Building your funding strategy - a participatory approach to territorial diagnostics and opportunity mapping

Strong points 

• Annual reports to the city Board.
• Cross-departmental civil servants participations  and targeted local stakholders.
• Dedicated external support for project application submission.

Key stakeholders 

• EU networks (EnergyCities; Polis, ICLEI). 
• Civil servants as project managers. 
• Human resources (tranings). Administration hierarchy and politcal pepresentatives. Key local stakeholder. 
• Regional government.
• Association representing local authorities in Brussels capital region (Brulocalis).

City strategy 

• Direct link to the Schaerbeek political mandate  2019-24 to support municipality priority actions.
• Local thematic priorities identified as direct result of the territorial diagnostic.

Results and impacts 

• Civil servants participations->17 people in 2 years 2022-2023 (Turin, Rotterdam, Kozani, Stockholm, Modène, Vienne, Leuven).
• Joined 4 EU networks  (Polis-EnergyCities-ICLEI & ICLEI Procura+).
• 7 projects (URBACT MSM; IncluCities; Prospect+; EUCF D-Click; SchoolFood4Change; City to Ciy Exchange; EIT Go AERSCHOT! since 2019) + 18 grants applications submitted since 2019.
• 3 training programs organsied between 2022-2024.

Challenges 

• Ensure the link between EU opportunity and limited administration resources.
• Cofinancing  and Budget Constraints.
• Mantaining level of engagement.
• Demistifying EU project applicaiton processes.

Enabling conditions 

• Political and Administrative Support.
• One dedicated person in charge of strategy implementation.
• Weekly and steady progress of the strategy implementation with Line Manager.
• Dedicated budget (travelling, networks etc.).
• Added value of project for the administration and the project managers.

Transfer Tips

• Start from enabling conditions.

- Weekly and steady progress of the strategy implementation with line manager.
- Make sure there is alignment between project idea and workload of project managers.

• Look for ambassadors.
• Reiterative process.
• Baby steps (and patience!).