Rural Payments and Services

Collaborative Applications: Extension of AECS submission deadline

While the application deadline for the 2018 AECS round is 13 April, applications which are part of a collaborative project may be eligible for the extended deadline of 31 May if they meet both of the following requirements:

1. they must comply with the collaborative approach guidance as part of the AECS application process. Particular attention is drawn to the requirement to demonstrate that there will be greater environmental benefit than would be achieved if the individual applicants acted independently

2. the collaborative project must include five or more participants who are applying for funding from AECS in 2018

If you are uncertain about meeting these criteria, you are strongly advised to use the 13 April deadline. Applications submitted in the extension period which do not meet both the requirements will be rejected.

Some examples of collaborative projects are:

• control of invasive, non-native species along the entire length of a water course working downstream across multiple land holdings. It is the co-ordination of timing to ensure the work proceeds from upstream to downstream that provides the greater environmental benefit required

• the target priority species is mobile and occurs on islands of habitat in close proximity, across a number of holdings. A plan is prepared, which addresses the needs of the species on all the holdings in an integrated way, in order to achieve the most effective overall outcome

For example, this could apply to Marsh Fritillary Butterfly populations which can rely on isolated patches of suitable habitat within a 10Km radius.

It could also involve several land owners coming together to create and deliver a management plan for a wide-ranging species so that, for example, some owners focus on creating breeding conditions whilst others create diverse feeding areas.

Collaboration Scoring

Additional points are available to applicants who are part of a collaborative project which meets the requirement stated in the guidance. The points available are shown in the table below. When calculating the number of collaborating participants involved in the project, the following are included:

• 2018 applications that are part of the same collaborative project; and/or
• 2017 applications that resulted in a contract and are part of the same collaborative project

For further advice please contact the appropriate SNH SRDP enquiry team or local Scottish Government Rural Payments and Inspections Division enquiries team.

Points available

In addition to applicant	Points per category
One participant	2
Two collaborating participants	3
Three collaborating participants	4
Four collaborating participants	5
Five collaborating participants	6
Six collaborating participants	7
Seven or more collaborating participants	8