Оцінювач/ка заявок на грантову програму проєкту UCORD
Expected Start Date: 17.11.2025
Duration: 17.11.2025 – 15.01.2026
Location: remote
No. of Working Days: Up to 13 Days
Background
Ukraine’s Cohesion and Regional Development Project, UCORD, is implemented with the support of Switzerland via the Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) by NIRAS Sweden AB UCORD aims to support citizens, businesses, and public authorities in contributing to and equally benefiting from recovery actions and coherent regional development that fosters improved quality of life, resilience, peace, and social cohesion in Ukraine. The work is being implemented through three components:
It includes three main components:
- Policy Development: Supporting Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) in regional policy initiatives.
- Public Services: Enhancing the delivery of water, sanitation, and waste management services with an environmental focus.
- Culture & Social Cohesion: Strengthening social cohesion and regional development through culture, dialogue and creative industries.
UCORD is currently strengthening six pilot Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) in Volyn, Vinnytsia, Khmelnytskyi, Ternopil, Odesa and Sumy Oblasts to build their capacity through core funding and intensive institutional support.
Many other RDAs remain underdeveloped and lack the resources to act as inclusive, multi-stakeholder platforms. To address this, UCORD is launching the Regional Futures Grant Scheme (RFGS). The programme will enable non-pilot RDAs to facilitate cooperation among stakeholders, support prioritisation, and prepare project pipelines that strengthen regional competitiveness.
The current Grant programme is being implemented under the Component 1, though alignment with other components is always required.
Introduction
In the context of Component 1 UCORD has been implementing the Regional Futures Grant Programme (Regional Futures). The Regional Futures is aimed at supporting non-pilot Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) of Ukraine.
The overall objective of the Regional Futures is to enable regional stakeholders – including local authorities, hromadas, businesses, and civil society – to prepare and prioritise credible project pipelines that support the delivery of regional development strategies, with a focus on strengthening competitiveness.
The specific objectives of the grant programme are:
- To mobilise and engage partnerships of regional stakeholders around shared competitiveness priorities identified in the oblast development strategies.
- To identify and co-develop initiatives with stakeholders, advancing them into project concepts and credible investment-ready proposals suitable for financing from state, donor and EU programmes.
- To consolidate outputs into structured regional pipelines (clustered, prioritised, and aligned with Ukraine’s Public Investment Management (PIM) system) while strengthening the capacity of RDAs and stakeholders through workshops, mentoring and peer-to-peer exchanges to sustain pipeline preparation beyond the life of the grant.
This assignment aims to engage a panel of independent experts to evaluate applications submitted under the Regional Futures Grant Programme. The experts will assess Full Applications to identify projects demonstrating high potential to support regional development and create pipeline of relevant regional projects.
Note: Eligibility check of the Applications will be technically implemented by the Chairperson and Secretary of the Evaluation Committee and the results will be included in the integrated evaluation report.
The basis for the work of the evaluators will be the documentation accompanying the call for proposals, including:
- Manual for Applicants;
- Evaluation Protocol;
- Evaluation grid and criteria (presented in the Manual).
Scope of Assignment
The evaluators will be required to familiarise themselves with the call for proposals documentation prior to start of their work.
The core evaluation process will commence with the preparatory meeting and the evaluators will be required to participate. The meeting will serve for clarification of any issues and for establishment of joint approach for evaluation.
The evaluation process will consist of the following steps:
- Evaluation of Full Applications: For applications passing successfully the formal and eligibility check a content technical check will be implemented. It will be based on the published evaluation criteria. The scoring will be quantifiable with the maximum total score of 100 points and distribution of scores per criteria as presented in the Manual. In addition to giving the score to each application, the evaluators will be required to provide short justification of their scores in the template evaluation grid.
- Presentation of Findings: The evaluators will be required to present summary of their evaluation in the final meeting of the evaluation committee.
Evaluation Process
Step 1: Formal and administrative evaluation: Checking formal criteria as per conditions of the Call for proposals. This step will be implemented by the Chairperson and Secretary of the Evaluation Committee.
Step 2: Full Application Evaluation
- Invitation to Submit Full Applications: The applicants are invited on the basis of short list – all RDAs from regions that are not the UCORD pilot region (with the exception of territories that are currently not controlled by the Ukrainian Government). The submitted documentation includes
- Detailed Activities and Action Plan: Comprehensive description of planned activities, outputs, outcomes timelines, and responsibilities.
- Sustainability and Partnerships: Letter of commitment by the Regional Authorities to support the Action.
- Budget: A detailed budget that aligns with project goals and activities.
- Other annexes, including proof of capacities of the applicant RDA.
- Evaluation Steps:
- Technical/content Review: Independent experts will evaluate each Full Application using the evaluation grid with detailed criteria. They will provide scores and justifications and analyse strengths and weaknesses.
- Final Scoring: Full Applications are evaluated out of a maximum of 100 points. Only applications scoring greater than 60 points will be considered for financing. Top-scoring applications above this threshold will be recommended for financing.
Notes:
Each application will be evaluated by two evaluators and the final score will be the average of two scores. In case the difference between two scores is more than 20 points the application will be submitted for third evaluation to another evaluator. The average of the two scores (original + third evaluation) that are closer together will be calculated.
Step 3: Duediligence check
Following the technical/content evaluation UCORD will implement a due-diligence check of the applications proposed for financing. This will include: checking against the sanction list and documentary evidence of the statements if considered necessary).
Allocation of Working Days
The following framework outlines the days allocated for each stage of the evaluation process.
- Preparation: 1 day for documentation review and participation in a preparatory workshop.
- Evaluation of Full Applications: 1 day for every two applications evaluated.
- Preparation and presentation of Full Application Findings and final meeting participation: 2 days
Education:
- A primary degree in economics, public administration, or related field
Skills:
- Strong ability to analyse complex information, evaluate projects, and provide strategic insights.
- Experience: Fluency in English.
Experience:
- At least eight years of professional work experience.
- At least three years of experience in competitiveness.
- At least three years’ experience in project preparation, management and/or monitoring.
- Previous experience evaluating project proposals, particularly within public calls for proposals.
- Additional requirement for local experts: At least 3 years experiences with competitiveness sector in Ukraine.
Reporting:
The experts report to the Chairperson of the Evaluation panel. Duly completed evaluation grids will be considered as fullfilment of reporting requirements.
The experts should have no conflicts of interest with applicant RDAs, ensuring an unbiased evaluation process. The experts will be required to sign a dedicated Statement of Impartiality and Confidentiality.
Interested applicants should send their proposals to [email protected] no later than 14 November, 2025
The proposal should contain the following documents:
- A cover letter demonstrating the candidate’s suitability for the position and summarizing relevant experience.
- An up-to-date curriculum vitae (CV) detailing qualifications and professional experience, including a minimum of three contact references.
- The preferred daily rate.
- Note: Candidates must be registered as a Private Entrepreneur (PE), 3rd group, as this is required for contract signing.
