Having in mind new possibilities which student organizations have at their disposal, the Institute for the Development of Education, in cooperation with the Institute of Public Finance, has conducted a research whose goals were to determine previous success rate of student organizations in absorbing available EU funds and assess their readiness and administrative capacities in the context of attracting the available EU funds.
The results show appropriate technical and human resource capacities of the organizations as well as basic prerequisites for using available EU funds.
Having in mind their readiness to collaborate and existing capacities (human resources, equipment, facilities), the question is why student organizations do not use the available EU funds to a greater extent.
Part of the problem relates to organizations being poorly informed, due to frequent fluctuation of personnel. Therefore the potential administration and implementation of EU-funded projects (which is, by nature, long-term) is less attractive for student organizations. A number of organizations and individuals has not heard of certain funding sources. Student organizations have poorly assessed their own potential for applying, implementing and reporting on projects. Student organizations have also pointed out their poor understanding of objectives of the available programmes. Student organizations which applied to the available programmes have often missed some key elements of calls for proposals and were unable to adjust project documentation to the call objectives. In student organizations, there is an expressed need for additional education, especially in the topics of submitting proposals and reporting.
Based on the research, the recommendations for developing administrative capacities of student organizations have been prepared, in the context of possibilities of using EU funds and programmes.
The report is available in the repository of the Institute of Publice FInance.