The Italy-Switzerland Interreg IV A Programme

The Italy-Switzerland INTERREG IV A Programme is a cross-border cooperation of the ERDF (European Regional Development Fund), founded with the aim of reducing barriers, characteristic of a border area, to the balanced development of regions belonging to this area.
 
The 2007-2013 programme finances projects presented by partnerships composed of at least one Italian and one Swiss partner.

These projects fall into one of the programme’s following areas:

• environment and territory, whose objectives are the development of the urban and rural areas following environmental sustainability, prevention of natural hazards related to the morphology of the territory and the spread of environmentally friendly agro-food production; 
• competitiveness, whose objectives are to encourage research and innovation in small and medium-sized companies, encouraging the integration of tourism resources, valuing their typical local features, and the local support networks and dissemination of transport services in border areas;  
• quality of life, whose objectives are to strengthen cooperation between the institutional, economic, social and cultural sectors and to promote an exchange of experiences and best practices among them, especially through the dissemination of information and communication technologies and networking of new information systems, which ensure immediate access to different services even for the more isolated geographical areas. 

 

The geographical areas admitted are:

• in Italy the Autonomous Province of South Tyrol,  the Autonomous Province of Val d‘Aosta, Lombardy (Milan, Bergamo, Brescia, Pavia, Como, Lecco, Sondrio and Varese provinces) Piemonte (Turin, Alessandria, Vercelli, Verbano-Cusio-Ossola, Biella and  Novara provinces);

• in Switzerland Ticino, Valais and Graubünden cantons. 

The recipients are:

• universities and research centres;
• the Autonomous Province;
• the Regions, local institutions and other public institutions;
• cultural centres;
• schools;
• companies of any size;
• other beneficiaries compatible with the aims of the programme (for each area there is a specific list of beneficiaries admitted).

The maximum amount of funding for the Italian partners of an approved project is 1 million euros and can amount to 100% of eligible expenses.

The project can have a maximum duration of 27 months. 

The funds are awarded via advertisements published every year. There are two periods when applications can be submitted: in spring and autumn.

New deadlines for the 2007-2013 Programme

Text of the call

Deadline for handing in project proposals: 24/05/2012

According to this call, project proposals can only be submitted if they fall into one of the following areas:

• competitiveness;
• quality of life

For more information, the FUB’s researchers can contact the Central Research and Innovation Service.

More information is available at: http://www.interreg-italiasvizzera.it/interreg/index.php?id=43