Supporting sustainable competitiveness of tourism SME

Infrastructure related purchases are not eligible under this call. Purchase related to promotion/communication – including signposting/informational boards/distance markers are eligible.

Based on the Call text, section 2.4. “Activities that can be funded (scope)”– Work package 2.2 – “Direct Financial Support to third parties’ scheme (FSTP)”, SMEs do not necessarily need to be geographically located within the specific area of the touristic route.

However, they must clearly contribute to the route ecosystem, either through tourism-related activities or by supporting its economic functioning.

Cross-border participation is allowed and encouraged, provided that the SME’s activities are clearly aligned with and contribute to the objectives and functioning of the route ecosystem.

According to the Call text, section 2.4 Activities that can be funded (scope)”– Work package 2.2 – “Direct Financial Support to third parties’ scheme (FSTP)”> “4. Conditions for participation of SMEs and list of criteria for awarding financial support - NOTA BENE”, the FSTP scheme is implemented under the responsibility of the consortium and is not considered as a direct EU action. The consortium is required to closely monitor the SMEs, support them during implementation, and report regularly to the granting authority. Thus, the consortium must put in place appropriate monitoring, risk management, and compliance mechanisms in line with the grant agreement to mitigate any risk. The responsibility and liability lie with the consortium.

As per the Call text, entities eligible for FSTP are SMEs active in the route ecosystem. If certain entities with no legal personality are considered as SMEs under national legal systems, those would be eligible for FSTP. The burden of proof thereof is with the applicant/beneficiary.

As per the Call text, eligible entities are SMEs active in the route ecosystem (…) These SMEs have to take part in the route ecosystem tourist or economic activity (conducive to the functioning of the route). In this sense, there is no obligation the SMEs are established under a specific NACE code.

As per the Call text, entities eligible to receive the third-party support are SMEs active in the route ecosystem. Tourists are not eligible as third parties under the FSTP scheme of the Call.

Financial support to third parties (FSTP) is a monetary, financial transaction from the beneficiaries directly to the supported third party (SME), no vouchers are allowed under the FSTP of the Call.

As marked in the Call text section 6. ‘Eligibility – eligible participants (eligible countries) and consortium composition’, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must be established in one of the eligible countries, i.e.:

- EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)),

- listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Single Market Programme or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature. See non-EU countries listed under SMP COSME and Competitiveness of SMEs’ strand in the following document: list of participating countriesPDF .

As marked in the Call text section 0. “Introduction” (page 5) & 13 “Important” (page 41): “Applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) may submit only ONE proposal under the same call (and be awarded a funding).

Applicants may NOT participate in several proposals. If they participate or submit several proposals, only one application will be accepted and evaluated; the applicants will be asked to withdraw from the other applications (or they will be rejected).”

EISMEA does not provide any pre-assessment of the eligibility criteria during the submission period. The eligibility of each proposal will be assessed by the Evaluation Committee. We invite applicants to read carefully the section 6. Eligibility – eligible participants (eligible countries) and consortium composition of the Call text.

EISMEA does not provide any pre-assessment of the eligibility criteria during the submission period. The eligibility of each proposal will be assessed by the Evaluation Committee appointed for this call after the submission deadline. We invite applicants to read carefully the section 6. Eligibility – eligible participants (eligible countries) and consortium composition of the Call text.

According to the definition provided in footnote 19 on page 26 of the Call text, a DMO is defined -within the scope of this call for proposals- as “a public or private stakeholder, an authority that manages a local, regional or national tourism strategy in one of the countries forming part of the consortium. DMO responsibilities may include -but are not limited to- taking responsibility for the local tourism offer, sustainable tourism planning/development, and the impact tourism has on the territory. The DMO typically also undertakes additional activities such as business analysis, marketing, strategic and policy implementation, inter-institutional and international relationships.”

As per Call text, applicants may participate with associated partners (i.e. partner organisations which participate in the action but without the right to get grant money). They participate without funding and therefore do not need to be validated.

Furthermore, there is no limit to the number of associated partners, and the same associated partner can take part in more than one proposal/action, provided it has the necessary capacity to do so. Moreover, the same entity can appear as associated partner and an applicant (beneficiary/affiliated entity) in separate proposals.

Associated partners are partner organisations which participate in the action but without the right to get grant money. The associated partners cannot be subcontracted by the beneficiaries/affiliated entities, nor can their staff receive fees as subcontracted experts.

Travel related to the implementation of action/activities by the associated entity set by the proposal (Part B – Description of the Action) cannot be budgeted by the beneficiaries/affiliated entities.

Travel related to the staff of the associated partner who does not participate in the implementation of the relevant activity; and where the travel is related to the role of associated partner as the final beneficiary of the action, can be budgeted by the organiser of the activity.

The transnational project management experience does not need to be acquired through implementation of EU grants nor through leading projects within the COSME programme.

All types of experience in transnational project management are counted towards 5 years.

Project Manager/Coordinator and Deputy Project Manager/Coordinator have to belong to the coordinator.

Based on the Call text, section 2.4 “Activities that can be funded (scope)”– Work package 2.2 – Direct Financial Support to third parties’ scheme (FSTP)” > “4. Conditions for participation of SMEs and list of criteria for awarding financial support - NOTA BENE”, FSTP must take the form of a monetary transfer (lump sum) directly to SMEs, which then will allow the Third Party to implement their activities autonomously.

It explicitly prohibits the use of FSTP to reimburse or purchase services provided by the consortium beneficiaries. In addition, SMEs must be free to select their own service providers, and the consortium cannot impose specific providers.

While the consortium may provide guidance, any recommended providers must be identified through a transparent process with predefined criteria.

These provisions ensure a clear separation between consortium-implemented tasks and SME-led activities funded under FSTP, thereby avoiding overlap and conflicts of interest.

It is up to the applying consortium to set up the FSTP scheme respecting the requirements set by the Call; in particular, requirements related to eligible third-party entities, eligible activities, conditions for participations, and criteria/methodology for calculating the exact amount(s) of financial support In the proposal (the applicants must set the criteria for calculating the specific lump sum amount(s).

The applicant shall explain in the proposal the FSTP scheme envisaged.

While providing FSTP support to groupings/partnership of SMEs is possible, the requirements of the Call must be respected, namely, the amount of each FSTP given to the third party (SME) in a form of a lump sum must be between EUR 7 000 and EUR 15 000 per SME. In a hypothetical scenario where the grouping of 3 SMEs is awarded – the 3 SMEs are counted towards maximum of 30 SMEs to be awarded, and the amount given to each SME forming the grouping must be between 7 000 and 15 000 EUR.

Yes, both SMEs and NGOs can apply as consortium members. Please see the eligibility conditions in section 6 of the Call text. It is up to applicants to decide on the consortium composition which best fits the action proposed, respecting however, the requirements set by the Call. Moreover, it is up to the applicant consortium to decide on the coordinator organisation, no requirements in terms of eligibility of the coordinator entity is set by the call. Further to this, the applicants are invited to consult Section 7 of the Call textPDF related to operational capacity.

As for the number of partners/beneficiaries, the maximum is 8. Associated partners and affiliated entities do not count towards maximum of 8 partner organisations.

As per Call text, section 6 - Eligibility – Consortium composition: Proposals must be submitted by a consortium of applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities), which complies with all following conditions:

✓ minimum five (5) and a maximum eight (8) independent entities

✓ minimum three (3) destination management organisations (DMOs) from minimum 2 different eligible countries.

✓ minimum two (2) business support organisations (BSO) from minimum 2 different eligible countries.

Furthermore, as per Call text – Section 13 - Applicants may participate with affiliated entities. (…) They will get a part of the grant money and must therefore comply with all the call conditions and be validated (just like beneficiaries), but they do not count towards the minimum eligibility criteria for consortium composition (if any). If affiliated entities participate in your project, please do not forget to provide documents demonstrating their affiliation link to your organisation as part of your application.

Affiliated entities are not counted towards the maximum of 8 entities forming the consortium composition.

The participants section of the F&T portal features an erroneous message. EISMEA will try to fix this as soon as possible. The correct consortium composition is the one stated in the Call textPDF. This erroneous warning message will not block the submission of the proposal.

The Coordinator role cannot be subcontracted.

Furthermore, the applicants are invited to consult Article 6 of the Model Grant Agreement (MGA cf. Portal Reference Documents) and in particular the section regarding costs for natural persons working under a direct contract other than an employment contract:

“A.2 and A.3 Costs for natural persons working under a direct contract other than an employment contract and costs for seconded persons by a third party against payment are also eligible as personnel costs, if they are assigned to the action, fulfil the general eligibility conditions and:

(a) work under conditions similar to those of an employee (in particular regarding the way the work is organised, the tasks that are performed and the premises where they are performed) and

(b) the result of the work belongs to the beneficiary (unless agreed otherwise).

They must be calculated on the basis of a rate which corresponds to the costs actually incurred for the direct contract or secondment and must not be significantly different from those for personnel performing similar tasks under an employment contract with the beneficiary.”

Financial capacity self-check calculator can be found on the Funding and Tenders Portal.

EISMEA does not provide any pre-assessment of the eligibility criteria during the submission period. The eligibility of each proposal will be assessed by the Evaluation Committee appointed for this call. We invite applicants to read carefully the section 6. Eligibility – eligible participants (eligible countries) and consortium composition of the Call text.

As stated in the Call text– Section 10. Legal and financial set-up of the Grant Agreements and Article 7 of Model Grant Agreement Model Grant Agreement (MGA cf. Portal Reference Documents) – the consortium, if awarded, will have to formally set out the internal arrangement in a written consortium agreement. The internal arrangements must not contain any provision contrary to the Grant Agreement.

Details regarding the roles of different types of participant and details regarding consortium agreement can be seen in Chapter 4 – Section 1 of the Model Grant Agreement.

As marked in the Call text section 6. ‘Eligibility – consortium composition’, proposals must be submitted by a consortium of applicants (beneficiaries; not affiliated entities), which complies with all following conditions:

✓ minimum five (5) and a maximum eight (8) independent entities

✓ minimum three (3) destination management organisations (DMOs) from minimum 2 different eligible countries.

✓ minimum two (2) business support organisations (BSO) from minimum 2 different eligible countries.

Thus, we confirm a project needs to have at least 5 project partners with at least 3 destination management organisations from minimum 2 different eligible countries., and 2 business support organisations from minimum 2 different eligible countries.

We invite applicants to read carefully the section 6. Eligibility – eligible participants (eligible countries) and consortium composition of the Call text.

In order to be eligible, the applicants (beneficiaries and affiliated entities) must be established in:

• EU Member States (including overseas countries and territories (OCTs)),
• listed EEA countries and countries associated to the Single Market Programme or countries which are in ongoing negotiations for an association agreement and where the agreement enters into force before grant signature. See non-EU countries listed under SMP COSME and Competitiveness of SMEs’ strand in the following document: list of participating countriesPDF, i.e. Iceland, Norway, Liechtenstein; Albania, Bosnia Herzegovina, etc.

Entities established in non-eligible countries, such as Switzerland, are not eligible for funding.

An entity established in a country which is not eligible, can participate as associated partner. Associated partners participate in the action, but without the right to charge costs or claim contributions. (See section 13 of the Call text)

Exceptional funding for entities from other countries (not listed above) was not foreseen within this Call.

The minimum requirements mentioned on page 30 of the Call text under section 7. “Financial and operational capacity and exclusion –Operational capacity”, i.e.

- Project Manager/Coordinator with at least five (5) years of experience in transnational project management (CV); -

- Deputy Project manager/Coordinator with at least three (3) years of experience in transnational project management (CV);

- Two experts with at least three (3) years of experience in communication and PR (CV); -

- One expert with at least five (5) years of experience in capacity building activities (CV); -

- One expert with at least three (3) years of experience in SME support/consultancy in tourism sector (CV)

have to be met at project level, not at partner level.

On this Funding and Tenders portal page of this Call there is the option to search for other suitable partners under the section ‘partner search announcement’ (internal navigation menu at the left side).

On Monday 13 April EISMEA is organising an online Info Session about this Call. Through the registration form for this Info Session EISMEA will collect and share hereafter contacts of interested potential applicants looking for partners.

We recommend you to download only the detailed budget table from the submission tool, which is the correct one, indicating 90%.

• Navigate to the section ‘Start submission’ on the Call page
• Select ‘SMP Grants for Financial Support [SMP-GFS], SMP Action Grant Budget-Based [SMP-AG]’under
• Click on ‘start submission’ and ‘OK’
• You will land into the Submission tool and at the right side you can download the correct detailed budget table under the section ‘Download Part B Templates’

As per section 10. “Legal and financial set-up of the Grant Agreements” > “Budget categories and cost eligibility rules” of the Call text, only the cost category “D.1 Financial support to third parties” (FSTP) under “D. Other cost categories” is applicable under this call SMP-COSME-2026-TOURSME-01. The cost category “D.2 Public Procurement Innovation” (PPI) is not applicable under this call SMP-COSME-2026-TOURSME-01.

Therefore, each applicant should fill in the detailed budget table as follows as referred to in step 3 of footnote 18 (p.25) of the Call :

3. Insert the value “1=Yes” in Column B for cost categories D1 "Financial support to third parties" (FSTP)

3. Insert the value “0=No” in Column B for cost categories D2 "Public Procurement Innovation" (PPI)

As per call text section 5 “Admissibility and documents” footnote 18, each partner independently completes in the budget table sheets 2 (Start), 3 (Detailed table), and 4 (Consolidated table participant) in their own copy of the Excel file, detailing only their own costs, even if multiple partners contribute to the same work package (WP).

In Sheet 3 (Detailed Budget table), partners list their specific tasks and associated costs under the relevant WP, ensuring that shared WPs are divided clearly by responsibility. The coordinator then merges all partners’ sheets into one, single Excel file (one per project) and manually generates Sheet 5 (Consolidated table project), aggregating the total budget per WP and partner to avoid duplication while reflecting all contributions.

Only one merged file is uploaded to the Funding & Tenders Portal, not the separate files per partner.

You can find more detailed information in the Online ManualPDF section 3.1.4.1 “Get prepared > Budget”

All budget categories and cost eligibility rules are fixed in the Grant Agreement (Data Sheet, point 3, art 6 and Annex 2). (Cf. Call textPDF 10. "Legal and financial set-up of the Grant Agreements" > "Budget categories and cost eligibility rules")

In particular, the specific eligibility conditions for direct personnel costs category can be consulted in the Model Grant AgreementPDF Article 6.2 Specific eligibility conditions for each budget category - Direct costs A. Personnel costs.

Moreover, applicants have at disposal a guide in a form of Annotated Grant AgreementPDF. This guide is provided for information purposes only.

Costs for volunteers’ work are not eligible under this Call.

In-kind contributions -i.e.non-financial resources made available free of charge by third parties- are allowed but these in-kind contributions have to be cost-neutral, i.e. they cannot be declared as cost.

As per Call text, Section 13 – Subcontracting should normally constitute a limited part and must be performed by third parties (not by one of the beneficiaries/affiliated entities).

Core project management activity cannot be subcontracted.

Subcontracting going beyond 30% of the total eligible costs must be justified in the application.

The amount of each FSTP (given to the third party (SME) in a form of a lump sum) must be between EUR 7 000 and EUR 15 000 per SME. The number of SMEs to be awarded must be between 10 and 30 SMEs.

These requirements set by the Call must be respected.

The submission/selection of proposals requesting other amounts is allowed.

Yes, the remaining part of project budget can be covered by own resources or third-party contributions.

The granting authority EISMEA foresees an extension of the initial deadline with 24 hours, thus the new deadline is set for 21 May Thursday 17.00 CET.

The list of previous key projects is not included in the 50 pages proposal limit.

This call for proposals aims to support the development of new, and consolidation of existing incipient, or underexploited/obsolete touristic routes. This does not however preclude the submission of proposals built around already existing, fully functional routes. Such proposal would, however, score lower in terms of relevance.

As stipulated in the Call text, the proposals shall already outline a clear concept for the route and its associated ecosystem (...) Importantly, route development shall be understood as an adaptive and non-linear process. Rather than following a fixed trajectory, it functions as a self-reinforcing loop, shaped by continuous feedback from SMEs, other stakeholders, and end users. This iterative approach allows the route to evolve over time, balancing economic potential with environmental, social, and cultural sustainability, and ensuring long-term relevance and positive impacts for destinations and communities alike.

While virtual routes are possible, the applicants shall keep in mind the requirements of the Call, related to the minimum configuration, scope and mandatory work packages.

You are free to define your own order and numbering of the work packages (WPs) as long as the 4 mandatory packages set by the CallPDF are included.

Related to this, please check the following Q&A about additional and mandatory work packages on this Funding &Tenders portal page dedicated to this Call.

EISMEA does not provide any pre-assessment of the proposed activities during the submission period. Each proposal will be assessed by the Evaluation Committee appointed for this call.

We invite applicants to read carefully section 2.4. “Activities that can be funded (scope)” of the Call text.

As per the Call text, the amount of each FSTP (given to the third party (SME) in a form of a lump sum) must be between EUR 7 000 and EUR 15 000 per SME. In the proposal, the applicants must set the criteria for calculating the specific lump sum amount(s). Note: there can be different sets of lump sum amounts given to third parties (e.g. three sets: 7000 EUR, 10 000 EUR, and 15 000 EUR).

Therefore, envisaging a single lumpsum is possible - it is up to the applicant to set the criteria and methodology for calculating the exact amount of the financial support amount respecting the requirements set by the Call.

The 4 packages set by the call are mandatory. Work Package 2 – Development and engagement of the route’s ecosystem (Work package 2.1 - Stakeholders’ engagement and capacity building and Work package 2.2 - Direct Financial Support to third parties’ scheme (FSTP) can be structured as two separate work packages). Additional work packages are allowed (such as project management) as long as they fall within the scope of the call.

As per section 6. Eligibility – eligible participants (eligible countries) and consortium composition of the Call text : in case a single entity fulfils the functions of both DMO and BSO, it will still count as single (one) entity towards the consortium composition requirement:

✓ minimum five (5) and a maximum eight (8) independent entities

However, such entity would count both towards DMO and BSO requirements as below:

✓ minimum three (3) destination management organisations (DMOs) from minimum 2 different eligible countries.

✓ minimum two (2) business support organisations (BSO) from minimum 2 different eligible countries.

As per Call text: Within the scope of this call for proposals, a BSO relates to a business incubator/accelerator, start-up, lab, innovation hub, university or educational institution, research centre and any other relevant organisation with a proven capacity and experience in running business support activities focused on SMEs.

Please note that EISMEA does not provide any pre-assessment of the eligibility criteria during the submission period. The onus to demonstrate whether an entity is a BSO is the responsibility of the consortium, yet applicants should be aware that eligibility will be assessed from the perspective of the functions that the entity carries out. In this regard, the BSO is supporting businesses with structured services and expertise – it provides services to support creation, growth, competitiveness, and internationalisation of businesses—especially SMEs – such as business advice and mentoring, access to finance support, training and skills development, market access and internationalisation support, networking and partnership building, innovation and digitalisation support.

As mentioned in the Call textPDF: Within the scope of this call for proposals, a DMO is defined as a public or private stakeholder, an authority that manages a local, regional or national tourism strategy in one of the countries forming part of the consortium. DMO responsibilities may include, but are not limited to, taking responsibility for the local tourism offer, sustainable tourism planning/development, and the impact tourism has on the territory. The DMO typically also undertakes additional activities such as business analysis, marketing, strategic and policy implementation, inter-institutional and international relationships.

Please note that EISMEA does not provide any pre-assessment of the eligibility criteria during the submission period. The onus to demonstrate whether an entity is a DMO is the responsibility of the consortium, yet applicants should be aware that eligibility will be assessed from the perspective of the functions that the entity carries out. DMOs in this regard do not need to be formally established as DMOs, but must fulfil functions related to the above definition. Consortia are invited to submit relevant documentation should they wish so, to demonstrate the compliance of their proposed DMOs with such functions accordingly.

DMOs in this regard will predominantly be public or hybrid entities, whilst private DMO`s would typically receive public sector funding or include public stakeholders in their set-up, and implement public policy goals. Hence, they tend to be closer to the hybrid context.

Purchase of external consultancy support services are listed under subcontracting cost category.

As per Call textPDF – Section 10. Legal and financial set-up of the Grant Agreements:

After grant signature, you will normally receive a prefinancing to start working on the project (float of normally 70% of the maximum grant amount; exceptionally less or no prefinancing).

There will be one 1 interim payment at the project’s midterm (with detailed cost reporting).

Payment of the balance: At the end of the project, we will calculate your final grant amount. If the total of earlier payments is higher than the final grant amount, we will ask you (your coordinator) to pay back the difference (recovery).

All payments will be made to the coordinator. The coordinator then distributes it further to consortium members.

For more details, consult Article 7 and 22 of the Model Grant Agreement (MGA) “setting roles of beneficiaries and coordinator” and “payments” (cf. Portal Reference Documents).

Yes, a beneficiary from one member state can manage cross border Financial Support to third parties (FSTP) call and execute payments to SMEs established in different member states. It is up to the applying consortium to organise their respective roles within the action proposed.

As stipulated in section 7. “Financial and operational capacity and exclusion” of the Call text:

The financial capacity check will be carried out on the basis of the documents you will be requested to upload in the Participant Register during grant preparation (e.g. profit and loss account and balance sheet, business plan, audit report produced by an approved external auditor, certifying the accounts for the last closed financial year, etc).

The analysis will be based on neutral financial indicators, but will also take into account other aspects, such as dependency on EU funding and deficit and revenue in previous years.

The check will normally be done for all beneficiaries, except:

− public bodies (entities established as public body under national law, including local, regional or national authorities) or international organisations

− if the individual requested grant amount is not more than EUR 60 000.

If needed, it may also be done for affiliated entities.

If we consider that your financial capacity is not satisfactory, we may require:

− further information

− an enhanced financial responsibility regime, i.e. joint and several responsibilities for all beneficiaries or joint and several liability of affiliated entities (see section 10 “Legal and financial set-up of the Grant Agreements - Prefinancing guarantees” of the Call text)

− prefinancing paid in instalments

− (one or more) prefinancing guarantees (see below, idem see section 10)

Or

− propose no prefinancing

− request that you are replaced or, if needed, reject the entire proposal.

For more information, see Rules for Legal Entity Validation, LEAR Appointment and Financial Capacity AssessmentPDF