Please note that no individual replies will be given to questions. All questions and answers, as well as other important notices to Applicants during the evaluation procedure, will be published this CfTA3 webpage at Question & Answer (Q&A) section. Therefore, it is advisable to visit this section regularly to be informed of published Q&A.
There is no limit in the guidelines on the number of Concept Notes that one applicant can submit. However, as the number of selected concept notes is limited to the available funds, we encourage the applicant to propose the most innovative, cost-effective, and solution-oriented concept notes for selection.
Yes, it is eligible as long as the applications and the applicants satisfy all criteria mentioned in the Guidelines on CfTA3.
This CfTA3 is for Non-MOIT Ministries and public institutions at central and provincial levels, academic & research institutions, and social organisations. The Private sector is not eligible for this Technical Assistance
Eligible activities include, but are not limited to, capacity development and building (training, workshops, best practices, field visits); Studies; R&D; Technology and knowledge transfer, etc.
No direct grant will be provided to the selected applicants. The Facility will provide up to 125 chargeable working days of Expertise and up to EUR 30,000 incidental cost per each TA.
Please refer to the Guidelines on CfTA3 in sections 2.5 for the eligible fields, areas and types of activities, and in section 4.1 for the indicative cost of each TA proposal.
This CfTA3 is for Vietnamese juristic entities (but not private companies), not for individual applications. The eligible conditions are shown in the CfTA3 Guidelines in Section 2.
Within the CfTA3, no grants will be provided to selected Non-MOIT Beneficiaries, and the Facility will provide only technical assistance (including Non-Key Experts and costs associated with the CfTA activities implementation, such as travel, organisation of seminars, workshops, etc.). Please refer to the Question #4 or see Guidelines on CfTA3 in section 4.1.
No, there is no further guidance. All relevant information for applicants is already included in the CftA3 guidelines.
Social organisations include non-governmental organisations (local or international).
This CfTA3 is for Vietnamese juristic entities (but not private companies), not for individual applications. However, the Facility could contract a Vietnamese expert/consultant working abroad in the framework of the CfTA3 to implement all or part of the work scheduled under a selected TA.
No, there is no further guidance. All relevant information for applicants is already included in the CfTA3 guidelines
The Facility will disburse the costs of the Experts to be contracted for the TA implementation (training, study, workshop, etc.). Regarding the logistics disbursements for the organisation of travel, trainings, workshops, etc., the Facility will manage them based on competitive offers (e.g., meeting rooms, catering, air tickets, etc.) following the latest approved UN-EU for Financing of Local costs in Development Cooperation with Viet Nam (Version February 2022). To ensure fair and equal treatment, the Facility cannot give an opinion on the eligibility of the proposed action at this stage.
https://www.eeas.europa.eu/delegations/vietnam/eu-un-cost-norms-2022_en?s=184
The Facility needs to comply with related Vietnamese law/tax regulations.
A private (for-profit) company cannot be the applicant to the CfTA3.
This CfTA3 is for Vietnamese juristic entities (but not private companies), not for individual applications.
The eligible fields of CfTA3 are indicated at Section 2.5 in the Guidelines on CfTA3.
Yes, they are eligible.
Such specific reference might be inserted as information in the concept note (but this is not mandatory). There is no requirement to have articles/papers published in international journals. What is not specified in the CfTA3 Guidelines is not requested.
This is a call for Technical Assistance (TA). Applicants will submit a proposal to request a TA, and if selected, the EVSET Facility will provide experts to implement it. Grants will not be financed via this Call. The Facility will directly contract the selected experts and the service providers for all additional costs (for example, the organisation of workshops, field trips, meetings, etc.) indicated in the proposal.
Practically, all the disbursements will be done by the Facility to the experts and the service providers and not to the beneficiaries (whose TA proposals are selected).
Yes, universities and their research centres are eligible. Before sending your proposed TACN, you should ensure that your University has agreed with your proposal.
The listed eligible areas and activities in the CfTA3 Guidelines state “included not limited to” and “others”. If the proposed activities fall under “energy and environment”, “energy and social activities’, and “energy and sustainable development”, then they are eligible.
Yes, research on new energy is eligible if related to sustainable energy (e.g., green hydrogen, biofuels,
etc.).
TA proposals are evaluated equally following the Evaluation Grid in the CfTA3 Guidelines. No areas are prioritised over the others.
Within the CfTA3 Guidelines, SDGs are not evaluation criteria for the TACNs. The TA proposals should be earmarked in the eligible Fields: RE, EE and Vietnam Energy Information Systems (VEIS), as well as in the eligible areas and activities indicated in the CfTA3 Guidelines.
Equipment acquisition is not under the types of spending that the CfTA3 provides.
A counterpart fund is not required. However, it’s welcome if the Applicant contributes to complementary funding for the overall achievement of the proposed activities.
The EU-UN cost norm is applied for the Facility to disburse the costs of the activities. Please find the EUUN cost norm at: https://www.eeas.europa.eu/delegations/vietnam/eu-un-cost-norms-2022_en?s=184
If the proposed TA focuses on EE, the activities must be related to EE (for example, improving EE in building, EE analysis of a specific energy sector, etc.). If the TA focuses on RE, the proposed activities can be a study, R&D, or training on RE for a particular audience. For VEIS, it could be collecting Energy or EE information in specific industrial/ commercial/household sectors.
These are only examples, but there could be other activities which could be proposed. See section 2. of the Guidelines on CfTA3.
The eligible Applicant has to be a non-profit entity. The private sector is not allowed to participate in the CfTA3. If your non-government consulting firm is a private entity, it cannot apply to the CfTA3.
The proposed TA will be selected based on your Technical Assistance Concept Note to be submitted to the EVSET Facility (using the Template provided in the Documents & Forms). All technical assistance concept notes will be evaluated based on the eligibility criteria and evaluation grid as presented in the Guidelines on CfTA3 sections 2 and 5.2, respectively. If your proposal satisfies these criteria, please apply.
At the TACN stage, applicants are not requested to give the estimated costs of their proposed TA. For approved TACN, the Facility and the selected applicants will estimate this cost together at the FTAP
stage
If a TACN is selected, the Facility will support the selected Applicant in preparing the FTAP and the Term of Reference (ToR) of the experts required for the implementation of the selected TA. The experts will be identified and proposed by the Facility Consortium, including Stantec, CEERD, DEM and SNV. The beneficiaries can propose experts considered qualified for the TA, who will be equally evaluated with other proposed experts by the Facility Consortium. However, there is no guarantee that the experts presented by the beneficiaries will be selected.
Equipment acquisition is not under the types of spending that the CfTA3 provides.
It is eligible as long as the proposed TA focuses on Viet Nam and the proposed activities benefit Viet Nam.
Answer given by MOIT:
The energy information system has two parts: confidential and public (open) information. The confidential information is relatively minor. For the information marked as confidential, we cannot answer at the moment, but it should be evaluated based on the specific proposal of each entity/organisation.
Access to each group of confidential information requires the specific authority to respond and approve. In principle, Viet Nam energy databases are shared quite publicly. However, in Viet Nam, the available specific energy databases and general databases are not comprehensive enough and might not meet the demand of the users.
The number of selected TAs will depend on the proposals’ quality and cost and the overall budget of our CfTA. It is impossible to say how many TAs will be implemented at this stage.
Yes, a social enterprise is eligible within this Call since the social enterprise, as the Applicant, will not receive any financial profit from the TA.
During the FTAP preparation process, the Facility and the selected applicants will estimate the costs of the TA.
The beneficiaries can propose an internal expert at the FTAP preparation stage as a part of the TA implementing team. Still, there is no guarantee that the proposed expert will be selected during the
experts’ selection process. See also question/ answer #30 above.
The Facility has an evaluation panel and grid to evaluate the experts’ CVs. Technical knowledge and experience in the TA field are the key criteria for assessing and selecting experts.
The Facility will cover the costs only for the selected experts implementing the TA. Additional support staff and/or incentive fees for participants needed for surveying/implementing experiments should be covered by the TA applicant.
