Interreg Meuse-Rhine project manager (1.0 FTE) for the Province of Limburg
For the duration of the Interreg Meuse-Rhine (NL-BE-DE) programme until 1 January 2030 at the latest. The Interreg Meuse-Rhine team is looking for an enthusiastic colleague to assess the projects submitted to the programme and to assist these projects during their implementation. The candidate must have experience in both the substantive and financial monitoring of projects, preferably of European-financed programmes in an international environment. The candidate is expected to assist the Province of Limburg in the implementation of its management responsibility to guide and manage the Interreg Meuse-Rhine (NL-BE-DE) programme.
In this position, you will be part of the Interreg Meuse-Rhine cluster
Welcome to the Meuse-Rhine region, where crossing borders is part of everyday life. When you work here, you can start in Maastricht (Netherlands), continue with business meetings in Liege (Belgium), and end your day in the beautiful old town of Aachen (Germany). More than four million residents appreciate the boundless combination of vibrant cities, world-class research, rich cultural heritage, and preserved nature on a daily basis.
Since 1991, cross-border cooperation projects between the Belgian, German, and Dutch partner regions have been supported by Interreg. The sixth generation of the program (Interreg Maas-Rhine (NL-BEDE)) covers the territory of the Province of Limburg (NL), Province of Limburg (B), Region of Aachen, Province of Liège and the German-speaking Community of Belgium as well as parts of Rhineland-Palatinate. In total, the European Union and the program partners (Member States, regions) have made available over € 176 million in public funding to contribute to the major societal tasks defined for the program area. These are industrial transition, green transformation, healthier citizens, tourism in a high-quality region, and living and working without borders. Innovation, sustainability, and the social agenda are important drivers in this regard.
The Province of Limburg has been designated as Managing Authority (MA) for the Interreg Meuse-Rhine (NL-BE-DE) program 2021-2027, which effectively runs from the time of approval in end-2022 until the end of 2029. This makes the Province of Limburg effectively responsible for the implementation and management of this cross-border program.
Coordination of internationalization and EMR belongs to the portfolio of the Governor.
The cluster falls under the responsibility of the Director of Operations of the Province of Limburg.
The Interreg Meuse-Rhine project manager’s tasks
- You are in charge of the project(s) with various (technical/substantive) topics within the stipulated and agreed frameworks (with coordinator and/or senior programme manager JS);
- You take part in the assessment process of newly submitted applications, by assessing their content and financial aspects and advising the MA and the Steering Committee on them;
- You make content analyses, place them in a broader (international) context, and advise on that basis;
- You check the completeness and accuracy of the information supplied by applicants in the process of drawing up the grant decisions;
- You guide and support beneficiaries (lead partners and project partners) from the start of the implementation until the closure of their project and the activities within it. This is done on the basis of:
- preparing, attending, and following up on meetings with lead partners and project partners;
- advising on the design of instruments, defining frameworks, guidelines etc. for project implementation;
- representing the programme at supervision meetings to guide project implementation;
- carrying out and digitally recording the findings of management verifications in order to check whether operations comply with the applicable law, the programme and the conditions for support. These management verifications consist of:
- risk-based and random administrative verifications of payment claims by beneficiaries;
- administrative verifications on the substantive progress of projects (conformity with approved project plan, concrete deliverables of products and outputs, milestones and final targets of indicators, impact);
- on-the-spot verifications of operations;
- prevention and detection of irregularities and fraud;
- coordinates with the JS Programme Manager to validate management verifications.
- Assessing and settling requests for changes to projects.
- You are a focus person involved in keeping the JEMS monitoring system up-to-date;
- You collect, process, and deliver data for progress reports and (management) overviews and planning and control at programme level, among others for the MA, the Steering Committee and the Supervisory Committee;
- You provide input for changes or implement decisions regarding the Operational Programme, as decided by the Monitoring Committee (preparation and implementation);
- You support the implementation of communication and promotion at programme level;
- You exchange knowledge and experiences and maintain contacts with other European programmes;
- You work in close cooperation and consultation with the rest of the team, in particular with the other project managers and the senior programme manager JS tasks. You work under the supervision and day-to-day management of the senior program manager;
- You support and temporarily take over tasks from colleagues when necessary
Working for the Province of Limburg is surprisingly different
Working for the Province of Limburg means working for the welfare and prosperity of Limburg and its citizens. Achieving results with impact is our common mission. You do this in an environment where a wealth of cultural heritage and tourist attractions make you feel as if you are on holiday. Noord Limburg has the nature-rich Land van Peel en Maas and the fens and sand dunes of the Maasduinen.
Central Limburg has the largest connected water sports area in the Netherlands, the Maasplassen. In Zuid-Limburg there is the green Heuvelland surrounded by attractive cities with room for innovative economic development, under the umbrella of the Brightlands campuses in Maastricht, Heerlen, and Sittard-Geleen.
The Province of Limburg is growing into an open, learning government organisation, where there is room for professionals to pursue innovations together with relevant partners. This requires employees to take responsibility for their own development. The Province of Limburg strongly supports personal development and expects initiative and effort from its employees.
The following requirements apply for this position:
- Bachelor/Master degree or comparable education, thinking, and working level;
- Minimum of 5 years of work experience, preferably with European-funded programmes or projects;
- Theoretical and practical knowledge in the relevant fields of the Interreg Meuse-Rhine (NL-BEDE) programme and related developments in (European) legislation and regulations;
- Knowledge of project and programme management methodologies;
- Demonstrable experience in managing projects, preferably both substantive and financial;
- Preferably experience with working in cross-border projects or programmes in the programme area;
- Language skills:
- C1 level of thinking and working in English;
- good knowledge of at least one language of the programme area (French, German, Dutch), both verbally and in writing;
- willingness to improve language skills.
- Insight into administrative-political relations and developments;
- Team player in a team of several project managers;
- Advisory skills;
- Negotiation skills;
- Skills in maintaining external contacts (lead partners and project partners, organisations involved in the implementation of the programme);
- Insight and (organisational) sensitivity;
- Behavioural competencies:
- result-oriented: you have an eye for (the feasibility of) your own objectives and you make the necessary effort to achieve them;
- analysing: you analyse issues and developments on the basis of broad knowledge;
- planning and organising: you plan and organise what is necessary to make the execution of projects a success;
- progress control: you follow up on agreements and remind others when agreements are not kept or deadlines are not met;
- accuracy and sense of quality: you continue to deliver quality work under increased pressure and actively seek opportunities to improve the quality of your work;
- connection: you ensure connection and stimulate a good atmosphere between project beneficiaries and the programme side, in a context characterised by conflicting interests and a wide variety of stakeholders;
- integrity: you treat people with respect and you are vigilant in detecting possible fraud in the implementation of projects and/or the programme.
We offer you:
- A minimum gross monthly salary, based on a 36-hour working week, of € 3.385,60 and a maximum of € 4.778,94 in salary scale 10. Or a minimum gross monthly salary, based on a 36-hour working week, of € 3.935,54 and a maximum of € 5.564,56 in salary scale 11. Effective salary and scale allocation will be dependent on age, education, and experience;
- An Individual Choice Budget (ICB) of approximately 22%, including holiday allowance (8%), and a structural year-end bonus (8.3%). This budget comes on top of your fixed salary and can be paid when you need it. You can also use it, for example, to purchase a bicycle, sports club membership, or extra leave;
- Personal training budget of € 5,000 for a five-year period;
- Pension accrual at ABP (Dutch pension fund for civil servants)
Other information
At the end of the selection procedure, we will ask the selected candidate to apply to their municipality for a Certificate of Conduct (Verklaring Omtrent het Gedrag, VOG) and, after obtaining the approval of Justis, to submit it to us. This position is associated with an integrity risk profile. Representatives from the cluster will be involved in the final stage of the selection procedure.
Are you interested?
Then we are happy to receive your application before 18 September 2023 via the following link to our system: Project Manager Interreg Meuse-Rhine (1,0 fte) - Provincie Limburg
Only applications submitted via the system of the Provincie Limburg will be considered. If you would like more information, contact Jean Philippe Odeurs, senior programme manager, at +31 (0)6 29 47 73 65 or Paul Heuts, senior programme manager, at +31 (0)6 11 38 69 82.