Amsterdam, 1st of June 2020

The LIFE TERRA project (LIFE19 CCM/NL/001200) was recently pre-approved by EASME and will in principle run from 1/7/2020 until 30/06/2025. It aims to become Europe’s single biggest citizen-driven initiative to plant and monitor 500 million trees to mitigate climate change. It will be executed all over the European continent and counts with 16 partners from 8 countries. The expected total budget is 12,815,283 Euro of which 12,797,983 Euro are deemed eligible costs. EU financial contribution requested is 7,038,881 Euro. Coordinating Beneficiary STICHTING LIFE Terra, acting as Consortium Leader and on behalf of the other Associated Beneficiaries is in charge of searching and selecting an externally Compliance Manager (CM) although the individual partners are free to search and select their own preferred supplier.

The consortium’s members will hire an expert or company with demonstrated experience in administrative and compliance tasks in LIFE projects. Together, with the project director of STICHTING, the CM will be directly responsible for maintaining regular contact with the European Commission (EC) and supervising project execution and project progress in the broadest manner. The Project Director supported by the Compliance Manager is responsible for the stipulation of a partnership agreement (PA) with all project partners at the beginning of project execution, in line with the program rules. The CM will be in charge of drafting the PA under the direct supervision of the project director. When specific technical issues are at stake, the CM may collaborate with the project director in his/her tasks/contacts with the EC and LIFE monitor only after having received written instructions by STICHTING. After confirmation of the PA by all beneficiaries, a signed copy will be sent to the EC in the first months of the project.

STICHTING LIFE Terra’s project director and administrative director, together with the CM, will regularly monitor compliance of activities, outputs and expenditures produced by the Project’s members and the consortium as a whole. The CM will advise the project director with regard to all issues at stake. CM will also collect, verify and archive partners’ financial support documentation. Furthermore, CM will supply the consortium with the necessary support, control, analysis and information on the accounting of all expenditures (particularly any significant deviations from the budget, its categories and spending per Action), rules regarding publications, assignment of external contracts, stipulations on co-financing by STICHTING, and potential modifications of the project (amendments).

Upon STICHTING’s decision, the Compliance Manager will train all partners on administrative issues during the Kick-off meeting and coordinate the drafting of narrative and financial reports. CM will be asked by STICHTING to prepare communications towards EC in case problems arise or modifications are desired.

All beneficiaries have agreed to divide the cost of the Compliance Manager proportionately according to each individual budget. CM will sign contracts with each individual partner and invoice each partner for the specific work undertaken according to these budgets and is responsible for collecting payments. Under no circumstance can STICHTING be held responsible for any delay, dispute or non-compliance with regard to any payment from a specific partner to the CM. Apart from the above, the CM’s contract specifications will identify in detail all the functions that the CM will provide to the consortium. STICHTING will sign its own contract with CM after which the other partners are invited to do the same. Selection by STICHTING is no guarantee the other beneficiaries will also contract the CM. Contract’s validity is subject to signature of the Grant Agreement between STICHTING LIFE Terra and EASME (expected towards the end of June 2020).

The main tasks to be performed by the CM include:

Compile, control and consolidate all project partners’ financial documentation and present reports every 3 months.
Approve and certify the compliance of each partner with project’s objectives and expenditure every 3 months. If a partner should not comply, the CM is obliged to inform the project director.
At least once a year the CM will attend the project partners’ meeting, except in the first and last year when 2 meetings will be held. The first meeting is expected to be organized in the month of July 2020. Here the selected CM will firstly give a financial workshop to instruct partners on the administrative requirements and functioning of the selected online compliance tool. In total the CM will attend at least 7 meetings, these will be held in major European cities. Due to the current COVID-19 restrictions one or more meetings might be delayed or decided to be held online.
Responsible for editing and organize at least 4 official reports to EASME (midterm 1, midterm 2, progress and final) based on internal reports and deliverables provided by the project partners.

Offers, including foreseen travel expenses, are expected before the 20th of June 2020 and need to include reference to the full project name and code as stated above (addressed to Stichting LIFE Terra, Keizersgracht 391 A, 1016 EJ Amsterdam – Netherlands) and be sent in by email. Please include a list of references. In the offer, it is important to describe at least:

Minimum of 3 years proven experience in Compliance Management activities in LIFE projects. Experience in CM functions in Horizon 2020 projects is additionally valued in the evaluation.
Proven experience in training (of Consortium’s members and their administrative departments) and ability to give presentations on all of the administrative aspects of the LIFE project.
Fluency in English required, basic knowledge of Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, Dutch French or Czech will be positively regarded.
Tasks are mostly arranged online (email) and telephone/zoom/skype/meet/etc. The compliance Manager can be asked to prepare a secure online sharing account to host the different administrative documents.
Indicate geographical reach of the CM and desire to service the whole consortium or just one or more specific partners (list of partners can be seen below).
The CM should have experience managing online tools to control all administrative information, compile and storage of documents respecting all LIFE project guidelines. This online tool, particularly developed for LIFE compliance tasks, will be contracted from a specialised supplier.

If interested, please contact us here for more information. You can also reach us by phone at: +31.20.2620240 or directly by email: trees @ lifeterra.eu

Consortium members:

Coordinating Beneficiary:

Stichting LIFE Terra, the Netherlands

Associated Beneficiaries:

BRIGHTVIBES NEDERLAND BV, The Netherlands
ETHNIKO KENTRO EREVNAS KAI TECHNOLOGIKIS ANAPTYXIS, Greece
Comunicazione Zygomalas & Fabiani GmbH, Germany
CYBELE LAWGICAL LDA, Portugal
Agencia EFE SAU, Spain
EUN Partnership AISBL, Belgium

EURACTIV Media Network, the Netherlands
Nature and Man Foundation, Portugal
Gynzy Teachers B.V., The Netherlands
IFER, Czech Republic
Legambiente Onlus, Italy
Land Life Company BV, The Netherlands
UNIVERSITAT DE BARCELONA, Spain
Viveros Fuenteamarga S.L., Spain
VOLTERRA ECOSYSTEMS SL, Spain

Lifeterra.eu – Contact

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