limit for receipt of tenders	05/06/2012 23:59
Conditions for opening tenders (date)	15/06/2012 00:00

Lots

The call for tenders has no lots.

Notices

Reference	Notice type	Publication date
2012/S 80-130436	Contract notice	25/04/2012 00:00