Call Q&A

1.   Who can apply?

Any tourism SME that complies with all the following requirements is allowed to submit its ‘action plan’ for funding. It is important to bear in mind that only one application per SME is accepted. In case that more than one application is submitted by the same SME, the most recent application will be considered. 

The 5 compulsory requirements that have to be met are:

• Be a Micro, Small and medium enterprise (SME) as defined by the EU recommendation 2003/361:

Company category	Staff headcount	Turnover	OR	Balance sheet total
Medium-sized	< 250	≤ € 50 m		≤ € 43 m
Small	< 50	≤ € 10 m		≤ € 10 m
Micro	< 10	≤ € 10 m		≤ € 2 m

• And be a tourism SME from one of the following categories, corresponding to Nace codes I55 and N79:
  • Hotels and similar accommodation (Nace code: I5510)
  • Holiday and other short-stay accommodation (Nace code: I5520)
  • Camping grounds, recreational vehicle parks and trailer parks (Nace code: I5530)
  • Travel agency, tour operator reservation service and related activities (Nace code: N79)
    
    
• And be registered in:

• The province of Tarragona (Spain)
• Portugal
• Heraklion province (Greece)
• Tirana, Vlora, Shkodra, Gjirokastra, Fieri, Berati or Korça (Albania)
• Coastal municipalities of the Marche region: San Benedetto del Tronto, Grottammare, Cupra Marittima, Pedaso and Porto San Giorgio (Italy)

2.   How can I apply to this call?

In the first place, you’re required to carefully read the Guidelines of the open call as well as the six annexes that can be found here. You will see that all the details are specified here, however if you find any points unclear, you are more than welcome to send an email with your questions to: opencall2023@resetting.eu. As a later stage, you can fill in the application form.

Please remember the following important dates:

Submission opening date:  1^st June 2023, 09:00 CET

Submission deadline:  25^th September 2023, 23:59 CET

All submitted proposals received after the submission deadline will not be considered.

3.   Who can I contact if I have any question?

If you have any questions, kindly send an email to this email address: opencall2023@resetting.eu

4.   How much time do I have to submit my application?

You can submit your online application from 1^st June 2023 until the 25^th September, 2023 at 23:59 CET.

5.   How will my application be assessed?

An Evaluation Committee – consisting of two experts from the RESETTING consortium partners – will assess the quality and suitability of the submitted applications from 25 September to 25 October.

Applicants will be informed about the outcome of their application by late october 2023. Activities are planned to start at mid-November 2023 and last for a maximum of six months after the signature of the funding contracts.

Furthermore, each of the four Business Support Organizations (BSOs) of this project will nominate a ‘rapporteur’ who will liaise closely with the Evaluation Committee and who will be responsible to elaborate a concise report for each applicant/SME.

Please note that all information provided will be treated confidentially and stored only for the purpose of this call.

English is the official language for the RESETTING Open Call. Submissions done in any other language will not be evaluated. All official communication between the applicant and RESETTING will be done in English. It will be the only official language during the whole execution of the project.

6.   How can I know if my SME is eligible?

An application will be eligible only if all the following eligibility criteria are met:

1. it must be submitted before the submission deadline date, applying the requested submission procedure
2. all the required fields in the application form (see ANNEX I) must be completed
3. the enterprise is a Small Medium Sized business, based on the COM. EC/361/2003
4. the enterprise submitting the proposal is based in one of the Project partner’s countries and more specifically based in the territory specified in the table above
5. its main economic activity is in the tourism sector as indicated by country partners in their local strategy
6. the official representative declares that the SMEs actions are in compliance with EU regulations by signing a specific declaration of honor – ANNEX II  

The evaluation process will be managed by two internal evaluators. The evaluation and selection will be based on five main criteria. Each criterion could receive from 1 to 6 points, 1 being the lowest score and 6 being the highest. The minimum threshold for each criterion is 2 out of 6. Failing to score a 2 out of 6 in any of the five main criteria will suppose the disqualification of the proposal. Here below, a brief explanation of each criterion can be found:

1. Enterprise viability: demonstrate a discernible competitive advantage, be financially and commercially viable, possess the management and financial resources to absorb project intervention.
2. Proposals should clearly demonstrate that:
   1.  the project reflects the management strategy and vision
   1.  the expected outputs bring further expansion of the business
3. Cross-cutting: demonstrates the impact in developing sustainable tourism (alignment with SDGs), local development, addressing youth employment and/or gender issues. If the SME holds any sort of eco-label/certification to certify its commitment towards sustainable tourism will be taken in consideration.
4. Innovative approach: demonstrate what aspects of the digitalization process will add value to their current business model.
5. Level of current technical skills to implement new projects/ideas: In case the SME do not have them, then what actions/ideas could be proposed to offset this lack of skills internally.

7.   What can I do if I do not agree with the outcome of the final selection?

Within 2 working days of the reception of the communication, applicants may submit a request for redress if they believe that there has been a shortcoming in the way their proposal has been evaluated that may affect the final decision on whether they are selected as beneficiary or not.

A designated internal review committee of the RESETTING project will examine requests for redress, which must be:

• Related to the evaluation process or eligibility checks
• Clearly describe the complaint and reasons for potential consideration
• Received within the time limit (2 working days) from the communication of the result is delivered
• Sent by the same enterprise legal representative that submitted the proposal

The committee will review the complaint and will recommend an appropriate course of action. If there is a clear evidence that a shortcoming(s) could have affected the eventual decision, it is possible that all or part of the proposal will be re-evaluated by the internal review committee.

The committee will not call into question the scientific or technical judgement of appropriately qualified experts. In addition, any redress request that call into question the scientific or technical judgement of appropriately qualified experts will be automatically rejected.

The evaluation score following any re-evaluation will be regarded as definitive. This score could be lower than the original score.

Only one request for redress per application will be considered by the committee. All requests for redress will be treated in confidence and must be sent to opencall2023@resetting.eu

8.   Will RESETTING partners organise any information sessions in the near future?

RESETTING partners may organize a series of informative webinars/workshops to provide additional information (on proposal drafting, evaluation process, etc.) to potential applicants while the duration of the call (e.g. 1^st June until 25^th September 2023).  More information on the webinars will be found in due time on the project website..

9.   Can my hotel chain be eligible even though it is not officially registered in the province of Tarragona (Spain), but all the three hotels of the hotel chain are actually located in the province of Tarragona and the operations are only held in this province??

Yes, in this particular case, the hotel chain can be eligible, however it should clearly mentioned the following sentence in the proposal :‘Despite being registered out of the boundaries of the province of Tarragona, this SME if it is selected to be part of the RESETTING project, is fully committed to use the funds to implement the activities exclusively in the province of Tarragona, as outlined on the Action Plan’.