On 3rd November 2015, deadline of submissions of Expressions of Interest for the 1st step, 576 proposals were received. After the sort-out of the duplications and invalid Expressions of Interest (EoI), only 547 proposals, out of the 576, were considered for assessment.

The Specific Objectives 2.2 (Foster sustainable use of natural and cultural heritage and resources) and 1.2 (Increase competences for business and social innovation) were the ones receiving the highest number of proposals. 5223 institutions from all the Danube region were involved as project partners in the EoI considered for assessment. Concerning the distribution of Lead Applicants (LA) per country, most LA came from Hungary, Romania and Slovenia. According to the Call regulations, the LA can only be chosen among the ERDF partners (EU member states).

After a a double analysis of the eligibility and quality criteria as specified in the Applicants Manual, a decision about the Expressions of Interest (EoI) which were selected to submit a full Application Form in the 2nd step was taken by the Monitoring Committee on 22nd March 2015. The list of the 100 projects pre-selected can be found here.

After this decision, the 2nd step was launched on 29th March and it lasted open until 9th May. The JS organised a Lead Applicants' Seminar in Budapest on 11 April 2016 addressed to selected projects. During the seminar, the main aspects of the application process were presented, among which: filling in the application form, budgeting and communication. The main objective of the seminar was to highlight the specific elements of the DTP Programme application package and procedures and to prepare the applicants for submitting high quality project proposals by providing them with detailed and clear information on how to correctly fill in the application form.

91 application forms, out of the 100 projects invited, were received by the deadline of the 2nd step. The Specific Objectives with a highest number of applications were 1.1. (Improve framework conditions for innovation) and 2.2.(Foster sustainable use of natural and cultural heritage and resources). The majority of Lead Applicants comes from Slovenia, Austria and Hungary, among the 1140 institutions involved as partners in the proposals.

A new assessment (eligibility and quality) of these applications has started, and a final decision on the approved projects is expected to be taken in autumn 2016.