Partners for Water - PVW-IVWW

Subsidy opening rounds

PVW 2024 is now closed for applications.

The 2025 opening is from 14 February 2025, 12:00 CET, to 28 March 2025, 12:00 CET (tender 2025).

12:00 CET or CEST is noon Central European (Summer) Time.

If you want to apply for a subsidy during the 2025 opening round, you must have applied for a mandatory online intake interview with our advisors before 28 February 2025. If you apply after this date, we will reject your application.

Our advisors are always available for advice

Our water consultants are happy to explore the possibility of a subsidy application during an intake interview with you. First, you must complete the intake form (below). Please send the completed form to administratiepvw@rvo.nl. We will then contact you to make an appointment.

2025 documents

We will publish the 2025 documents shortly.

For whom

The PVW-IVWW subsidy scheme helps businesses, research organisations and NGOs that want to conduct a feasibility study or start a pilot project.

The types of organisations that can participate

This subsidy is available to specific types of organisations. Use the table below to determine whether your organisation meets the criteria and in which role. The table follows the General Block Exemption Regulation (GBER). This sets out the conditions for granting state aid.

Small, medium or large organisation

Use the SME wizard to determine whether your organisation is small, medium, or large. Does the test show that your company is a 'micro-enterprise'? Then consider your company a 'small enterprise' for this scheme. Does the test show that your enterprise is not an SME? Then consider your company a 'large enterprise' for this scheme.

Project aim

Partners for Water (PVW-IVWW) aims to foster water safety and security abroad in deltas, delta cities or river basins. Water safety and security mean sustainable protection from too much, too little or too dirty water. To achieve this, you will use innovative Dutch knowledge and expertise. These must be innovative within the context in which they are being used. You must adapt your knowledge to local circumstances. This subsidy is not for financing or scaling up proven knowledge.

This scheme falls under the Partners for Water (PVW-IVWW) 2022-2027 programme. This is a programme from the Netherlands International Water Ambition (NIWA). NIWA aims to increase water safety and security for humans, plants and animals.

Terms and conditions

Partners for Water projects must meet the following terms and conditions:

Intake form and interview: You start by submitting an intake form. You will then have a mandatory intake interview with our advisor, after which you can apply for a subsidy. See 'How to apply' for more information on the interview, the intake form, and the application deadline per opening.

Activities: You submit a subsidy application for activities focusing on experimental development (testing and developing) for water safety and security in the permitted countries. Experimental development is between Technology Readiness Levels (TRL) 5 and 8. TRLs indicate the degree of technological development. For more information, see the European Union's Technology Readiness Levels (TRL). Use this information to check whether your project meets the feasibility study or pilot project requirements. In the project plan, you should indicate the TRL level at the start of your project and after completion.

Countries: The subsidy scheme is open to pilot projects and feasibility studies in almost all countries. You cannot submit a subsidy application for conflict countries or fragile states, as specified in Category B in Appendix 1 of the scheme.

Project scope: The total eligible project costs are at least €25,000. Please note this is after deducting any benefits (revenues/income) during the project period. For a feasibility study, these do not exceed €250,000. For a pilot project, these do not exceed €600,000.

Eligible costs: The following costs are eligible for a subsidy:

• personnel costs;
• material costs;
• depreciation on machinery to be used;
• costs for products or services from third parties, such as travel and accommodation expenses. If you list third-party costs, consider whether you can change the supplying party for another party. If not, consider whether this party should be part of your partnership. As a partner in a partnership, a party is more involved in the project. This will offer your project more security.

Duration of activities: You must complete the pilot project's activities within 2 years of the date of our project approval. For feasibility studies, a term of 1 year applies, and there is no mandatory start date.

Topics: The application must focus on one of the following topics:

1. drinking water;
2. sanitation;
3. water quality and availability;
4. climate adaptation, drought and flooding risks, river basin management, resilient cities;
5. biodiversity and water-related ecosystems;
6. food production and sustainable agriculture;
7. water infrastructure, sustainable waterways, and ports resilient to climate change, but no onshore activities.

Target group: The pilot project or feasibility study has a clear target group in the country of application.

Applicant: A business, research organisation, or NGO applies for funding, possibly on behalf of a partnership. The applicant must have a permanent establishment in the Netherlands no later than the decision on your application.

Own contribution: Each partner applying for a subsidy of more than €25,000 must show how they will finance the remaining costs through other means. There are 4 ways to do so:

1. Own resources: Send 2023 financial statements with your application.
2. A third party: Based on your financial statements, we will assess whether the carrying capacity is sufficient. If this is not the case, we will notify you. You can ask a third party to guarantee your contribution. In that case, you must submit a 'Third Party Guarantee' signed by the guarantor. You can draw up this document yourself. It must state at least that 'the guarantor guarantees the participant's own contribution required for € <insert amount> throughout the project'. You must also send us the guarantor's 2023 financial statements.
   A person can act as a guarantor for their own contribution. In that case, send a recent bank statement in this person's name instead of an annual financial statement. The bank statement must show the bank balance and the guarantor's name.
3. In-kind payments: In the budget, you explain how you will make this contribution. You indicate the number of staff members, their hourly rates, duration, and average number of hours per week they will work on the project.
4. From other funds or subsidies for the same activities: Send proof of these commitments. European Union government funds and subsidies are own contributions. But, to avoid stacking subsidies, we will deduct these amounts from the subsidy you can apply for from Partners for Water.

Your contribution to the SDGs: You have to show that your project contributes to at least 1 of the water-related Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs):

• SDG 2: Zero hunger
• SDG 6: Clean water and sanitation
• SDG 11: Sustainable cities and communities
• SDG 13: Climate action
• SDG 14:Life below water
• SDG 15: Life on land.

For more information on the SDGs, see the United Nations on SDGs.

Assessment criteria: We use 7 criteria to assess applications. One criterion weighs more heavily than another, which is called the 'weighing factor'. The Impact and Innovation criteria are the most heavily weighted.

Responsible Business Conduct (RBC): Your project follows the RBC guidelines. RBC is also a more heavily weighted factor. We ask you to:

• follow OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises;
• show how you carry out activities following the OECD guidelines;
• conduct a risk analysis of social and environmental risks; and
• state the measures you will take to avoid and reduce these risks.

Our project advisor will discuss RBC with you, for example, how often to report on points of attention from your risk analyses. For more information, see Responsible Business Conduct (RBC).

Submitting multiple applications: During an opening, you can submit and be granted a subsidy for multiple applications for different, separate projects. All projects must meet the terms and conditions and follow separate intake interviews with our consultants.

For more information on terms and conditions, see the publication in the Government Gazette dated 2 May 2022 (in Dutch).

Budget

Partners for Water is a 6-year subsidy programme for applications between 2022 and 2025. For 2022-2027, a total subsidy of €15 million is available, divided over 6 openings.

For the 2025 opening, the available budget is €2,566,227.

A subsidy of no more than 70% of the eligible project costs is up for reimbursement for each project. The percentage for your organisation depends on the following:

• the type of project: pilot or feasibility;
• the type of organisation: enterprise, research institute or NGO;
• the size of your organisation; and
• whether you carry out the project with partners.

The available budget per opening is as follows:

Percentages of budgets for Partners for Water

How to apply

1. Mandatory intake interview

You can schedule a mandatory intake interview with us at any time. However, each subsidy opening round has a deadline for the intake interview. To apply for the 2025 subsidy round, you must have scheduled an intake interview before 28 February 2025. Complete the intake form (below) and email it to us to apply for an intake interview.

Our advisor will let you know whether your project fits the subsidy's framework and whether your project proposal meets the programme's aims. This should give you a better idea of whether your application will be successful.

2. Subsidy application

After the mandatory intake interview with one of our advisors and their approval of your plans, you can apply for a subsidy from the Partners for Water (PVW-IVWW) subsidy scheme.

• To apply, upload the documents via eLoket. You need at least level 3 to apply.
• Complete all forms in English.
• Financial statements from Dutch cooperation partners may be submitted in Dutch. For any annual financial statements from foreign cooperation partners, at least the balance sheet and profit and loss statement must be in English.
• You can apply for a subsidy from 14 February 2025, 12:00 CET (noon) until 28 March 2025, 12:00 CET (noon).
• Without an intake interview before 28 February 2025, we will reject the subsidy application following Article 10(4) of the Framework Decision for subsidies I and M (in Dutch). In this case, you can apply during the 2025 opening, which is from 14 February until 28 March 2025, 12:00 CET (noon).

Required documents

• You must upload the completed application form and the attachments below.
• Complete all documents in English.
• Make sure to include the necessary signatures, including those of your partners.
• If you want to apply for a subsidy in 2025, you must use the 2025 documents, which we will publish shortly.

After your application

• You will receive written confirmation of receipt of your application. We will also inform you if your application is not complete. You can add documents to complete your application during the tender opening. You can no longer do so after the tender closing date. Make sure you apply on time.
• Within 13 weeks of the tender closing date, we will inform you whether your application meets the criteria for a subsidy. First, we check whether the applications meet the conditions and assessment criteria. If your application meets these, it will appear on our list of applications. We will determine the order of the list based on the number of points awarded. There are 2 lists: one for feasibility studies and one for pilot projects. Applications that fit within the budget will receive funding in the order of their position on the list. You will receive a letter with the decision on the assessment of your application.
• If you receive a negative decision, you can submit an improved application for the same project during a subsequent opening. You do not have to request another intake interview in such a case. You may, of course, consult a project advisor before submitting a new application. In that case, email administratiepvw@rvo.nl and state your application number in the mail. This number starts with PVW5S24(XXX).

Project management downloads

The applicant has to complete a project summary at the start and end of the project. Please use the project summary form below. Send the summaries to administratiepvw@rvo.nl within 6 weeks of the start and end of the project.
The grant decision states specific reporting obligations and deadlines. The main applicant is responsible for the timely fulfilment of these obligations.

Partners for Water in practice

Watch this video on water-saving irrigation technology for farming in Ghana. 

Publications

• Government Gazette (in Dutch)
• Government Gazette publication 28 May 2024 (in Dutch, pdf)