Applicants should be organisations representing Forest Owners and Small Forest Holdings (SFH), at local, regional or national level, either private or public, from any of the 27 European Member States.

Other types of entities (such as individual forest owners, forest consultants and contractors, companies, universities, start-ups, etc.) are not directly eligible as beneficiary of the call but might be subcontracted by these associations to conduct
the activities.

At this level, a forest holding will be considered small when it has less than 500 hectares of forest land.

Surveys and interviews included in the first activity of the call (Small Forest Holdings and associations characterization) will refer to small forest holdings (< 500 ha) to characterise their members. As it is specified in section 9.1 of the full call document, 15 basic surveys (following the given template) should be focused on the small forest owners.

The two calls are independent processes, although being recipient of the first call will give an advantage for being eligible for the second call.

Organisations may apply to one or both calls.
Organisations are encouraged to apply for both calls.

For the first criteria award, the type of forest properties represented in the association must be reported.

The association must mention if they have both public and private forest owners or only one of the types of property.

For the second criteria award, the number of associated forest owners must be reported, independently of the size of their holdings.

The organisations might have members that are not forest owners, like farmers. Those members should not be considered.

The number reported in this criterion must refer to the total associated members that own forest land. When the member of the association is a collective forest holding, owned by a group of forest co-owners, only one member will be accounted for.

Yes. This call is not open for applications from natural persons. The legal entity must have a VAT number or a FISCAL IDENTIFICATION CODE in order to access the call.

Application signature and commitment letter must be signed by a legally authorised representative of the organisation.

The person representing the organisation must have the legal capacity to act on behalf of the organisation and with authorisation to sign the application form and any ensuing grant agreement.

Activities of the call may be partially subcontracted by the organisation except for attendance at the European Conference on Small Forest Holdings, as specified in section 9.1 of the full call document.

In the case of subcontracting some of the activities, a copy of the contract with the third party must be sent to Cesefor, prior to the start of the affected activities.

Up to €5,000 will be provided upon the justified completion of the three activities and the submission of the corresponding reports as indicated in section 9 of the full call document.

Recipients will receive up to €5,000, as a lump sum, to cover staff, materials, travel, and equipment needed for the required activities. Cascade Funding will be aimed at covering costs that are exclusively considered eligible by the provisions of the Horizon Europe programme detailed in article 6 of the grant agreement.

The grant, paid by Cesefor to the beneficiary, includes all taxes, transfer costs, and other expenses incurred, provided the conditions set out in the full call document are met. Payments made are exempt from any tax, including VAT. Should local tax authorities in the beneficiary’s country assess these payments differently, Cesefor will not be responsible for any tax or VAT adjustments imposed on the beneficiary and will not cover any costs arising from such adjustments.

During the execution of activities or afterwards, organisations may be submitted to checks, reviews, audits and investigations, as detailed in the grant agreement. Recipients are responsible for keeping their information stored and follow the time limits stated in the grant agreement regarding to Confidentiality, Record-keeping, Reviews and Audits.

The recipients must provide during the execution of the activities or afterwards and in accordance with grant agreement any information requested in order to verify eligibility of the costs and compliance with the activities and obligations indicated in
the grant agreement. Recipient confirms that all the data and information provided to Cesefor in the completion of activities are true, accurate, correct, complete and up to date.