Effects of coronavirus outbreak on ongoing Business Partnership Support projects – certain flexibility measures available for projects whose funding expires during 2020
25 March 2020
The effects of the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak are unpredictable in terms of both duration and extent, and they may cause delays for the implementation of ongoing Business Partnership Support projects. At this point, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs has decided to introduce certain flexibility measures to support the completion of projects whose funding will expire during 2020. A more detailed description of the flexibility measures and projects that they may concern is given below.
Projects subject to the flexibility measures:
Flexibility measures can be requested for Business Partnership Support projects that have been awarded discretionary government grants between 1 April and 31 December 2018. Funding for these projects will expire by the end of 2020. Flexibility measures are not granted automatically to all projects, but the recipients must submit a request for a review to apply for flexibility. To request for a review of a discretionary government grant, fill in the Notification of Amendment Form on Finnpartnership’s website and submit it to the Foreign Ministry’s e-service. The form is available on Finnpartnership’s website under both Application Instructions and Payment Instructions.
If the request for a review has not been submitted before the normal due date of the funding, the support will expire.
For projects whose government grant decision has been made after 1 January 2019, the terms and conditions that were in force at the time of submission of the application will continue to be valid for the time being.
Flexibility measures
In case the recipient has submitted a request for a review before the funding expires, the Ministry for Foreign Affairs will implement the following flexibility measures:
- The validity of the discretionary government grant will be extended until 31 December 2020.
The extension of the validity of the government grant means that the project can be continued until the request for payment, together with its appendices, is submitted to the Foreign Ministry’s e-service no later than on 31 December 2020.
- A third request for payment is possible.
Instead of two instalments, the recipient can submit an additional request for payment. It is advisable to submit a request for payment when the project is suspended or no later than on the normal due date of funding. The last request for payment should be submitted by 31 December 2020 at the latest.
- A part of the work to be done in the target country can be replaced by work done in Finland also as concerns the project’s own staff as far as this is appropriate for the implementation of the project. A project’s eligibility for funding is assessed case by case when the request for a review or payment is processed. Note: the request for a review must include a plan or a report on on how the work in the project’s target country will be or has been substituted by work in Finland. The request for a review must be submitted latest at the time of submitting the request for payment or, in case other flexibility measures are also applied for, before the normal expiration date of the government grant.
In other respects, the projects are subject to the terms and conditions that were in force when the application was submitted.
More information:
If you have questions, please send email to fp@finnpartnership.fi .