Support

Funding can be applied for by institutions of public law and legal persons governed by private law, such as various communities, companies, associations, municipalities, learning institutes and cooperatives. 

Funding is not available to working groups, private traders or individuals.  
 

You should give yourself plenty of time for writing your project application.

The application form is filled out in the EURA 2021 system. Respond to the questions asked in the application form. Also check the call for applications to see what other information the funding party requires in the application. Make sure you have noted these requirements, even if they are not specifically asked for in the application form. 
 

Yes. In some cases, attachments can also be very important, for example if you need to prove a loan commitment from a bank for financing the project once it is confirmed.

Important: If you are planning to apply for ESF+ funding, you will need EURA 2021 identifiers well in advance (see instructions in the next section).

EURA 2021 is a web-based digital management system for funds under the EU’s regional and structural policy (cohesion policy) for the 2021–2027 programme period. The system controls the implementation of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), the European Social Fund Plus (ESF+) and the European Just Transition Fund (JTF) in Finland.

The EURA 2021 system is used by applicants and implementers of projects under these funds. The system is used to apply for project funding, process project payment requests and report on project progress.

EURA 2021 instructions for project applicants and parties (in Finnish)
 

The use of the EURA 2021 system requires strong electronic identification through the Suomi.fi e-Identification service of the Digital and Population Data Services Agency and an authorisation to use the EURA 2021 system.

Identification can be done with a certificate card, a mobile certificate or personal online banking credentials.

There are three types of authorisations in the system. The applicant only needs one of the following:

• Preparation of Structural Fund project documents
• Preparation and submission of Structural Fund project documents
• Preparation, submission and data management of Structural Fund project documents

If authorisations have already been obtained for the previous EURA 2014 system, no new authorisations are required.

Organisations in the Trade Register: The authorisation is granted by the person with signature rights or the person with authorisation rights for the applying organisation.

Organisations that are not in the Trade Register: The authorisation is granted by the person with authorisation rights for the applying organisation. The applicant should first check whether there is already a person with authorisation rights in their organisation from whom the authorisation can be requested. If not, the authorisation right is applied for from the Digital and Population Data Services Agency’s official authorisation service. Please note that the processing time for an application for authorisation rights is on average 4–6 weeks.

The person who has received authorisation rights can grant one of the three authorisations listed above to the EURA 2021 user representing their authorisation in the Suomi.fi authorisations service. 
 

Funding decisions are made by the ELY Centre for Häme. The Creative Net team does not participate in the decision-making process.

The contact person is Minna Taipale, Financing Specialist at the ELY Centre for Häme ([email protected], 0295 025 106).

Decisions on the national call for applications that opens on 13 January 2025 can be expected no earlier than autumn 2025.

ESF+ funding is post-funded, meaning that it is paid only after the project has been implemented.

For traditional development projects, funding may be paid three times a year according to how much has been spent. Therefore, the cash flow from basic operations is helpful for running the project.

In lump sum projects, funding is paid once the promised output is completed. The output can also be divided into parts, in which case part of the funding can be applied for when the first part of the output is completed.

An individual project can usually receive funding covering 75–80% of the total project costs.

The applicant must therefore have other funding totalling 20–25% of the total budget.

The size of the self-financing contribution is decided by the ELY Centre for Häme and is usually determined by the size of the applicant. 
 

Self-financing in practice is the amount that is not received when the payment application is submitted to the funding body. ESF+ funding can be received to cover 75–80% of the total project costs. For example, for every EUR 100,000 spent on project activities, the funding body grants the project EUR 75,000–80,000 in ESF+ money (Example 1). Accrued working hours are not accepted as self-financing in this period.

The income generated by the project (e.g. municipal or corporate funding or participation fees) reduces the share of self-financing, but not the share of ESF+ funding (Example 2). The share of ESF+ funding therefore remains the same regardless of what the self-financing for the project consists of.

Example 1:  
€80,000 ESF+ funding 
€5,000 municipal funding
€5,000 participation fees
€10,000 € self-financing
= €100,000 total funding 

Example 2:
€80,000 ESF+ funding 
€20,000 self-financing
= €100,000 total funding

The funding authority reviews the financial information of organisations to see if the applicant will be able to support the post-funded project. For example, an unpaid tax liability can be an obstacle to obtaining funding.

For example, unpaid tax debt may be an obstacle to receiving funding.

If the applicant has agreed with a bank on a loan that will allow it to wait for funding to come in the form of post-funding, the application must include some kind of commitment to demonstrate that the loan will be successful and that the applicant will be able to wait for the funding.