5.3 Water Quality and Catchment Management: Pre-Application Support

The Water Quality Improvement Programme will enable a cross-border collaborative approach to the management and improvement of water quality to address the requirements of the Water Framework Directive in selected: 

• Cross-border catchments (freshwater bodies in cross-border river basins) located within the Programme Area (IA 5.3)
• Water bodies (IA 5.4)

The key objective of Investment Area (IA) 5.3 is to 'promote sustainable water management'.

This will result in 'The development and management of cross-border water quality and catchment management programmes, designed to enable freshwater bodies in cross-border river basins to achieve good or high quality. with an increased percentage of shared waters in the Programme Area with good or high quality status.'

A Concept Note, capturing high-level details of a project idea.

Any organisation interested in becoming a Lead Partner under Investment Area 5.3 may express their interest by completing and returning this Concept Note. The Concept Note does not form part of the formal application process. Instead, it has been put in place to help guide potential applicants to strengthen their application (should they decide to make one) and to help with a smoother project implementation process in the event of funding being awarded.

As part of the pre-development support for Investment Area 5.3 the two jurisdictions have worked together to identify the areas, actions, and target species/populations which would benefit the most from Programme Support. These are based on need, on the policy priorities in the region, and on what we have learned from past Programmes. The priority list below provides specific actions and locations where applicants should focus their attention in the development of project proposals and actions.