INTERREG NWE, Straw project, 06/09/2015, p. 1

Public building in straw

INTERREG project – application for 30 November 2015

Preliminary concept note

6 September 2015

The Interreg North-West Europe Programme – presentation and advantages

The INTERREG North West Europe (NWE) Programme is a transnational European Territorial Cooperation Programme funded by the European Commission. The NWE Programme involves Ireland, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Luxembourg, Switzerland, and parts of France, Germany and the Netherlands. The Programme area has a population of about 180 million people living in the eligible area of 845 000 km². On one hand, it can be considered as one of the most dynamic and prosperous areas of Europe. On the other hand the area faces a number of environmental, social and economic needs and challenges.

The particular interest of the programme is that it mixes public bodies and NGOs and provides support to large projects including investments, with a funding rate of 60%.

The use of straw bales in the construction sector meets 3 thematic objectives of the programme:

1. strengthening research, technological development and innovation; 2. supporting the shift towards a low carbon economy in all sectors; 3. protecting the environment and promoting resource efficiency.

Specifically, it would easily enter into one specific objective of the low carbon thematic objective: SO3 - To facilitate the uptake of low carbon technologies, products, processes and services in sectors with high energy saving potential, to reduce GHG emissions in NWE.

This specific objective is granted of more than 51 M€ during the concerned period, which represents a support to 8 to 12 projects.

Concept

The whole project will be about the construction of public buildings in straw bales, in different situations (5 different countries, various context, urban and rural, school, nursery, administrative building, health centre, social housing, …)

The public partners must have a project to achieve during the project time schedule and the desire to build in straw.

These buildings will become examples for the construction sector and serve as demonstrators for the public sector.

Wilde perspective – rue de Beaurieux 30 – 1490 Court-St-Etienne – Belgique Jean-Luc de Wilde, managing director

jl@wildeperspective.eu – + 32 474 494 515

INTERREG NWE, Straw project, 06/09/2015, p. 2

The project will also deal with:

Standard specifications for public tendering Professional rules and recommendation European technical agreement for different straw buildings and fire resistance tests.

The project will have to deal with innovation and peer reviews and exchanges. Transnational added value and dissemination are also important criteria for being selected.

Duration: 4 years, 09/2016-08/2020.

September 2016 is the earliest date for beginning a project under the next INTERREG NWE call, which works in two steps and is expected to produce decisions in July 2016.

4 years is a good duration for being able to study and realise buildings of a certain size, and disseminate the findings of the exchange process.

Partners

The idea is to join 2 partners per country, in 5 countries: one public partner (region, city, municipality) and one association, the first dealing with the main construction project and the second with technical advice and dissemination. 10-12 partners is a number over which it is preferable not to go, for practical and managerial reasons. For being sure to gather all the required expertise in the project, two other statuses exist: sub-partners (identified public or private bodies who will directly refer to one partner and being paid by this partner) and sub-contractors, who will be awarded a specific mission by one or more partners during the project.

Following the “lead partner principle”, one partner has to take the responsibility of the project vis-à-vis the EU Commission and lead the partnership. This partner will gather all the payment claims, let certify them by an external auditor, receive the payments and send them back to the partners.

The partners must be issued from the countries and regions described in annex 1.

France – lead partner:

CNCP – Centre National de la Construction en Paille, French NGO part of the RFCP (Réseau Français de la Construction en Paille), established in the Maison Feuillette in Montargis, the first house built in straw bales (1920). The centre is dedicated to the promotion of straw building, namely by collecting documentation, doing research and ensuring training programmes. The CNCP will lead the project and build an extension of the centre (training centre). More info about CNCP: www.cncp-feuillette.fr. Contact person: Manas Melliwa, co-president of RFCP, director of CNCP. The CNCP has appointed Jean-Luc de Wilde as a consultant for constructing the INTERREG project and filling the application forms.

Ville de Montargis : located in Centre Region, 100 km south of Paris, the city of Montargis is interested to become the city of the straw building. Projects discussed for the while are about building a primary or secondary school, and/or bungalows in an eco-camping.

Wilde perspective – rue de Beaurieux 30 – 1490 Court-St-Etienne – Belgique Jean-Luc de Wilde, managing director

jl@wildeperspective.eu – + 32 474 494 515

INTERREG NWE, Straw project, 06/09/2015, p. 3

Germany:

The German association for straw building FASBA is currently located out of the eligible area (near Bremen), but has planned to move in 2016 to Kassel in Hessen (eligible area). FASBA is well known for its work in the field of documentation, research and support for technical

solutions. Contact person: Sissy Hein. The German building partner would be a foundation of public utility or a city or municipality

near Kassel (still to be confirmed).

Netherlands:

Strobouw Nederland is the National association for straw building. It will be involved as it has been involved in other EU funded projects (Leonardo). Contact person: Wouter Klijn

Local authority to be defined.

United Kingdom:

Straw Works is a small specialised company achieving design, consultancy, building and training in the field of straw building. The question of the implication of Straw Works as a full partner or sub-contractor is still examined. Contact persons: Barbara Jones and Eileen Sutherland.

Local authority to be defined.

Belgium:

As Belgium does not count any national representative association for the straw building sector, the associative partner would be either the future European Straw Building Association, which will be constituted in October 2015, either one of the existing Eco-Building clusters. Contact person: Jean-Luc de Wilde.

Local authority to be defined. Contact is already taken with a Brussels commune (Schaerbeek) and with the public development company Citydev Brussels. The idea would be to make a school extension or a housing complex.

Co-funding

Every partner is expected to bring 40% of the funding. As this contribution is usually difficult to bring for associative partners, the public partners (or other public bodies) are expected to co-fund associations for giving them the opportunity to benefit from the project while being financially strengthened.

Example:

Public partner’s expenses = 200, EU contribution (60%) = 120 NGO partner’s expenses = 50, EU contribution (60%) = 30, still to be found = 20 If the public partner gives a subsidy of 20 to the NGO, all its costs are covered, and the net

final average contribution received by the public partner is 50%.

Wilde perspective – rue de Beaurieux 30 – 1490 Court-St-Etienne – Belgique Jean-Luc de Wilde, managing director

jl@wildeperspective.eu – + 32 474 494 515

INTERREG NWE, Straw project, 06/09/2015, p. 4

Work packages and budget

We divided the work into 4 main packages: studies, investments, coordination and dissemination.

We associated a maximum budget per partner in those four fields, which will have to be detailed for the second phase of the application. At this stage, it gives an idea of the eligible amounts for such a project. If some investments are a bit smaller than foreseen, it could be good for lowering the global cost of the project (10 million € would be more on the average project size than 12 million €).

1. The WP studies would include preliminary studies, expert exchanges, peer reviews, compilations, publications and national and European agreements. Normally, it would not include architect and engineer work directly linked with the investment, as these costs will be included in the WP Investment. At this stage, it is still possible to move amounts from categories, or to use the amounts foreseen in the WP Studies for defining concretely the investment project.

2. The WP Investment will represent the real construction of the buildings using straw bales as building material. All the works will have to be finished during the project period (4 years).

3. The WP coordination will include all the working costs of the project: coordination staff (1 person per association and 2 at the lead partner + staff costs at the public partners’ side), accounting, financial audit, travel and accommodation, consultancy. The coordination costs are traditionally much more important for the Lead Partner.

4. Dissemination of the project findings is an important aim of INTERREG. This includes a good website, publications, public conferences, action on the social networks. Part of this job is traditionally sub-contracted by partners to communication firms. If judged easier by the partners, it could be part of public partners’ budget.

Study Investment coordination dissemination Total EU funding 60%

F 250.000 1.950.000 850.000 150.000 3.200.000 1.920.000Montargis - public investment + working 100.000 1.500.000 100.000 1.700.000 1.020.000CNCP investment exemplary building 50.000 450.000 500.000 300.000CNCP - lead partner (working + dissemination) 100.000 750.000 150.000 1.000.000 600.000

UK 200.000 1.500.000 350.000 150.000 2.200.000 1.320.000Public partner (Investment + working) 100.000 1.500.000 100.000 1.700.000 1.020.000Association (working + dissemination) 100.000 250.000 150.000 500.000 300.000

B 200.000 1.500.000 350.000 150.000 2.200.000 1.320.000Public partner (Investment + working) 100.000 1.500.000 100.000 1.700.000 1.020.000Association (working + dissemination) 100.000 250.000 150.000 500.000 300.000

D 200.000 1.500.000 350.000 150.000 2.200.000 1.320.000Public partner (Investment + working) 100.000 1.500.000 100.000 1.700.000 1.020.000Association (working + dissemination) 100.000 250.000 150.000 500.000 300.000

NL 200.000 1.500.000 350.000 150.000 2.200.000 1.320.000Public partner (Investment + working) 100.000 1.500.000 100.000 1.700.000 1.020.000Association (working + dissemination) 100.000 250.000 150.000 500.000 300.000

Total 1.050.000 7.950.000 2.250.000 750.000 12.000.000 7.200.000

Wilde perspective – rue de Beaurieux 30 – 1490 Court-St-Etienne – Belgique Jean-Luc de Wilde, managing director

jl@wildeperspective.eu – + 32 474 494 515

INTERREG NWE, Straw project, 06/09/2015, p. 5

Preparation of the application – timing and cost

Monday 14/09 at 14.00: first Skype of the partners

Before 30 September:

Contact with the National contact points and INTERREG Joint Technical Secretariat active research of the 5 public partners

1 October: opening of the call

5 October: meeting with the partners in Brussels

October: drafting of the application form and principle agreement of the partners

November: finalising of the application form, to be submitted to INTERREG before 30 November.

Imagining a project, gathering a partnership and drafting an application form is a specialised job. In agreement with the lead partner CNCP, the initiator of the project Jean-Luc de Wilde will charge a lump sum of 3.000 € + VAT (21%) to the four public partners in Belgium, Netherlands, UK and Germany, for his job till the submission of the application form. In parallel, the CNCP as lead partner will charge 3.000 € to the French public partner for its own implication in the process.

Letter of principle agreement

For 30 October, the public partners will have to sign a letter of principle agreement, including:

1. Agreement for application for the project2. Principle agreement for entering the second phase of the project when the first phase has

been declared successful by INTERREG3. Delegation of a person for contributing to the application (all the specific parts concerning

the partner)4. Agreement for paying not refundable 3.000 € + TVA, as a fee for the consultant appointed for

the construction of the project and the writing of the application form

Wilde perspective – rue de Beaurieux 30 – 1490 Court-St-Etienne – Belgique Jean-Luc de Wilde, managing director

jl@wildeperspective.eu – + 32 474 494 515

INTERREG NWE, Straw project, 06/09/2015, p. 6

Annex 1. Eligible area for Interreg NWE projects

Wilde perspective – rue de Beaurieux 30 – 1490 Court-St-Etienne – Belgique Jean-Luc de Wilde, managing director

jl@wildeperspective.eu – + 32 474 494 515

INTERREG NWE, Straw project, 06/09/2015, p. 7

Annex 2. Interreg NWE project steps

Wilde perspective – rue de Beaurieux 30 – 1490 Court-St-Etienne – Belgique Jean-Luc de Wilde, managing director

jl@wildeperspective.eu – + 32 474 494 515