26 projects intended for young people were chosen as winners of the 2019 Youth Grants Program announced by the Ministry of Education, Culture and Research. The authorities will allocate 7 million lei for the purpose.
Contacted by IPN, Carina Ene, senior consultant at the Ministry’s Youth Division, said half of the applicants asked for the highest amount available for a project – 350,000 lei. But the sums are not final as a cost adjustment stage will now follow. “Some of the applicants, out of inexperience, indicated higher costs for particular services, such as accommodation, food, transport and others. We call this stage a period of adjustment to the regulations. The sums in the case of a number of projects could decrease, but not significantly,” stated Carina Ene.
Among the winners this year are organizations that didn’t take part in the grants program earlier, such as the Foundation “Youth Development for Innovation”, which proposed holding the Festival of Volunteers, the Educational Advising Center, with the project “Digital STAR – Chances for Active and Responsible Young Women”, and also the Information and Resources Center “PROBONO”, with a project to develop the capacities for mobilizing the resources and self-financing services of youth organizations.
Under the regulations, in the case of organizations with two winning projects, the backer together with the winner will choose one project for financing. This way, another project from the waiting list will be selected instead of the second project. If one of the winning organizations withdraws, the projects will be chosen also from those put on the waiting list.
A number of 56 applicants took part in the 2019 Grants Program. The project implementation period should not exceed ten months in the course of 2019.
