Mission description

Expertise France is the French public agency for international cooperation, designing and implementing projects to contribute to the sustainable development of partner countries, aligning with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the 2030 Agenda and France's external action priorities.

EU4innovation east is an EU-funded regional project (Georgia, Moldova, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Ukraine) implemented by Expertise France with a duration of 54 months. The overall objective is to strengthen the innovation ecosystems of Eastern Partnership countries, focusing on enhancing the maturity and sustainability of the startup ecosystem, promoting convergence with the EU market and startup ecosystems, and providing targeted support to Ukraine's digital tech sector.

The project aligns with the Economic and Investment Plan (EIP) for the Eastern Partnership, contributing to the integration of these countries into the EU startup ecosystem and supporting flagship initiatives related to private sector support, innovation, green and digital economy, and society. Women entrepreneurship promotion is integrated into all project activities, including dedicated training and cooperation with female business angel networks. A horizontal objective is to promote specialization in high-value-added sectors using digital solutions.

Context

The project has allocated a budget for distributing more than 20 grants in the 5 countries targeted. Under the supervision of the Program Director based in Tbilisi (Georgia), the Deputy Program Director , based in Chisinau (Moldova) and the Grants Manager in Georgia (Tbilisi) the EU4innovation east Grants Officer is responsible for supporting the contracting, execution, and administrative and financial control and follow-up of the awarded grants as well as the implementation of the component 2 of EU4innovation east program.

The Grants Officer is part of the Project Management Unit (PMU) – and is based in Chisinau, Moldova.

Main tasks

Under the supervision of the Grants Manager.

Supporting tender processes and grant awards

·       Assisting in the formulation of the calls for projects in close collaboration with the Grants Manager;

·       Participating in the evaluation committee responsible for selecting the grant beneficiary (analysis of the financial and organizational capacity grid, review of budget proposals in line with the technical proposal).

Monitoring the execution of funded projects

·       Participate in training and ensure the understanding of administrative and financial aspects of EF grants by beneficiaries of grants;

·       Check compliance with EF administrative procedures by the partners;

·       Verify and controls the consistency (accuracy of amounts, completeness, exchange rates, etc.) between expenses recorded in partners' expense journals and the supporting documents submitted;

·       Support the validation of partners' financial reports (checks, framing);

·       Participate in defining and formalizing grant monitoring procedures;

·       Regularly develop and update the overall grant monitoring dashboard;

·       Compile and regularly provide quantitative and qualitative analyses of financial data concerning grants supported by Expertise France;

·       Assist beneficiaries in meeting our reporting expectations;

·       Control payment requests, financial reports and audit reports of the grantees;

·       Assist Grants Manager in preparation for the EU's and other donors’ periodic audits of grants (documentation, reports);

·       Monitor and ensure timely submission of the beneficiaries’ reports;

·       Archive all grant accounting and financial documentation.

Supporting the implementation of Pillar 2

·       Coordinate and organize work with relevant stakeholders, ensuring continuous follow-up with counterparts.

·       Assist in situational analysis to identify key actors and strategies for implementing Component 2 activities.

·       Support the definition and management of necessary resources (human, technical, financial) for proper execution of activities.

·       Assist in selecting, contracting, and managing required team/providers for implementing Component 2 activities.

·       Contribute to implementation of all activities related to Component 2 outputs.

·       Contribute to budget monitoring and ensure financial follow-up for Component 2 activities.

·       Assist the Management Team in formalizing new activities based on evolving contexts and requests.

Project communication

·       Supporting, in close collaboration with the communication team of the project, the relevant communication activities related with the grantees activities, results and impact by consolidating and facilitating the information and related communication material generated by the grantees.

Project MEAL

·       Supporting, in close collaboration with the MEAL Manager of the project, the relevant MEAL activities related with the grantees activities, results and impact by consolidating and facilitating the information and related material and data as well as reports generated by the grantees and all entities implicated in the grants management process.

Deliverables:

·       Calls for projects and tender documentation.

·       Evaluation documents for grant applications.

·       Training materials for beneficiaries on grants management.

·       Compliance monitoring and financial data verification.

·       Audit preparation and documentation.

·       Pillar 2 activity reports and stakeholder coordination

·       Materials for grantee activities.

·       MEAL Reports and Impact Analysis.