Information on the possibility to submit a proposal for a grant ‘Support to improving rail interoperability with a view to achieve rail breakthroughs supporting TEN-T inf

Extended deadline: 2 December 2019.

The Multi Annual Work Programme 2014 under the Connecting Europe Facility-CEF gives the Commission the opportunity to launch a Programme Support Action in the field of "Technical Operational Issues Log Book". This would be implemented by means of a grant to support pilot projects aiming at finding solution to the issues of the Log Book by cooperation between rail stakeholders (Annex II § 4.2.2.1).

The objective of this Programme Support Action is to assist Ministries, National Safety Authorities, European rail infrastructure managers and European railway undertakings in finding solutions to the issues of the Log Book.

The action continues the good results obtained by the work performed so far under voluntary basis of the three priorities defined by the sector in 2018. The support is open to all issues currently listed in the Log Book, or new issues, provided that they comply with "technical operational barrier hindering international rail freight".

The coordinator will support the application for funding, and organise the pilot projects as appropriate. A consortium must at least consisting at least of one Railway Undertaking, one Ministry or National safety Authority and one Infrastructure manager; they shall have a geographical coverage of at least two member states. The pilot projects can be launched beginning of 2020.

The pilot projects on Issues Log Book should result in a structured approach to solve the current issues by finding concrete solutions that are deployable at regional, corridor or European level.

Detailed description of the activities eligible for funding under this action is available in the attached file "Conditions for awarding grants"

The coordinator should submit the request on behalf of the consortium using the enclosed application form (Annex 2) and its Annexes 2.1-2.5 (Budgetary Annex, Legal Entity Form, Bank Account Form, Declaration of Honour and Agreement of the Member State). The conditions for awarding grants (Annex 1) include the eligible activities, eligible costs, award criteria, etc. A model of the Grant Agreement and its Annexes I-V is also available in Annex 3 . All documents are available in the zip file of this web page and will also be provided in electronic form upon request at MOVE-C4-IssuesLogBook-PSAec [dot] europa [dot] eu (MOVE-C4-IssuesLogBook-PSA[at]ec[dot]europa[dot]eu)

The application form for requesting the grant should be submitted by 2 December 2019.