How to Register

Throughout the life of the project, the USAID-Sida FIRMA project will award small grants with the average size of the individual grants from 15,000 – 35,000 KM.  The focus of the FIRMA small grants fund will be to help finance activities that will have a broad positive impact on business competitiveness in wood processing, tourism, and light manufacturing in BiH.  Grants will be awarded for activities that do the most to achieve overall impact on sales, exports, employment, and business finance for the largest number of BiH companies. Additional value is given to projects that promote EU alignment, participation of women and the disadvantaged in the economy, and development of the BiH workforce.  All activities are also evaluated in terms of their sustainability.
Grant applications will be evaluated against the following key criteria:

• Business Impact
• Business scale – number of SMEs and their aggregate initial sales)
• Business results – expected impact of the Activity on growth in beneficiaries sales, exports, employment, and finance
• Cross-cutting Objectives
• Extent to which the Activity promotes EU alignment
• Extent to which the Activity promotes economic inclusion of women and / or disadvantaged groups (especially Roma and the handicapped)
• Extent to which the Activity promotes development of the BiH workforce
• Sustainability of the Activity and / or its results
• Capability of the grant applicant
• Professional experience of applicant in implementing similar activities
• Financial capacities:  sustainability and co-funding capacities (cost-sharing by grant applicant and ability to attract co-funding from other sources)
• Management and organizational capacities

Interested potential applicants should do the following to initiate the process of being considered for a FIRMA grant:

• Download, complete and upload a registration form from the FIRMA Project web site
• Review the General Request for Applications (RFA), to determine whether the proposed activity is likely to be a good candidate for a FIRMA grant.
• Download, complete and e-mail a Concept Note form. Concept Notes will be reviewed by FIRMA and the applicant notified as to whether to proceed with the grant application process, including completion of the Small Grant Application Form and its various attachments. 

All of these materials are downloadable at www.firmaproject.ba/grants/smallgrants.aspx .
Questions regarding FIRMA Small Grants should be sent to: grants@firmaproject.ba (please include the words “Grant Question” in the subject line of the email), or by calling FIRMA's Sarajevo (+387-33-567-030) or Banja Luka (+387-51-233-830) offices.

 

>> Registration Form (DOC version)<<

>> Grant Concept Memo (DOC version)<<