URBAN INNOVATIVE ACTIONS PROGRAMME
PERMAMENT SECRETARIAT RECRUITMENT 2015
Call for one job position on a long term contract
A PROGRAMME DIRECTOR
In the Urban Innovative Actions Permanent Secretariat in Lille
(France)
1
JOB DESCRIPTION : PROGRAMME DIRECTOR (long term contract)
General Profile
The ideal candidate should have a developmental view on urban issues in Europe, with good
communication skills and a good understanding of financial management, with a career
record that demonstrates the necessary vision, leadership, management and interpersonal
skills. In particular, he/she should have:
• 10 years experience in international affairs and/or EU-funded projects, programmes,
according to the themes assigned to the future programme, a good knowledge of EU
territorial and urban development/planning systems and policies on a set of major
European societal challenges (especially in innovation, environment, transport, inclusion,
demographic change...).
• 5 years demonstrated successful experience in management, in particular in an
international team
• Besides these two major requirements, he/she should have a perfect knowledge of
English and French. Any supplementary knowledge of other European languages will be seen
as an asset. He/she should be prepared for frequent travelling.
General tasks
His/her responsibility covers 4 different areas:
1. The relations with the Managing Authority (called “Entrusted Entity” (EE), according to
Article 60 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012 of the European Parliament and of the
Council)
2. The relations with the Commission on behalf of the Managing Authority (EE)
3. Human Resources Management of the Team
4. Contacts with other European and Urban (URBACT) Programmes as well as marketing
activities for the whole UIA Programme towards a wider public.
1. The relation with the Managing Authority (EE)
Regular contacts have to take place to supervise the Team activity:
• On a weekly basis, to have an overview of the files in charge or to refer to occasional
problems,
• On a monthly basis, to report :
- The global and individual achievements of the Team, supported by all type of useful
indicators to demonstrate objectively the activity level. At that time, it belongs to the
director to come up with all relevant documents to allow a clear evaluation of the efficiency
of the staff and the each team member as well.
- The TA budget and its variances
2
• As often as needed :
- To prepare and manage the contacts with the EU Departments, or with other
programmes
- To implement the EEIG GECOTTI legal obligations (employer)
- To exchange on the aggregated general content of the Programme
- To prepare the Annual Report and the Programme Evaluation
- To rule on communication issues
2. The relation with the Commission on behalf of the Managing Authority (EE)
During the implementation of the programme, good contacts with the relevant services of
the European Commission are of great importance
He/she should prepare for the Commission the Annual Work Programme
He/she should establish excellent communication channels and working contacts with the
relevant key persons within the European Commission.
He/she shall collect informations and receive feedback from the European Commission
whenever this might serve the purpose of the programme.
3. The Human Resources Management
- One of the Programme Director‘s objective is to manage his team in order to set up and
maintain a good and fair working atmosphere that favours team motivation, everybody‘s
involvement, and goal achievement.
- He/she is in charge of a yearly individual performance appraisal, to measure everyone’s
achievements, to correct the variances and to set up a training plan allowing progresses.
- He/she is involved in the staff selection and recruitment procedures, together with the
Managing Authority (EE) and GECOTTI.
4. The contacts with other programmes
- Technical representation at events at a programme level, at external events (if necessary)
and at important project final conferences.
- Establishment of synergy with the exchange program between European cities.
Qualifications / Selection criteria
Basic requirements:
- 10 years experience in international affairs and/or EU-funded projects, programmes, according
to the themes assigned to the future programme, a good knowledge of EU territorial and urban
development/planning systems and policies on a set of major European societal challenges
(especially in innovation, environment, transport, inclusion, demographic change...) are required.
- 5 years demonstrated successful experience in management, in particular in an
international team

3
Besides these two major requirements, he/she should have a perfect knowledge of
English and French. Any supplementary knowledge of other European languages will be
seen as an asset. He/she should be prepared for frequent travelling.
- Knowledge of European Union institutions and policies, Cohesion policy in particular, preferably
through practical experience ;
- Knowledge of European Union legislation, institutions and policies, in particular structural funds
and financial regulations ;
- A good knowledge of EU territorial and urban development/planning systems and policies on a
set of major European societal challenges
- Excellent writing and editing skills ;
- Good computer literacy (Microsoft office....);
-


-
Other relevant experience / expertise
Past experience in EU-funded projects or programmes, preferably on Structural Funds
Experience of working with international public or private organisations
Other relevant interpersonal skills
Capacity to work in an international environment
Initiative sense
Ability to anticipate, propose and implement solutions
Open-mindedness
Good team working abilities
Ability to juggle different tasks at the same time and to respect deadlines,
Accuracy and assertiveness
Exemplary sense of management of public money
4
GENERAL INFORMATION FOR APPLICANTS
 Applications should reach the Managing Authority (EE) by 25/06/2015 at midnight.
We will not consider any application sent beyond that deadline.
 A cover letter should be emailed along with your CV to the following email address
only: [email protected]. Those documents should be in English or in
French. Please indicate in the subject line of your email the job position you are
applying for.
 An individual email will be sent to all short-listed candidates by 26/06/2015 at the
latest. Candidates will be expected to confirm their participation to interviews by
email return. They will then receive full information package (location, hotel...)
 Interviews will take place in our offices located in Lille, France, on 07/07/2015 or
08/07/2015. Transport and accommodation costs will be reimbursed in compliance
with the programme rules.
 All the candidates who have not been short-listed will be notified. Due to the large
number of applications foreseen, we will not be able to provide further inidvidual
feedback at that stage.
Confidentiality
Candiates are reminded that the selection is confidential and that all requests for
information in relation to the selection should be emailed to :
Mr Jean-Pierre LEGRAND – Project Director : [email protected]
Equal opportunities
Equal opportunities policy without distinction on the grounds of gender, racial, religion or
belief, diability age or sexual orientation will be applied
Terms and conditions of employment





The working place is located at the office based in Lille, France
The position is based on a contract under French law.
Contract will be made between the individual and the GECOTTI (employer), on behalf
of the Région Nord - Pas de Calais, Managing Authority (EE) of the programme.
The corresponding assignment is based on long term contract and is expected to
start as soon as possible.
The jobholder will be offered a grossmonthly salary starting from € 6957 (around €
5348 net before income tax).
5
THE URBAN INNOVATIVE ACTIONS PROGRAMME
1 / Background
One of the aims for the delivery of the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESI
Funds) for the period 2014-2020 is to promote sustainable urban development. In particular,
the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) may support innovative actions in this
area. This requires detailed rules in form of delegated acts supplementing the provisions set
out in Regulation (EU) No 1301/2013 of the European Parliament and of the Council.
One of most important new elements of the legislative framework in the period 2014-2020
is the introduction of innovative actions. These are implemented at the initiative of the
Commission indirectly via the delegation of budget implementation tasks to the entities or
bodies referred to in Article 58(1)(c) and Article 60 of Regulation (EU, Euratom) No 966/2012
of the European Parliament and of the Council. The ERDF may support innovative actions in
the area of sustainable urban development. Such actions shall include studies and pilot
projects to identify or test new solutions which address issues that are related to sustainable
urban development and are of relevance at Union level.
2 / What is in this new program
This is to identify or test new solutions to the challenges of sustainable urban development
and of interest to the EU level.
These innovative actions at the initiative of the Commission will finance studies and specific
projects proposed by the urban authorities of more than 50 000 people throughout the
European territory. (Cities, group or association of cities or urban authority).
3 / Budget and Programming
This program will have a budget of € 372 million for the period 2015-2024. Of these a lump
sum contribution of 7% is to finance the management activities to be performed by the
Managing Authority (EE) (and its secretariat) in charge of this initiative.
A work program will be developed annually and approved by the Commission before the 31
of October.
4 / Projects
Calls for projects will be defined and agreed in the annual work program. The first call for
projects could be launched in the second semester of 2015.
Projects should be developed along the following lines : a high degree of innovation, good
quality, with a strong partnership, transferable at the EU level ; results oriented and
measurable. The projects will be implemented over a maxim period of 3 years. Project
selection will be including on the basis of the recommendations of a panel of experts
approved by the Commission.
Approximately 15 and 20 innovative actions will be funded each year from 2015 to 2021 on
one or more topics proposed by the Commission. Each action can receive up to a maximum
of 5 Million € ERDF co-financing. The co-financing rate will be 80% maximum, and payment
terms are 50% on signing of the agreement, 30 % on the basis of an interim report and 20 %
on the basis of a final report.
6
THE ROLE OF THE SECRETARIAT
The Managing Authority (EE) of the UIA initiative is the Région Nord-Pas de Calais based in
Lille, France.
The EE has created an international legal body, called GECOTTI, to host 3 INTERREG
Programmes in Lille and now this new programme. The legal body under private law is the
legal employer of the members of the Permanent Secretariat (PS) Staff.
The secretariat assists the Managing Authority (EE), the External of Auditors, the Certifying
Authority, in the implementation of their tasks and responsibilities.
The Mission of the secretariat is defined as follows :
Its mission is to deliver high quality, responsive and pro-active services to its main
stakeholders: EE, Commission and projects partners.
To this end, the PS will:

Ensure the coordination of the whole of the territorial animation ;

Participate, together with the Managing Authority (EE) and the whole partners of
the programme to the framework plan for the programme’s communication and
publicity ;

Be responsible for providing the secretariat for the external Auditors and for
various work groups set up by the Managing Authority (EE) ;

Be responsible for some audits of projects.

Collect submitted projects, acknowledging their receipt and ensure their
instruction by associating with it the services instructors of the partners of the
programme and the experts;

Draw up, the conventions signed by the Managing Authority (EE) relating to
Europe’s commitment to contribute to and carry out administrative monitoring
for accepted projects ;

Collecting biannual activity reports from the final beneficiaries and carrying out a
physical project progress summary (presented in a format which incorporates
monitoring, implementation and impact indicators), for submission to the
secretariat in order to draw up the annual or final execution report ;

Set up a data collection system to ascertain how the programme is progressing, to
aid programme management operating ;

Update the systems for computerised data management and encode the
necessary elements for project monitoring ;
7

Manage the monitoring of programming and consolidate the progress reported in
the annual and final execution report, and will draw up the financial part of these
reports;

Carry out a check that all documents relating to payment of the European share
are in order, before submission by the Managing Authority (EE) to the Certifying
Authority

Carry out the day to day implementation of the EE’s responsibilities foreseen in
the AWP (Annual Work Programme and in the regulations (except specific
procedures i.e. 1st level control...)
8