2. Article

Selection of sub projects 2.1 Institutional set-up: The SIF Council shall act as a Steering Committee for the operation and shall approve or reject applications. The SIF Council is appointed and approved by the Cabinet of Ministers and consists of representatives from line ministries, regional authorities and from the NGO community in Latvia. The Chairman of the Council is selected by its members. The Evaluation Committee, appointed by the SIF Council, will carry out the quality assessment of applications for grants. The Evaluation Committee consists of members from the Intermediary and external experts. The application form and standard grant contract with annexes shall be approved by the Director of SIF. The Director of SIF has the signatory powers of the Fund and functions as the executer of State budget allocated for Fund. The grant contract with the end-recipient shall be signed by the Director of SIF. 2.2 Selection process and procedures: The availability of grants from the Fund shall be announced in an open call. All applications shall be examined and evaluated by the Intermediary in accordance with the administrative and eligibility criteria. The qualitative and financial evaluation of the applications shall be carried out by the Evaluation Committee. The Evaluation Committee may involve external experts in the evaluation of applications' quality and financial aspects. The Evaluation Committee shall provide a ranked list of projects for approval by the SIF Council. The Intermediary shall inform applicants whose applications are rejected about the reasons for the rejection. Applicant whose application is rejected due to non-compliance with administrative or eligibility criteria can request the Intermediary to review its decision. The applicant shall submit such a request within 10 days from being notified about the rejection and shall provide reasons for why the decision should be overturned. 2.3 Selection criteria: Selection and evaluation criteria involve administrative, eligibility, qualitative and financial checklists where scores are given to each criterion. The qualitative and financial evaluation criteria focus on the applicants' capacity to implement the project, the level of complexity/innovativeness, relevance and the economic feasibility of the project. During the review of the administrative and eligibility criteria, the Intermediary may ask the applicant to provide additional information or clarification. The evaluation of the quality of applications, including the proposed budget, shall be carried out in accordance with the evaluation criteria set out in the evaluation grid. The Evaluation Committee evaluates projects grouping them to two months periods according to the time of submission. 2.4 Open calls and availability of funds (including number of calls, duration of calls, and estimated size): Grants from the Fund shall be made available for preparation of individual projects to be submitted during the second open call in Latvia. The Intermediary shall organise one call for applications for sub-projects. The duration of the call shall not be less than two months.