3 CASO SCOZIA INGLESE low - Rete Pari Opportunita

Gender Equality in Local Economic Development in Scotlandgrants – Small Grants (up to £1,000) and MainGrants (between £1,001 and £5,000). The selectionprocedures are outlined in the Figure 2, and arethe same as for other Funds managed by the SCF.There are two parallel procedures in place, forSmall and Main Grants:• Small Grants are appraised internally by SCFand generally entail an appraisal process of amaximum of 6 weeks from the receipt of theapplication to the notification of the decisionof the grant’s approval;• Main Grants are subject to more detailedscrutiny and generally entail a process takingup to three months. A central element of theselection process for Main Grants is theinvolvement of voluntary assessors in theappraisal of applications.At present the SCF is supported by around 60volunteers. These are trained regularly (requirementswould be of training twice a year, the SCForganises training events more often than this).Most volunteers come from the voluntary sector(e.g. are retired from a third sector organisation)or are past applicants (giving them a good insightinto how the Fund works). Application forms aresent to the volunteer assessors and normally thesereturn the forms within 6 weeks. Assessors carryout a telephone interview (of generally half anhour to an hour) with the project sponsor. Thisallows the application form to be kept streamlinedand simple, encouraging applications. Assessorscan recommend that the project be funded, butwith a lower level of funding than the applicanthad originally requested (while maintaining theforecast level of impact to be achieved).For Main Grants, after an initial assessment ofproposals by the assessors, projects are selectedby a SCF Grants Committee that meets four timesa year. The management of the Fund is a rollingprogramme: every year applications are receivedup to 15 December, but the SCF Grants Committeethat selects projects meets four times a year. Aquarter of the budget is attributed to each threemonthlyperiod and the selection process is basedon an assessment of the merits of each project asthey relate to the aims of the Fund itself. If aproject is unsuccessful, it can immediately reapplyfor funding.Projects are selected based on the followingcriteria:• Competence of the proposing organisation todeliver the project (scoring 1 to 5);• Strength of need for support (1 to 5);• Impact of the project on the organisation andon the beneficiaries (1 to 5).These seem quite generic criteria, but they allowtargeting the funds effectively and are in line withthe relatively small scale of the projects. When theeligible applications are more than the amount ofavailable funding, priority is given to projects thatcome from local deprivation areas across Scotland.18